Auto racing deserves another chance in Savannah
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Lots of fresh Armco in place, and some being installed. No grandstands, and no pit facilities at all. Some painted curbs. It looks like it will be a fast track, with no turns tighter than 90 degrees and a number of fast sweepers, and two fairly long straights.
10/20/08 This is the track that Green Prix USA wants to hold its first race.
01/27/08
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| 1.965-mile 10 turn Savannah road course |
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| An aerial view of the track on Hutchinson Island |
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| View from the island back at downtown Savannah |
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| Start of 1997 CART Indy Lights race |
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| Mauricio Gugelmin drives his Hollywood Champ Car down pit lane in 1997 |
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| Turn 1 is a cross between an oval and a road course |
Time to pop the clutch on auto racing again, Savannah. And this time, let's start in first gear and work our way through the box. (See related AutoRacing1.com article "Why Champ Car needs to look at Savannah" where in 2004 we proposed Champ Car take a look at this venue)
Racing returns to the taxpayer-funded road course at Hutchinson Island this fall with the Hilton Head-Savannah Historic Races. The two-day event is more a festival than a competition: Antique car collectors in driving goggles and white scarves will chase each other around the two-mile loop.
Helio Castroneves, the last driver to win a race on Hutchinson Island, won't be on hand to defend his turf. He won the 1997 Indy Lights Series Dixie Crystals Grand Prix, went on to twice win the Indianapolis 500 and is now one of the few open-wheel superstars left, at least in the Western Hemisphere.
Yet what they lack in star power the historic races make up for in promise.
Even with Castroneves thrilling 30,000 spectators with his win 11 years ago, racing stalled in its Savannah debut. The local organizing group, Colonial Motorsports, lost more than $3 million on the inaugural race, and didn't have the cash reserves to keep creditors from filing lawsuits.
Had Colonial been able to stage a second and third race – as its contract with the Indy Lights folks stipulated – the group likely could have paid its debts and staked its claim to a bigger event.
Colonial went bankrupt instead. Other marketing companies and other race series, including NASCAR, flirted with the track over the next few years.
None followed through, and the track became nothing more than parking space for the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, and a venue for illegal street racing, mostly among motorcyclists. The "Fast and the Furious" crowd forced Chatham County, which maintains the road, and the Georgia Ports Authority, which owns the land it sits on, to put up barriers and essentially close the road to the public.
The Hilton Head-Savannah Historic Races give the track a chance to start over.
The organizers pledge to fund the races privately. Those taxpayers, still sore over the $4 million in county funds used to construct the track 15 years ago, won't be asked to contribute another cent.
Race backers will pay the county to remove the barriers and make necessary repairs to the road.
And assuming the historic races are a success, Savannah could shift gears down the road. Many professional race teams pass through this area. They test at Bloomingdale's Roebling Road Raceway. Champ Car Atlantic teams owned by Eric Jensen and Gerald Forsythe are there this weekend.
Jensen openly talks about how he'd like to see Champ Car return to Hutchinson Island. Then known as CART, Champ Car was the parent organization of the Indy Lights Series.
He points to the island's development since the 1997 race – the Westin Hotel, the Savannah Harbor golf course and the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center have all opened since – as reasons an event now has a better chance to succeed financially than a decade ago.
Pull off an open-wheel event or two, and Savannah could even court the stock cars. NASCAR is reaching out globally, now staging two races beyond our borders with plans for more. But bringing in those markets means incorporating grand prix-style racing.
And that means the development circuits, from Hooters Pro Cup and ARCA to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, will need quality road-course venues.
Like the one on Hutchinson Island.
Just so long as they take it one gear at a time. Savannah Morning News