Arizona Motorsports Park

[Bud Byrnes]

I just returned from a 2 day school with Skip Barber at the Arizona Motorsports Park. I hope I get to race there.

It seems to me to be a very well designed track for club racing. The asphalt surface is excellant. The track is wide with good curbing. There are many different types of corners and several designed passing areas (hard braking after a long straight). There is ample paddock area.

While I was there Porsche was conducting a "Driving Experience" for their dealers only and the Barber school was ramping up for a race weekend and doing a school. There was so much room we never saw the Porsche folk (except to sneak in to see the new all carbon fibre Porsche Carrera GT-1 street car). Also the area north of the freeway has developed dramatically and is very nice.

The only flaws are the track is flat, but the run off areas are well groomed and you can go off without hitting anything or hurting yourself. And they have built the track first with minimal amenities. All in all a very nice new track.

Bud

[RussMcB]

I'm pretty sure that I've heard, just this morning, that Arizona Motorsports Park is having some big problems with the local gov't. I hope I'm not distributing inaccurate information, but I read on an email digest that an autocross event for this weekend was cancelled and that the place's authority to operate was revoked.

More info to follow, I'm sure ...

[Wooly]

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have put some new restrictions on the track. I'll list a few selected items below, but I think there are going to be issues meeting these restrictions.

1) Saturdays, Sundays and all state/federal Holidays, the racetrack is limited to
a maximum level of 78 dB(A) between 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., and a
maximum level of 82 dB(A) between 11:01 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. using the
following monitoring equipment settings: leq, fast response, 3 dB exchange
rate, no thresholds with a two (2) minute interval setting.
2) Weekdays the racetrack is limited to a maximum of 82 dB(A) from 8:00 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m. under the same monitoring scenario.
iii. The applicant will install a single noise monitoring system at the approximate
location of 33 31.142N and 112 23.261W. The monitoring equipment must be fully
operational on March 1, 2004.
iv. The noise monitoring system shall be capable of giving an amber light warning when
the noise limit is within 2 dB(A), measured as a Leq over a two minute interval, of the
limit and red flashing light when the limit has been exceeded for a two minute period.
In addition, the system must begin digital recording when noise exceeds 75 dB(A)
measured as a Leq over a two minute interval. All data must be stored on site and
automatically forwarded to Maricopa County Code Enforcement Division.

g. The hours and days of operation shall be 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and 9:00 a.m.
to 5:00 p.m. on weekends. Hours of operation shall not be varied for special events.
h. The maximum number of people on site at any given time shall be 24. This number shall be
raised to 200 should the property owner be approved for a public water delivery system by
the Maricopa County Environmental Services Department.
v. Track operations will be limited to a maximum of 100 days per calendar years. These dates
will be identified in a revised narrative report and in the yearly status report.

Wooly

[BrooksHall]

This place is doomed.

[jattus]

If someone breaks wind in the paddock their going to set that thing off...Sounds like a simple "legal" way of closing down a race track

[RussMcB]

Below is what I read earlier today, posted in an autocross mailing list. Please note that this is very unsubstantiated. I'm just passing it along because it's pretty interesting.

****************
I read an article about AMP some months back on the internet, can't remember
where that IMHO was fairly unbiased presentation of the facts of what was
going on from both sides. AFAIR it went something like this(from memory
don't pin me to the wall, I'm just trying to lend some insite!):
The wealthy racing enthusiast owner of the property, (and AXer I hear) which
was to become AMP applied to the local planning and zoning commission for
permission to build a paved road course on his land which was not an
approved use under the zoning. A special use permit was eventually granted
with a number of covenents and restrictions, such as it would be a private
use facility (a personal playground for the owner and a few of his friends),
there would be no permanent structures built, the maximum occupation would
be no more than 50 people at any given time, no formal racing would be done
there, and all vehicles using the facility would be street legal (muffled).
Instead, the owner boldly spent ~ $6.5M. building a major road racing
complex, complete with covered paddock, inspection sheds, headquarters
building, and a very large skidpad/AX pad, without any additional approvals,
not even building permits. To add insult to injury he then rented out the
track to major sanctioning bodies for national races including a Winston
West stock car road race(WW is a division of NASCAR that races stockcars
identical to Busch series cars, hardly street legal or muffled.), SCCA
races, and Superbikes, as well as AXs. The local government started
receiving noise complaints from as far as 6 miles from the track (It's a
very flat part of the country) and went to investigate during a major race.
They decided that this was far beyond the permitted use of the property. The
owner allegedly ignored their requests to dismantle the buildings and comply
with the use restrictions on street legal vehicles and occupancy
restrictions, and continued to rent out the track for races. It all came to
a head today with a board hearing and finally a unanamous vote for total
revocation of the special use permit, essentially locking the gate.

****************

[BrooksHall]

Several months ago it was reported in SoPac News (the news paper for Cal Club/AZR/San Diego Region) the locals were up in arms about the noise. At first I thought is was another example of people complaining after the fact but in the next months paper they had an article simular to what Russ posted. Apparently the owner did build the circuit without notifing the city that he would hold races there. I don't know about the permits for buildings but the city council did have some issues about the noise.

[Bud Byrnes]

AMP is getting a temporary restraining order to stay open. Their conditional use permit (runs for 30 years) is 103 db. They are at the end of the runway of the VERY active Luke AFB, rather like Las Vegas, noisy as... well an Air Force Base. (In fact it is considered a "crash zone" so you can't build homes there.) F16s & 18s all the time, we had to stop class frequently.

The local County Supervisor is rather old (I've heard @ 70) and he thinks the place will bring in a "Bad element". Come to think of it Porsche owners and racers... nah.

So, I'm hopeful this neat place will survive and flourish. Its owned by some real enthusiast.

Bud

[Larry]

Is there any place where a new track would be welcomed? Any place where we could run a 24-hour race? It seems that the government is more concerned over snail darters and spotted owls than its citizen's desire to have safe, fun enjoyment of automotive sports.

I'm glad that the SCCA has well-established noise limits as a means of showing the public that we want to be good neighbors. The pressure on tracks is going to continue, and we'll all have to evolve to keep our tracks open. It sounds like AMP is going to have a never-ending fight, and I wish them success!

Larry Oliver
International Racing Products

[John Nesbitt]

If Russ' description is correct, then the owner deserves to be shut down. The shame of it is that sort of behaviour reflects on the motorsport community at large.

John Nesbitt
VD RF80

[RussMcB]

Originally posted by John Nesbitt:
<snip> Russ' description <snip>

To clarify: Not my description. Just copied and pasted what someone else said.

[Richard Gray]

The full intent of AMP's owner was no secret. As the motorsports columnist for the East Valley Tribune, I broke the news about the owner's plans to build the track before any permits were issued. In interviews with both the owner and the track manager they were straightforward that the track would be used as a club racing facility, among other things such as dealer test drives and they even speculated that CART teams would test there. I sold the story to Grassroots Motorsports magazine, which ran it with graphics of the track's intended design. I was not at the planning commission hearing where the track's representative allegedly said the track would be for limited use, but it is indeed unfortunate for we Phoenix racers that the track's use was not fully stated. Also, the government will review Luke AFB, a training base for F16 and F18 pilots, to determine if it will be closed under the next round of base closures. The bottom line is that the land out there is highly desirable for housing developments. Remind anyone of Riverside?

[BrooksHall]

Is there any place where a new track would be welcomed? Any place where we could run a 24-hour race? It seems that the government is more concerned over snail darters and spotted owls than its citizen's desire to have safe, fun enjoyment of automotive sports.

Yes there is and it's call Buttonwillow Raceway Park. Cal Club has done a wonderfull job with this facility and we are very lucky to have it.

[Will Burton]

Ditto Thunderhill (SF region). Took 5+ years to find it, ~2 years to build it. The Willows community loves us and a county supervisor is active in track support activities.

[Daryl DeArman]

I assume the 2min threshold is so that the AFB traffic doesn't violate the tracks' noise limit?

Where do the coordinates for the sound meter place it? S/F? Front gate? Edge of property near housing? I didn't see anything that said that the meter had to have a clear, unobstructed sound path to the noise source. Maybe one could construct a temporary "garage" or "track worker observation station" very near the meter.

A large portion of the land that Ontario Motor Speedway was on is still vacant. The mall parking lot at Moreno Valley (Riverside) is rarely more than 25% full. You have 2 malls in Riverside and the HUGE Ontario Mills Mall within 30 minutes from the old track site. Moreno Valley property values are really low (relative to the rest of the area) due to a high crime rate.

Land near Buttonwillow/Bakersfield can be had for less than $5000/acre. Residential land in suburbia So. Cal is more than 50x that. I hope that Buttonwillow and Willow Springs will be safe from developers for a long time!

[jeffrey rodrigues]

Word on the street is that the AMP is cutting into PIR making money on track rental so that probably is not helping things.

[Todd TCE]

I'll chime in on this being local to help clear up some of the hub-bub.

I've been in touch with one of our local club reps and we talked on this subject at some length last night.

The biggest issue with the BOS is not so much what this facility is or is not doing, but rather that the county was seriously duped on what the plan for it was. The above post is pretty much on the money to what planned and what was delivered.

Like a lot of you, I'm a home owner too. I would not object to what this track has done if it were in my backyard (despite the yard being a mile away, and I hear FIR drag cars some times at four miles) but then again if the local airport asked for approval for small jet engine service and suddenly SWA showed up in force I'd be a bit pissed too.

The damage is done. And sadly the folks who did it reflect very poorly on the majority of racers who I find to be honest and reasonable folks. The owners clearly knew what this was about and sold it to us here as such. And they knew full well that the return on investment was to rent it out. No problem as nearly all the car clubs in the area were aware of it and chomping at the bit to get in. And it was a few more than 50 people I bet. It was a speculativve development and now they have a problem which one can only suspect they gambled on. Ahead of time. Build it and let's see them kick us out? Maybe. Nobody will ever really know.

Sadly the real downfall will be the potential loss of a nice track but the black eye placed on anyone wanting to do the same with more honorable intentions. I've emialed the BOS at leat four times on the subject and every time I start by appologizing for the actions of the owners and telling them we are not all bad folks and that we understand the feelings of locals, like the faciltiy and want to work out neary ANY reasonable solution to the issue. I push hard on the Db plan to match that of Laguna and or Portland as examples of tracks which co exist in their respective area. Still rebuilding the confidence of those who had the wool pulled over their eyes is a very up hill battle.

I really think this track is going to end up out of business. This is very sad in deed. I doubt the other tracks could really care that much so no, it's not some plot to put them under. I also hope I'm wrong and we can work out some solution, but the city has deeper pockets and many more upset folks than we do or legs to stand on.

[Garey Guzman]

Other info (or perhaps just re-hashed):
http://venus.13x.com/roadracingworld...sp?insert=8270

[Steve Maxwell]

Having heard F16's take off on full afterburner I find it hard to beleive that anyone living near AMP would complain about racing related noise. Sounds like the city is pissed at the owner and trying to establish some dominance. They should just fine the owner and move on. Bunch a' Panzies!

[Jack Marr]

Originally posted by Steve Maxwell:
Having heard F16's take off on full afterburner I find it hard to beleive that anyone living near AMP would complain about racing related noise.

One thing to keep in mind is that Luke is a training base that operates Monday-Friday, there is very little air traffic on the weekends.

Could be the golf course next door is unhappy with the weekends being messed up.

[D.T. Benner]

In the 40 years i have been going to Laguna Seca people have been moving closer to the property all the time. They are wealthy and don't like having a race track in their "back yard". The only thing to save Laguna Seca is that it's a county park and is operated as a non profit that makes big donations to local charity. The San Francisco Region of SCCA built Thunderhill Park because in the 1980's we knew there was a good chance we could loose Laguna Seca and/or Sears Point. It takes YEARS to do things the right way and it's unfortunate for all racers when someone tries something like this and makes us all look bad. I hope something can be worked out that will allow the track to stay open so some of you can get to use it.