Author Topic: Skyline Raceway Park closes  (Read 2662 times)

old man

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Skyline Raceway Park closes
« on: July 16, 2018, 07:11:22 PM »
Skyline Raceway Park announced today on their Facebook page that they have shut down for the year due to low car counts and other factors.
Dave


m2vrace

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2018, 07:18:57 PM »
By far my  favorite track it saddens me to see it shut down :'(
Michael A Van Dyke

BigFeet13

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2018, 08:23:46 PM »
I honestly don't understand why no one wants to run there. The pay is up there with any track, the track conditions are always good, it's very fan/family friendly.


harris9cat

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2018, 09:09:16 PM »
Great people.


Sunny

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #4 on: July 16, 2018, 09:45:41 PM »
Two reasons close - Five Mile Point and Thunder Mountain.

Very upsetting to see any track close. That little track had the best racing surface consistently of the tracks I have been to this year.

raceannouncer

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #5 on: July 16, 2018, 10:20:57 PM »
NEVER good when this happens...  :-\ :'(
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government powerful enough to take away everything that you have."


dustydarkwater

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #6 on: July 17, 2018, 12:35:35 PM »
I’m sorry to hear this. The first time I went to Skyline was way back when it first re-opened. Late Models were the headline class and I was worried that the lack of modifieds would somehow make the show seem less than complete, like a salad with no meal to follow. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This was before Thunder Mountain was open and there were 50+ cars in both the Street Stock and 4 Cylinder classes with Late Model car count in the low 20’s. The heat races meant something. 

At the time, the rules were unique for Skyline. The Street Stocks were more restrictive than the class that was running at Penn Can and Five Mile at that time. The 8 Cylinder Late Models were also unique as Penn Can and Five Mile were running a 6 cylinder class at the time.

The place was packed with very passionate and vocal fans. They were nearly as entertaining as the racing.

It appears that changing times, changing tastes and a glut of entertainment options, both racing and non racing, have taken their toll on Skyline.

A big part of the end of Skyline has to be the death of the low budget, stock car that was their bread and butter for so many years. The advent of professionally built race cars has put a damper on the “Mom and Pop” race tracks that catered to the hobbyist who’s racing budget came from a weekly paycheck and not sponsors or well heeled family members.

I hate to see any track close, but trying to do the same thing as everyone else isn’t going to work. They felt Saturdays weren’t working so they switched to Fridays. When that failed, they went back to what had already been proven not to work, they returned to Saturdays. They never gave Sundays a shot. Not that there are any guarantees on Sundays as Utica Rome and Glen Ridge are both facing challenges on Sundays.

Maybe someone will come along and save the track. Small cars may work. I know they tried it this year with limited success, but maybe, with the right people behind it, the track may not have to die. I certainly hope this isn’t the end of racing on that hill.

(Don’t mistake this as a criticism of Dean and his team. I have no doubt they put everything they had into the track.)

“It's not whether you win or lose, it's how you place the blame.”
 Oscar Wilde


coop24

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #7 on: July 17, 2018, 12:59:40 PM »
This is truly a VERY sad thing in racing and I feel bad for Dean and his whole crew, they walked into an already "big mess" and with that being said with 2 other race tracks running on the same night within a 30-45 mile range it was going to be nearly impossible, especially when the same classes were basically running at all of them.  I never got a chance to get up there this season due to my own time constraints and our sponsor obligations to race at other tracks, but I was raised racing there and for many many years the place was packed and a lot of fun to race at.  Kenny and I were just talking about the "good old days" the other night, the drama, the excitement, the awesome racing and the packed house.  It's gonna take someone with a LOT of time, money, ambition and most of all HEART to rebuild Skyline to what it once was 20 some years ago but unfortunately rumor has it this won't be the first track to make this announcement and for all of us die hard race fans it is a shame!!!


sidebite

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Re: Skyline Raceway Park closes
« Reply #8 on: July 17, 2018, 09:38:10 PM »
All 3 of those track should be working together to have a tri-track series and bonus thing going on. Also each one should race a different night. Maybe even rotating nights, that would be a pretty cool idea. Working together all 3 could do well,  fighting each other not so much, the racers and fans are the ones losing out.