Wednesday 6 April 2016

Atlanta motor speedway-SOME HISTORICAL FACTS AND RECORDS

Atlanta motor speedway is basically a super speedway and is located at 1500 Highway 19 and 41 S. Hampton GA 30228. As far as the details of the track are concerned, it is about 1.54 miles and the shape of the motor speedway is Quad-oval. One of the most important strengths of the speedway is its seating capacity. About 124000 people can sit in the Atlanta motor speedway and the backstretch is 1800 feet.

The Atlanta motor speedway is one of the most fan-friendly tracks in the nation. There are many features that make this speedway one of the finest speedways. First of all, there is no single bad seat in the house. Thus, every viewer can easily sit and view the races comfortably. The tailgating at this speedway is great and is like that of three-wide racing tracks. It used to be known as Atlanta International Raceway some times back. It was opened in the year 1960.

RENOVATION AT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Atlanta motor speedway as we see today is not as it was in the beginning. It was in the year 1994, when major renovating works were initiated that turned this speedway into nations one of the most admired motor speedways. About 46 condominiums were made on the northeastern part of the speedway. The whole track was rebuilt in the year 1997. It was in the same year that the shape of the track was changed to quad-oval from oval. It is to be noted here that in the present times, it is one of the fastest tracks on the NASCAR circuit.

SOME HISTORICAL FACTS AND RECORDS

Let us discuss some of the facts from the past relating to the Atlanta motor speedway. The motor speed way gained more fame in the year 1994, when the Atlanta Motor Speedway was home to Country fest concert. There were more than 200000 fans that turned up for the concert.

The track witnessed some of the highest speeds in the Years 1990 and 2000 on the NASCAR circuit. The qualifying lap speed at that time was about 193 mph, which comes to 311 km per hr. Though it was tried to gain the same speeds at the Texas Motor Speedway in the years 2004 and 2005, it could not happen as racing surface of the track had worn out. This again made Atlanta Motor Speedway as one of the best speedways in the nation. It is not that there were no faster speedways. Of course there were. These were the Daytona International Speedway and the Talladega Super Speedway, where speeds of about 200 mph could easily be gained. But after the violent crash of Bobby Allison in the year 1988, restrictor plates were used in these tracks. Even it was made mandatory to use the plates. Since NASCAR does not require any type of restrictor plates to be used in the Atlanta Motor Speedway, this is the reason why the commercial slogan of Atlanta Motor Speedway goes Real Racing, Real Fast.

In the year 2004, in the month of September, Atlanta Motor Speedway was put to a use that was quite unusual. It was used as a shelter for the various evacuees from the state of Florida that had left it due to Hurricane Frances. There were no indoor facilities available at that time and the visitors were parked in their recreational vehicles in the slow moving storm. This was the use to which no speedway was put to before.

There were heavy damages caused to the Motor Speedway in the year 2005, when it witnessed F2 tornado. The origin of the tornado was tracked to the remains of Hurricane Cindy. The damage included the roofs and facades, which were torn off the buildings and slowly ; the whole track was covered by the debris. Even the 15 meter scoreboard tower was knocked down in the tornado. Other scoreboards were leaning. The damage caused was estimated to the tune of $40 to $50 millions.

There had been many records that were made at Atlanta motor speedway. Even the opening scenes of the movie Smokey And the Bandit II, which was released in the year 1980, were shot at this track only.

Among the various records that have been made at the Atlanta Motor Speedway includes the following:

Geoffrey Bodine made a record at NASCAR Nextel Cup by running his car at a speed of 197.478 mph and completed the race in 28.074 seconds. In the year 1995, at the NASCAR Nexten cup race of 500 miles, Dale Earnhardt made a record by driving his car at the speed of 163.633 mph and covered the distance in 3 hrs, 3 minutes and 3 seconds.

At the NASCAR Busch Qualifying Series in the year 2003, Greg Biffle made the record by driving car at a speed of 192.3 mph and completing the race in 28.830 seconds.

NASCAR Busch Series took place in the year 1997 and Mark Martin made a record by completing the race in 1 hour, 58 minutes and 55 seconds. The speed of his car was recorded at 151.751 mph.

At NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the year 2005, Rick Crawford made the record by completing the race in 30.339 seconds by driving at a speed of 182.735 mph.

Apart from the above, there are many past winners that participated in the various car racing events at the Atlanta Motor Speedway and these include Johnny Rutherford, Mario Andretti, and Rick Mears.

SO, VISIT ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Atlanta motor speedway is one of the finest motor speedways in the nation. This speedway has been damaged many times due to many reasons and apart from hosting car races, there have been other uses also to which this speed way was put to. This is one of the speedways that are not having any restrictor plates and thus, a person can easily enjoy the high speeds of the car. So, if you want to enjoy high speeds, visit Atlanta Motor Speedway today.

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