O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis
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| Location | 10267 East U.S. Highway 136, Clermont, Indiana, 46234 |
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| Time zone | GMT-5 |
| Capacity | 30,000 |
| Owner | National Hot Rod Association |
| Operator | National Hot Rod Association |
| Major events | NASCAR Nationwide Series NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series United States Auto Club National Hot Rod Association |
| Oval | |
| Surface | Asphalt |
| Length | .686 mi (1.1 km) |
| Turns | 4 |
| Banking | 12° |
| Lap record | 0:21.766 (David Green, Bobby Labonte, 1994, NASCAR Nationwide Series) |
| Dragstrip | |
| Surface | Asphalt |
| Lap record | 0:4.486 (Tony Schumacher, Don Schumacher Racing, 2006, NHRA Top Fuel) |
| Road Course | |
| Surface | Asphalt |
| Length | 2.5 mi (4.0 km) |
| Turns | 15 |
| Lap record | 1:24.771 (Larry Connor, , 2000, SCCA, Formula Atlantic) |
O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, known as Indianapolis Raceway Park until the 2006 purchase of naming rights by O'Reilly Auto Parts, is a multipurpose racing facility located in Clermont, Indiana. It is not to be confused with Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), which is often referred to as a superspeedway, although its construction vastly predates the use of that term. Surprisingly to some, the vast majority of motorsports events held in Indianapolis are held at Raceway Park, including a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, a NASCAR Nationwide Series event, a midget car racing event, drag racing and road racing.
In 1958, led by Tom Binford, Frank Dickie, Rodger Ward and Howard Fieber, 15 Indianapolis-area businessmen and racing professionals invested $5,000 each to fund the development of a 267-acre farm tract into a recreational sporting complex that would focus on auto racing. The original intention was to create a 15-turn, 2.5-mile road course, but as an insurance measure against economic problems, the investment group decided to incorporate a quarter-mile drag strip into the long straightaway of the 2.5-mile road course design. Constructed with assistance from the NHRA, the drag strip was the first to be completed, with the facility's first event held on the strip in the fall of 1960. A year later, in 1961, a .686 mile paved oval was completed to finish off the track capabilities of the facility. The oval track was used as-is until an overall track renovation was completed in 1988 in order to increase speed on the track.
USAC Silver Crown, Sprint Car and Midget Car races are held on the 0.686-mile (1.104 km) oval, along with other events suited to a shorter track. Raceway Park also traditionally stages an extensive programs on the Saturday nights of major races at the big track nearby, with the Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend USAC Midget race called the Night before the 500. The event is held the night before the Indianapolis 500 event at IMS, serving as something of an unofficial preliminary event to the far more famous one. Similarly, the NASCAR Kroger 200 was given a "Night before the 400" status. When Formula One raced at IMS, midget, sprint, and stock car races were held at ORP in the "Night Before F1" meets, including the 2002 and 2003 USGP races that featured a twin 25-lap midget format, with a full inversion, and the winner winning $50,000 if he could win both features.
A major feature of the facility is a 4,400-foot (1,300 m) long drag strip. The one NHRA event held at Raceway Park is called "the oldest, and most prestigious race in the NHRA." The MAC Tools U.S. Nationals, held every year during the Labor Day weekend, it is the only Monday event on the NHRA schedule, a small race is held the day before the main event, with the winner claiming the five hundred thousand dollar Big Bud Shootout for the Funny Car Division, with the field consisting of the eight highest qualifying drivers in that division up to that race. The winner of the Big Bud Shootout is awarded a check for $500,000 US, while the race itself has the largest purse of any NHRA sanctioned event at over $250,000 US. O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis has held the event every year since 1961, when the race was moved from Detroit.
The 2.5-mile (4.0 km), 15-turn road course, had recently been used for Sports Car Club of America "club" road racing events. The initial Indianapolis Raceway Park road race was an SCCA event held in 1961. In 1965, rookie driver Mario Andretti won his first Indy car race on the road course, in an event which was historic in that it was the first time in modern history that American Indy cars raced on a road circuit. For the next six years, the road course hosted a round of the USAC National Championship Series (then unofficially known as Indy Cars or Champ Cars), the same series that included the Indianapolis 500, as well as the (now defunct) USAC Stock Car Division. Notably, in the 1969 movie Winning, Paul Newman's character, Frank Capua, competes in a USAC Stock Car event on the road course. Unfortunately, after a recent insurance investigation of the pit out opening for the road course, which is located along the left lane wall of the drag strip, the insurance carrier has demanded the pit out be closed off with a permanent concrete wall. This effectively means closing the road course for competition purposes as well, as there is no other area on the current track layout suitable to relocate a viable pit lane.
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[edit] .686 Mile Oval Records
- NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying: David Green, 21.766 sec. = 113.462 mph (182.599 km/h), August 5, 1994
- NASCAR Nationwide Series Race: Jimmy Hensley, 96.923 mph (155.982 km/h), June 22, 1985
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: Joe Ruttman, 22.081 sec. = 111.843 mph (179.994 km/h), August 3, 2000
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Race: Greg Biffle, 88.704 mph (142.755 km/h), August 5, 1999
[edit] 2.5 Mile Road Course Records
- SCCA Formula Atlantic Race: Larry Connor, Ralt RT41, 1:24.529 sec. = 106.472 mph (171.350 km/h), July 1, 2000
- SCCA Formula Continental Race: Jeff Shafer, Nemesis, 1:29.771 sec. = 100.255 mph (161.345 km/h), July 1, 1997
- SCCA A Sports Racer Race: Jerry Hansen, Lola T333, 1:25.880 sec. = 104.797 mph (168.654 km/h), May 1, 1980
- SCCA C Sports Racer Race: Tony Coniewski, Swift, 1:27.130 sec. = 103.294 mph (166.236 km/h), July 4, 2004
[edit] Current Major Events
- NHRA - Mac Tools U.S. Nationals -- since 1961
- NASCAR Nationwide Series (formerly Busch Series) - Kroger 200 -- since 1982
- NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (formerly Craftsman Truck Series) - Power Stroke Diesel 200 -- since 1995
NOTE: The Kroger 200 is the only Nationwide Series race to carry the same primary sponsor for all 25 years of the series.
[edit] External links
- O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis Official Site
- O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis Page on NASCAR.com
- O'Reilly Raceway Park SCCA Track Records, Indianapolis Region, SCCA.
- High Resolution image from Windows Live Local
- High Resolution image from Google Maps
Coordinates: 39°48′46″N 86°20′27″W / 39.81269°N 86.34092°W
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