Terra Searching for New Sites

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:40 am

Peter Baio wrote:

Return THSCC to its roots! A couple of places around Wilson.

Wilson Airport, think there still might be using it though. Would make for some interesting courses maybe even some nice rallycross courses inside the runways.

The fair grounds, it would make for good rallycross grounds. I think they still might use the inside of the oval for monster truck events sometimes. Its right off 301 in Wilson, bout a hour drive from Raleigh.

Ok Here is the humdinger, its a old flee market place right down the street[301] from the fair grounds, i mean like a 20sec if even that. I did notice the image is over ten years old, but as far as i remember there are no islands and not too many light poles.

I would love to see us run down East more! However I had my boss (who's very politically connected in Wilson) check on the Wilson Airport. He said we'd have a better chance getting permission to run on I-95.

Now a Rally-X at the old fairgrounds (BTW, did you know Dale E. Sr used to race there back in the day?) does sound very do-able to me. Carl maybe you and Miles should look into this?

The flea market lot on 301N (old Nichols building) would be too small for a course counting grid, pits, etc.

I know we _like_ to stay away from sites with islands and light poles, but "beggers can't be chosers" right? Isn't it possible to design the course around them? The old Tarrytown Mall is just such a site. I understand the Rocky Mount Police are now using that for their training site since the old airport is being demolished.

Here's a look... from 1993

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 5&z=18&w=1

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:01 am

Vincent Keene wrote:

I know we _like_ to stay away from sites with islands and light poles, but "beggers can't be chosers" right? Isn't it possible to design the course around them? The old Tarrytown Mall is just such a site. I understand the Rocky Mount Police are now using that for their training site since the old airport is being demolished.

Here's a look... from 1993

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 5&z=18&w=1

This site looks interesting. From what I can see, there are no real obsticles on the left side of the mall. That lot runs the entire length of the mall.

You could pit and grid on the south end and run the west lot (assuming the top of the photo is north).

VMSC has done a great job with the Cloverleaf site in Richmond. That is a 90% vacant mall. Yes, you can design around poles, islands, etc. Look what we did at RBC. In all of the events run there, only one Porsche ever came close to hitting something. And that was on a fun run and being stupid.

Hell, we did Rockingham with a fence, poles, lights and a large gas tank

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:24 am

After the new mall in Rocky Mount opened, Tarrytown went downhill VERY FAST. To top it off, during Hurricane Floyd the entire Tarrytown site was underwater. The pavement isn't in the best shape and it has lots of weeds, but driving on 'em will take care of that.

They are apparently letting the PD use it so I think it deserves at least a look. Miles what do you think?

Richard Casto · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:42 am

For reference purposes, here is some current/past sites. This is pretty much the same links I had posted to the Listserv last year....

Sanford
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 4&z=17&w=2

Laurinburg
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 6&z=17&w=2

VMP
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 1&z=18&w=2

Rocky Mount
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 8&z=18&w=2

RBC Center (under construction)
http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 2&z=17&w=2

MilesBeam · **Joined:** Fri Aug 15, 2003 1:57 pm **Posts:** 427

The Tarrytown Mall has potential. This was actually on my list of prospects a while back, first pointed out to me by Bill McCanless over a year ago. However, as long as we had the RM airport, we didn't have a strong reason to consider the old mall. But now, obviously, things have changed. I think it's worth a look.

As for Jim's comment about noise on Sunday mornings... remember that we're looking for a site to replace RBC for a night series. Not that noise from 6 - 9 pm is going to be tolerated any better than noise on Sunday, but I do think it's different. Sunday morning is still considered by many to be a rather holy time, and the time period in which such obnoxious noises as race car sounds are least tolerated. Also, for the night series, we can simply prohibit cars with loud exhaust if it's the difference between running at a site and not.

And yes, we can design a course around light poles and islands, just as we did at RBC. The issue is how many and where they are that matters. Sometimes we talk about "light pole density" on sites. RBC has a relatively low light pole and curb density.

Don't sweat too much about the obstacles for a particular site in this thread. I just want to get the ideas out there so we have some things to look at. I'll work with the officers to determine the suitability of each site.
This is just a brainstorming session via forum.

This is great! Keep the ideas coming!

Miles

Stephen Westerfield · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:03 am

MilesBeam wrote:

As for Jim's comment about noise on Sunday mornings... remember that we're looking for a site to replace RBC for a night series. Not that noise from 6 - 9 pm is going to be tolerated any better than noise on Sunday, but I do think it's different. Sunday morning is still considered by many to be a rather holy time, and the time period in which such obnoxious noises as race car sounds are least tolerated.

As for the Hendricks Collision Center parking lot on Crash lane....there is a church less then about a half mile down the road too.....

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:21 am

It just so happens I was in Rocky Mount this past Saturday and I swung by there to check out the Tarrytown site. Here is a crude drawing of what I saw:

Alot of what I term "Dead" asphalt has been dug thru to fix broken water/sewer lines from the Hurricane Floyd flood. Some of it has been fixed, most of it hasnt.

The 3 Active buildings were all closed on Saturday, so they shouldnt be an issue either.

The "South" lot is the only one with asphalt that is even close to decent. The "East" lot could be used for grid and pit area. Just like the old Rocky Mt airport site, it seems to be a popular cut thru for the locals.

Hope this helps!

Ryan

Wes Eargle · **Joined:** Mon Oct 27, 2003 9:47 am **Posts:** 3683

jimpastorius wrote:

VMSC has done a great job with the Cloverleaf site in Richmond. That is a 90% vacant mall. Yes, you can design around poles, islands, etc.

I agree. This site worked out pretty well. We autoxed on the left hand parking lot, and the drifters were on the bottom (hillier) parking lot. Also, the rectangular building at the top arrow is a working Firestone dealership too in case anybody had anything horribly wrong occur.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:03 pm

How about here?

Raleigh:
http://terraserver-usa.com/addressimage.aspx?t=1&s=10&Lon=-78.70289011&Lat=35.78489444&Alon=-78.70289011&Alat=35.78489444&w=1&opt=0&ref=A%7c4500+Western+Blvd%2c+Raleigh%2c+NC+27606

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:08 pm

Quote:

Here's a good example. I'm not sure, but I think this might be the Glaxo-Wellcome facility (or whatever they are currently known as)... Anybody know for sure?

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 7&z=17&w=2

Isn't that IBM's park?

SimonWright · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 2:19 pm

Marty Howard wrote:

How about here?

Raleigh:
http://terraserver-usa.com/addressimage.aspx?t=1&s=10&Lon=-78.70289011&Lat=35.78489444&Alon=-78.70289011&Alat=35.78489444&w=1&opt=0&ref=A%7c4500+Western+Blvd%2c+Raleigh%2c+NC+27606

That's the Big K at the end of Blue Ridge. Still open I beleive but I don't know for how long - it's never very busy.

Simon

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 4:24 pm

For those who dont know, I work in the Grading and Paving business. We do highways, parking lots and airports. I just talked with one of my buddies that works for an engineer on most of the airports in North Carolina. He didnt know of anything that would be viable right now, but in the near future (1-2 years) the Halifax airport will be closing. They are currently building a new airport at a new site. He said is was at least as big as the Sanford site and in realatively good condition.

He also recomended talking to the people at the Tarboro airport. They have no commercial traffic at all. They might be open to the idea of using some of their space since its soooo rarely used.

I asked about the GTP site in Kinston, there is space available to run on, but access to that space is difficult due to a new cargo business opening at that the old entrance. The Kinston police used to practice out the but I dont know if they still do or not. He said it wouldnt hurt to try to talk to them about it. Im working on getting the contact info and will email Miles as soon as I get it.

Ryan

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 5:23 pm

SimonWright wrote:

Marty Howard wrote:

How about here?

Raleigh:
http://terraserver-usa.com/addressimage.aspx?t=1&s=10&Lon=-78.70289011&Lat=35.78489444&Alon=-78.70289011&Alat=35.78489444&w=1&opt=0&ref=A%7c4500+Western+Blvd%2c+Raleigh%2c+NC+27606

That's the Big K at the end of Blue Ridge. Still open I beleive but I don't know for how long - it's never very busy.

Simon

Yes it is,

I have even run a few AutoX courses there when Dodge rented out the back lot for there mopar promo's.

Both the Front and Side lots have been available to rent before.

Vincent Keene · **Posted:** Thu Jan 22, 2004 5:32 pm

Ryan Holton wrote:

He also recomended talking to the people at the Tarboro airport. They have no commercial traffic at all. They might be open to the idea of using some of their space since its soooo rarely used. Ryan

I lived in Tarboro for 21 years and didn't know there was an air strip there. :shock:

You gotta love the Net though. I did a search and found www.airnav.com which tells about the site, condition of the surface, dimensions, etc.

Here's an aerial of the runway #27

http://terraserver-usa.com/image.aspx?t ... 0&z=18&w=2

I hope this one works out since I'm only 15 minutes away! Go get 'em Miles...

bill gratton · **Posted:** Mon Jan 26, 2004 12:16 am

Hello Site Guy and Associates. You would think with all my traveling (over 100,000 mile's driving a year) I would see more Site's than I have. I am afraid that where I go, these large company's Usually have Full ParkingLot's. It's the one's that have moved or Gone out of Bussiness that might be the best choice's.

The only think I can say for now is, I know My Compay has Opened and is Opening a few New "Super Center's" this Year. There's a Chance that You/We could approach the Local(Store) Mrg. and get into the Old Store or Possiable, the Super Center before they Open for Perment 24hr Opration.

If there is anything I can do Personally to help with this, Please don't anyone hesatate to call me. As metioned above, I am usually on the road so my cell is the best choice.

Thank's Again Site Guy, For all you do.

Bill Gratton
910 670 1302 cell

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