Walt Disney World Speedway (Johnsonverse)

Walt Disney World Speedway is a racing facility located at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, which opened on January 20, 2004.
A prior racetrack of the same name was formerly occupied on the grounds of the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. It was built in 1995 by IMS Events, Inc., a subsidiary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, and was designed primarily as a venue for the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World, a USAC Gold Crown Series event.
The original circuit's primary use was as a venue for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and the Indy Racing Experience, programs that allow fans to drive or ride in real race cars. It was also used by many racing teams from USAC to NASCAR as a test venue due to the warmer climate than other tracks around the United States during the off season for racing. This track closed permanently on December 9, 2003.
The current speedway, occupied near Lake Buena Vista, currently hosts races from various NASCAR and USAC racing divisions such as the RCA Cup Series, Busch Series, USAC Gold Crown Series, and Silver Crown Series, as well as for practice sessions. It is also used for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and is part of a complex that includes a drag strip and a smaller dirt track, the latter being used by the USAC Bronze Crown Series.
AutoWeek magazine and the Orlando Sentinel dubbed the original track "The Mickyard" (a portmanteau of the Disney icon Mickey Mouse and Indianapolis Motor Speedway's nickname, the "Brickyard").
== History ==
=== Former track ===
The original track was a three-turn tri-oval, designed by Indianapolis Motor Speedway chief engineer Kevin Forbes, and the location was chosen in September 1994 by Greg Ruse of Buena Vista Construction. The track was situated on a triangular plot of land adjacent to the Magic Kingdom's parking lot near Disney's Polynesian Resort. Plans for the track were first announced on January 23, 1995. The track was designed to fit within the boundaries of the existing infrastructure, requiring minimal rerouting of existing roads.
On June 27, 1995, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Chairman of the Board Mari Hulman George took part in a groundbreaking ceremony. She presented the track with one of the original paving bricks from the famous "Brickyard." In a rather compact schedule, the one-mile (1.6 km) track was completed with ten miles (16 km) of safety restraint cabling, 2 acres (8,100 m2) of fencing, 1,800 yards (1,600 m) of concrete for outside walls, 2,300 feet (700 m) of concrete for pit walls and 5,200 tons of asphalt for the track surface. Despite 1995 having the wettest June–July in Orlando on record (75 inches of rain), including Hurricane Erin, the construction was completed on-time, with final paving completed October 18, 1995.
The track was dedicated on November 28, 1995. USAC Gold Crown Series drivers Arie Luyendyk, Eddie Cheever, Eliseo Salazar, Lyn St. James and Davey Hamilton drove a five-car "Flying V" formation amongst fireworks. Initial testing at the facility for the USAC Gold Crown Series took place November 27–December 9, 1995.
The race track hosted its first car race, a Formula Ford 2000 support race on January 26, 1996 followed the next day with the USAC Gold Crown Series' Indy 200 car race. On February 7, 1997, the first racing experience program, the Richard Petty Driving Experience, opened at the Speedway.
After the 2000 USAC season, the race was moved to October (the original plan was to move the race to Labor Day weekend, but by 2000, the California 500 at Ontario Motor Speedway had become the traditional Labor Day weekend race). USAC officials were dissatisfied with the January date, as it was seen to be too early for most teams to be prepared for the season (a common complaint with the Gold Crown Series' sister series, the NASCAR RCA Cup Series, was that ending on the second week of December and starting the new season on the last Sunday of January was too short a break, an issue that USAC sought to avoid at all costs). Disney officials also were concerned with the impending conflict with Super Bowl XXXV, to be held in Tampa presumably the same weekend. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had already declined to renew its contract with the Speedway for similar reasons after 1998.
====Closure and demolition====
On March 27, 2003, it was announced that the original speedway would close on December 9, 2003 and be razed. Demolition began on January 1, 2004 to make way for "transportation improvements", namely expanding and reconfiguring the Magic Kingdom parking lot and parking entrance.
=== Current track ===
IMS Events Inc. and Disney announced plans to start construction on a new three-mile speedway in Florida in January 2001, hosting its first USAC races by 2006. Construction started in November 2002 and finished in January 2004 after construction ended up being under budget and ahead of schedule. It is, to date, the largest USAC and NASCAR track ever constructed. Vehicles on the current Walt Disney World Speedway are not restricted to Daytona/Talladega speeds using a traditional restrictor plate, but instead are electronically limited to 210 mph for driver safety reasons; the more-aerodynamic nature of the USAC Gold and Silver Crown cars meant they had to have an extremely-restrictive restrictor plate installed, more restrictive than those used on the fastest restrictor plate track on the circuit at the time, Denver International Speedway. The trioval area has a short track for use by the USAC Bronze Crown Series. The new facility was built near US Route 192.
The first Cup Series race on the new track (the Big Hero 6 500) was held on June 28, 2014.
==Design==
===Former track===
Walt Disney World Speedway was constructed on a very limited budget. By design, permanent features of the facility were built at a minimum. The track plans called for only the track surface, retaining wall, and catch fence to be constructed. The remainder of the facility, such as seating areas, restrooms, and race support areas would be built on a temporary, as-needed basis. This strategy had never been used on an oval race track, but had been widely successful for years in temporary street circuits (such as Long Beach). No permanent garages were built on the premises, but this was not entirely unusual. Race teams would simply work out of their transporters, a practice used frequently at street circuits and other tracks without garages.
The initial savings in construction costs was significant. Temporary bleachers and restroom facilities would be erected each year beginning in November, in preparations for the races in January. The lack of permanent grandstands also allowed track officials to adjust the configuration and capacity of seating annually reflecting ticket demand. This practice, however, would prove to be inconvenient and increasingly expensive in the long run since the grandstand area encompassed a portion of the Magic Kingdom parking lot. That area of the lot would be unusable for nearly three months, including during the busy Christmas and New Year's holiday season at the theme park.
Three linked ponds in the track’s infield are formed in the shape of Mickey Mouse. The pond, dubbed "Lake Mickey", was built a year after the track opened due to drainage concerns.
====Parking problems====
Initially, the track location, which was adjacent to the Magic Kingdom parking lot, was seen to be convenient. However, after a couple of years, traffic control on race days became overwhelming. Because race spectators would arrive at the same time and place as regular Magic Kingdom theme park guests, overflow parking was required. In 1996–1997, Disney officials reacted by parking all race spectators in the Magic Kingdom parking lot, and diverting all Magic Kingdom guests to the Epcot parking lot. Race spectators would walk to the nearby Speedway, while all guests to the Magic Kingdom were required to take the monorail or a bus from Epcot to the Transportation and Ticket Center. There, they would transfer to a monorail on the Magic Kingdom loop, a somewhat circuitous trip which resulted in numerous guest complaints. In 1997, the USAC race was shortened by a sudden rainstorm, causing fans to hurry to their cars and resulting in severe traffic gridlock on World Drive and surrounding roads which lasted for several hours.
Starting in 1998, race spectators were diverted to park at Epcot, and were taken by shuttle bus to the Speedway while guests to the Magic Kingdom were directed to park, as usual, in the Magic Kingdom parking lot. While this eased many theme park guest complaints, it was now inconvenient for race spectators as it necessitated them to arrive earlier to account for the additional travel time. It additionally resulted in a significant cost increase in race operations, as the Disney Transport bus fleet was not big enough to accommodate the race shuttle operation. As a result, outside bus companies had to be hired to run the race shuttle service.
===Current track===
Unlike the original speedway, the current one was built on a significantly larger budget, which is estimated to be $100 million. As a result, there are many features in the track that are not normally seen on other NASCAR or USAC tracks, such as concession kiosks. In addition, the "Lake Mickey" from the former track is carried over to the current track, though much larger in size than the original.
The speedway itself is a three-mile trioval with cars turning right instead of the traditional left, and is seen as the fastest speedway in the NASCAR and USAC schedules. Since 2004, its races have been named after movies from Disney or its subsidiaries released that year. Here is a list of names for the Cup and Busch events:
* 2014: Big Hero 6 500, Guardians of the Galaxy 300
* 2015: Star Wars: The Force Awakens 500, Hiawatha 300
* 2016: Chanticleer 500, Finding Dory 300
* 2017: Coco 500, Penguin Island 300
* 2018: Ralph Wrecks the Internet 500, A Bug's Life 300
* 2019: Star Wars: Duel of the Fates 500, The Lion King 300
* 2020: Raya and the Last Dragon 500, Soul 300
* 2021: Luca 500, Encanto 300
* 2022: Strange World 500, Moonfighter 300
* 2023: Wish 500, Elemental 300
== Richard Petty Driving Experience / Indy Racing Experience / Exotic Driving Experience ==
During the off-season in 1997, the track began hosting the Richard Petty Driving Experience, a stock car-based racing organization that allowed the general public to drive real NASCAR machines, or ride along with a professional driver and served as the track's primary function, year-round. It was the only track used by the RPDE that, weather permitting, operated roughly 365 days a year. To assist in the increased ingress and egress, a one-lane automobile tunnel was built for the 1997 season. In the summer of 1999, a new visitor's center and gift shop was built to permanently house operations for RPDE. A new modest garage facility was built for them also. The operation had previously worked out of trailers and tents, without significant utilities.
On January 1, 2004, the RPDE commenced operations at the new speedway, the same day the old speedway commenced demolition.
On November 13, 2008, it was announced that the track would be shared with the Indy Racing Experience, a similar program to RPDE. The USAC two-seater machine would be used for fan ride-alongs, and Indy cars would also be available to be driven by fans. After appearing at various tracks on a largely irregular schedule, the Indy Racing Experience made the track its permanent year-round home.
On January 16, 2012, a new driving experience started business at Walt Disney World Speedway geared towards high end "supercars" called the Exotic Driving Experience. The experience uses the infield road course configuration.
===Other uses===
*On February 19–20, 1999, the track hosted the 7th Annual SunDay Challenge Alternative Energy Vehicle Rally. The highlight of the meet featured the Formula Lightning teams of Ohio State, Kettering, and FAMU/FSU. The event was covered by Central Florida News 13.
*On April 9, 2002 the first test of the Silver Crown Series was conducted at the track, with Robby McGehee driving over 100 miles (160 km).
*The oval was part of the course of the Walt Disney World Marathon in some years.
==Track records==
===Indy Racing League===
Type 	Distance 	Date 	Driver 	Time 	Average Speed(mph)
Qualifying	1 lap (1.0 miles) 	January 25, 1996	Buddy Lazier	19.847 seconds	181.388
Race 	200 miles (320 km)	January 27, 1996	Buzz Calkins	1:33:30.748 	128.748
*Unofficial all-time track record: Buddy Lazier, 19.450 seconds; 185.089 mph (January 13, 1996)
==Past race results==
===Former track===
===Current track===
==Incidents==
From 1995–2015, the track experienced one fatal accident. On April 12, 2015, driving instructor Gary Terry, 36, was fatally injured after a crash during a run as part of the Exotic Driving Experience. Terry was riding in the passenger seat of a Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, when the driver lost control and crashed into a metal guardrail. Terry died at the scene while the driver, identified as 24-year-old Tavon Watson, was transported to the hospital with minor injuries. Florida Highway Patrol investigated and announced that, while the decision to run vehicles clockwise (instead of counterclockwise as the track was designed for) may have been a factor in the incident, it was an accident and no charges were filed against the driver since it was on private property.
Category:Johnsonverse