In a time when racetracks throughout the country are being sold off to the highest bidder, some seriously well-known celebrities from inside and outside the world of motorsports are doing their part to keep yet another part of the racing world from disappearing. Last year the owner of Palm Beach International Raceway, formerly known as Moroso Motorsports Park, was approached by Atlanta-based Portman Industrial to turn this racetrack into an industrial park.
While contracts to sell have already been signed, a movement has begun to save the track where the Street Outlaws TV show has recently been filming at the venue’s NHRA-spec quarter-mile dragstrip and IndyCar teams often use the two-mile road racing course for winter testing. Thanks to the Save Palm Beach Raceway movement, made famous by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown, musician Armando Christian Perez (Pitbull), John Oates from Hall & Oates, and IndyCar champion Danny Sullivan the powers that be in Palm Beach are standing up and taking notice.
In fact, on April 28th the Palm Beach County Zoning Commission says that it will discuss a proposal to clear the track’s 175 acres to allow Atlanta-based Portman Industrial to build a 2.1-million-square foot warehouse complex and is giving track supporters the opportunity to voice their opinion.
While Pitbull might not personally show up at this meeting, concerns expressed from other local fans as well as county officials like County Commissioner Dave Kerner and Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, who says that “if this racetrack is lost, it means we could see an increase in drag racing, motorcycle racing, and reckless driving on our neighborhood streets and highways,” might be just what it takes to make assure that this raceway isn’t another in a long line of lost history.
The sale of this historic Florida based speedway is part of a larger move by the track’s owner, IRG Sports & Entertainment, to sell its four tracks. Deals are also in place to sell tracks in Memphis, Tenn.; Cordova, Ill.; and Mechanicsville, Md. IRG is headed by Lou Partenza, a former Florida Panthers hockey executive who has been IRG chief executive and president since 2017. To help save this piece of motorsports history visit savepalmbeachraceway.com today.
Stay tuned to RacingJunk.com as this story unfolds.
What’s Dale Earnhardt lost speedways one of the biggest strategies is the big track in Texas that was lost to settlement it’s a big area and it’s still there what’s left of it a reminder that our checks are sacred they should be kept up
Here we have an example of American “democracy” at work. The citizens of Palm Beach and the surrounding counties are opposed to this. There are opportunities to sell the facility to a group keeping the track open. So will our great “democracy” follow the will of the people or follow the 1%? Pretty simple.
Don’t close it down this is the sport we love so much