The second practice day leading up to the 2021 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series at Riverhead Raceway is in the books and much like the first session a week earlier a sun splashed spring afternoon greeted competitors and fans alike with another jam packed pit area of race cars providing the action. (more…)
The sun was shining, spirits were high and the pit area was overflowing Saturday afternoon at Riverhead Raceway as Eddie & Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz hosted the first of two practice days leading up to the 2021 opening weekend Saturday May 1st and Sunday May 2nd.
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It’s official: Formula One racing is coming to South Florida.
F1 announced Sunday the Miami Grand Prix will be hosted at Hard Rock Stadium in a 10-year deal, which will begin in 2022. The 2022 race date will be announced later with hopes of it being held in the second quarter of next year (April-June).
“It’s a great moment for Formula One and a great moment for Formula One fans in America,” said president and CEO Stefano Domenicali during a press conference in Imola, Italy.
“We’re very excited to bring the world’s greatest racing to the most dynamic city in the United States,” added Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium CEO Tom Garfinkel, the new managing partner of the race.
Sunday’s announcement ends a nearly three-year quest by Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium owner Steve Ross, now the chairman and owner of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, to bring F1 racing to South Florida.
For Ross and Garfinkel, the Miami Grand Prix is just another event that adds to the allure of Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.
The venue has hosted 11 Super Bowls with Super Bowl 54 most recently in Feb. 2020, multiple college football national championship games, and will host games during the World Cup in 2026.
“We had a vision to create a global entertainment destination. The site exists to bring in the biggest events in the world,” Garfinkel told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“With the Super Bowl, the [college football] national championship game, international soccer, Miami Open tennis, and really there’s no bigger event in the world than Formula One racing.”
Race organizers and the city of Miami Gardens recently announced an economic package that will include a $5 million commitment, including a STEM education program and race conditions that must be abided by to benefit the area despite significant resistance from local officials and residents in the area.
Ross initially hoped to have the F1 race in the downtown Miami, starting in 2019, until that proposal was also met with apprehension from residents with noise and pollution concerns.
“This is something we’ve worked on for a while,” Garfinkel told the Sun Sentinel. I think frankly, while it feels like it took a long time, when you look at the amount of diligence that goes into it, taking the time to listen to the community, and putting that diligence in during a global pandemic we’ve all been dealing with, it actually wasn’t a long time when you put it in perspective because what it takes to put one of these things on is pretty significant.”
The race circuit will be 3.36 miles, have 19 corners, 3 straights and potential for 3 DRS zones with an estimated top speed of 198.8 mph with the stadium at the heart of the action.
FI and Hard Rock Stadium officials will work together to build a track to provide high speed straights, multiple overtaking opportunities and exciting racing while meeting the highest safety standards, according to a press release.
Miami will be the 11th location Formula 1 has raced in the United States since the Championship series began in 1950. Since that time Formula 1 has raced at Riverside, Sebring, Watkins Glen, Long Beach, Las Vegas, Detroit, Dallas, Phoenix, Indianapolis and Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
The Miami Grand Prix will be the second U.S. race on the F1 circuit next year, joining Austin, Texas.
“There was never a time we didn’t want it to happen or didn’t think it was going to happen,” added Garfinkel. “I think sometimes you will things to happen when you have great partners to get that accomplished.”
Richmond Raceway has been known by several different names and has been reconfigured several times over the years of its existence, but all the while it has been a staple on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule since 1953. This weekend’s race, the TOYOTA OWNERS 400 (April 18 at 3 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is looking to add the historic prestige that Richmond has built over the decades of great on-track competition and with how this season has been shaking out it shouldn’t disappoint. (more…)
The NASCAR Cup Series finds itself amid a short track swing on the 2021 season schedule, tasking the teams to find the best setups for the cars on three similar tracks in length (less than a mile) but for three vastly different competitive arenas. (more…)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 5, 2021) – Below is a look at some of the top statistical performers at Martinsville Speedway in Martinsville, Virginia, going into the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500 on Sunday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90). (more…)
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – Derek Griffith finished on the podium during Friday’s David Rogers Super Late Model feature that opened the 55th World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna Speedway, but that simply wasn’t enough for the driver from New Hampshire. (more…)
