Sorry to get off subject but...it baffles me as well. Unfortunately, accidents on the streets and highways are going to rise . Its hard when "THEY" say take them to the tracks when they are being closed down.

 

Matt, sorry, but you may be misguided. Drag strips and race tracks are closing for a couple reasons. Poor management, high land values and noise. A lobbyist is not "in government", they are paid "mercenaries" like lawyers and others.

We should look at "who" decided to buy farmland or undeveloped land in a large parcel with a plan to see it off in pieces to make money. Contractors, bankers, home builders, realtors and others made money by further breaking down the parcels. The "developer" and others were aware of land uses in the vicinity and charged ahead.
The property buyer is also at fault. Did they exercise "due diligence" ? Its kinda like buying a car and realize later that the frame is rusted through and broken. I do think that governments also gain tax revenue from changing land from agricultural to commercial or residential use.

Now, back to "reliable street/strip builds".

 

It all boils down to the All Mighty Dollar!
And of course the rising cost of taxes and insurances don't help.
Land has a price per square ft. As does residential housing and retail space on that land.
The name of the game is how much many can you make on a particular piece of real state per square ft.
With the rising cost of land, residential housing and retail space, I believe that some of these track owners are closing due to the lure of high $$ being paid by these wealthy developers.
This is currently happening to Golf courses all around my area. In fact it is happening in my very own private community.
I don't blame them !
It's all about the money !
It's the American Way !
You just can't stop expansionism..

 

The adage of "adapt or die" comes to mind. Times are changing and while I don't like a lot of the changes happening, one cannot win against the great tide. Tracks are closing for a variety of reasons but one of the driving factors is that profitability is very low compared to operating costs of tracks. 1/4 mile tracks have a lot of wasted space for a commercial business. The land could be better put to use with other commercial ventures than pavement and grandstands.

I really believe we will see an end to 1/4 mile tracks in my lifetime and the handful that will remain will mostly be used for private vehicle testing grounds and be located in the middle of nowhere farm field in the Midwest somewhere.

Make the car as reliable as possible and don't worry about tracking it. If you can race it at the track, that's great, but 95% of the time most cars like that will see street use. Plus most older 60s and 70s muscle cars will get totally ripped by a modern electric vehicle like a Tesla Plaid which runs 9.20s @ 155mph with the AC on and the kids in the backseat.

With parts getting harder and harder to source for vehicles, you don't want to end up breaking something and having the car sit for months or even years. I was kind of shocked to discover that a lot of these supply chain issues is also being caused and orchestrated by the big 4 rail companies in the USA. It's under investigation now but the big 4 railroad companies are partly to blame for the supply chain issue and they are doing it on purpose to make their record profits. Sad and ironic that the railroads the helped build America and are now destroying it in the name of corporate greed. https://prospect.org/economy/how-ame...ot-railroaded/

 

I'm glad that I live where I do. 11 miles from the greatest track in the world Summit Motorsports Park and 28 miles from another great track Dragway 42 where the owner just did a 12 million dollar complete rebuild of the entire facility. Drag racing is alive and well in Northern Ohio.

 

I agree, the MidWest will most likely be where the last remaining 1/4 mile tracks will still be open for public use in the near future. Only downside is that the tracks are closed for 2/3 of the year from fall to spring for the winter season. When I lived in the MidWest we only had a few months to enjoy our cars and take them out and see some 1/4 mile racing. While I enjoyed some parts of MidWest living, got sick of the winters and headed out west where a car can be driven and enjoyed all year long. Downside to that is there are not as many 1/4 mile tracks left but that's okay. I enjoy street cruising more than racing. The latter got expensive

 

That's funny because I'm the opposite. I'm not really into street driving old cars like I used to be. I prefer to just race them. To each his own.

Also, Dragway 42 is open April-November FYI.

 

I have also grown away from just driving and sitting at car shows watching my hair grow. 🤣. I daily drive my Pontiac rain or shine . The olds sits out in the rain sometimes and gets beat to death when I do drive it lol. I mean you can build a car for the track to drive on the street and it's that much more fun. I mean burnouts from a 25 mph roll are much more fun that having to stand on the brakes.

Union Grove, byron dragway , Cordova and us41 are all open April to Nov.

As far as expensive goes even with today's fuel prices the cost to bracket race per day will cost me about 175 that's fuel to tow, fuel for car , race fee and lunch. It's cheaper to tow than drive the car. If I run Ihra cost will be 300 but that's because it cost more to run but the pay out is much better than NHRA sportsman .

 

while I don’t disagree, I firmly believe a lot of the lost profit is due to the restrictions placed on dragstrips.


I mentioned the oldest track in Indiana (bunker hill dragstrip, about 3 miles east of the Grissom Air Force base) one of the older tracks was Avila Dragway, about 30 miles north of Fort Wayne. It was closed about 20 years ago due to noise complaints. Once again, what sane, rational person builds a housing addition next to a track, and then complain about the noise???

Those of you who live in central Indiana might be familiar with Deer Creek Music Center, also called the Verizon Music Center, and now Rouff Music Center. It open in the late 80s, I remember going to a Aerosmith concert and driving for what seemed like hours with nothing but cornfields in sight. Now there are huge high dollar houses across the street. Concert have to end by 10pm most nights. There are countless other tracks/concert centers/whatever that have to abide by rules that never existed when they first opened. I don’t suppose that has any affect on profitability??? 🙄

Lord knows how expensive our legal system is. I’m sure fighting lawsuits filed by idiots who build houses in places like that are a huge drain on profits. Which brings me the point I attempted to make: if lawsuits were thrown out, or overturned by a rational legal system, I bet you will find less and less places selling or closing, and less housing built in those areas. I have no doubt some track owners figure they might as well sell the land and save themselves the time and money fighting a corrupt system, knowing it’s not going to end in their favor.