New Jersey Motorsports Park

New Jersey Motorsports Park

Thunderbolt (top) and Lightning (bottom) circuits
Location 8000 Dividing Creek Road, Millville, Cumberland County New Jersey
Time zone GMT-5
Coordinates 39°21′32″N 75°03′42″W / 39.35897°N 75.061628°W / 39.35897; -75.061628
Capacity Open seating without capacity limitation
Opened 2008
Major events AMA Superbike Championship (2009–present)

ARCA Racing Series (2008–present)

American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association 2013

SCCA (2008–present)

CCS (2010–present)

24 Hours of LeMons (2011–present)
Surface Asphalt
Length 2.25 mi (3.62 km)
Turns 14
Lap record 1:10.211 (Carl Skerlong, King Taco Pacific Coast Motorsports, 2008, Atlantic Championship)
Lightning Raceway
Surface Asphalt
Length 1.9 mi (3.06 km)
Turns 10

New Jersey Motorsports Park is a road course located in Millville, Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. It has hosted races since opening in 2008 and currently boasts a schedule including AMA Pro Road Racing, ARCA Racing Series, American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association, and SCCA events.

Current tracks and facilities

Thunderbolt and Lightning Raceways

New Jersey Motorsports Park is located on 500 acres immediately adjacent to the Millville Municipal Airport, a location that was dedicated in 1941 as America’s First Defense Airport, which played a key role in the country’s World War II military efforts.

NJMP is one of only a handful of facilities in the world housing two circuits that can be operated simultaneously. The tracks both feature many elevation changes, along with lengthy front straightaways. One of the best known features of this course is a stretch on Thunderbolt Raceway known as "the Jersey devil."

The Park offers open seating which allows spectators to venture throughout the grounds. Grandstands are available in several locations, in addition to camping areas and on-site hotel and condominium accommodations. The facility includes a full-service bar and restaurant, The Finish Line Pub, located at the center of the property.

F1 Karting at New Jersey Motorsports Park

In addition to the two road courses, NJMP includes a 1.1-mile (1.8 km) karting facility called F1 Karting. Like the park itself, F1 consists of two tracks that can be operated simultaneously. It hosts daily arrive-and-drive programs, and offers custom experiences for groups. The complex also hosts competition events sanctioned by various regional and national series.

Millville Army Air Field

The Millville Army Air Field opened as a gunnery school for fighter pilots for the Republic P-47 “Thunderbolt” in 1941. During its four-year existence, about 1,500 pilots received advanced P-47 Thunderbolt fighter training here.

New Jersey Motorsports Park embraced this rich history by naming its marquee 2.25-mile racetrack “Thunderbolt Raceway.” The 1.9-mile road course – Lightning Raceway – is named after the P-38 Lightning, a World War II fighter aircraft.

The facility also carries the historical World War II theme by naming its track-side condominiums “The Villas at Breighton.” Breighton was the name of an allied airfield in Great Britain, where many of the Millville-trained P-47 pilots served during World War II.

Other ties to the World War II theme include the English Tudor design of the clubhouse, the Officers Club's Q-Hangar design that contains Cumberland County’s largest banquet facility and the Timing Tower that resembles a World War II air traffic control tower. Upon visiting New Jersey Motorsports Park, you will also notice that NJMP safety and security vehicles are based on World War II MP Jeeps.

While building the various structures at New Jersey Motorsports Park, many World War II artifacts were found and collected for display at the Millville Army Air Field Museum, located on the opposite side of the Millville Airport. The Bore Site range, located just outside Thunderbolt Raceway Paddock was used by Thunderbolt pilots during training as a range to calibrate their machine guns.

Today, a P-47 Thunderbolt- No Guts, No Glory aircraft is based out of Millville Airport. It is one of only nine in the world still in working condition.

History of racing at New Jersey Motorsports Park

Events

NBC's Octane Academy held its east coast qualifier at the Park's 1.9-mile Lightning Raceway in January 2013.

Pro racing

Many renowned racing series have visited at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The first was Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series in 2008, with Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson capturing the first-ever Thunderbolt trophies. The ARCA Racing Series and AMA Superbike Championship also joined the NJMP schedule, holding annual points-paying races at the northeast facility.

Other notable events include the "Devil in the Dark", a 12-hour endurance race put on by the South Jersey region of the SCCA. Regional and national sportscar and motorcycle clubs also hold hundreds of track-day events at the two circuits each season.

Race history

American Superbike

Year Date Driver Team Manufacturer Race Distance
Laps Best Lap
2009 September 5 United States Josh Hayes Yamaha Motor Corp. Yamaha 23 1:21.979
2009 September 6 United States Josh Hayes Yamaha Motor Corp. Yamaha 23 1:21.287
2010 September 4 United States Josh Hayes Team Graves Yamaha Yamaha 21 1:21.210
2010 September 5 United States Josh Hayes Team Graves Yamaha Yamaha 23 1:21.242
2011 September 3 United States Josh Hayes Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Yamaha 23 1:21.264
2011 September 4 United States Blake Young Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki Suzuki 23 1:21.904
2012 September 8 United States Josh Hayes Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Yamaha 23 1:20.737
2012 September 9 United States Josh Hayes Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Yamaha 23 1:20.895
2013 September 14 United States Josh Herrin Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Yamaha 20 1.21.804
2013 September 15 United States Josh Hayes Monster Energy Graves Yamaha Yamaha 23 1:20.716

ARCA Racing Series

Year Date Driver Team Manufacturer Race Distance
Laps
2008 September 28 United States Justin Allgaier Allgaier Motorsports Chevrolet 48
2009 September 13 United States Patrick Long Cunningham Motorsports Dodge 67
2010 August 15 United States Casey Roderick Bill Elliott Racing Dodge 67
2011 May 22 Canada Andrew Ranger NDS Motorsports Dodge 67
2012 July 1 Canada Andrew Ranger NDS Motorsports Dodge 67
2013 July 28 Canada Andrew Ranger NDS Motorsports Dodge 67
2014 June 1 Canada Andrew Ranger Dodge 67
2015 May 24 United States Kyle Weatherman Dodge 67
2016 May 28 United States Parker Kligerman Dodge 67

Rolex Sportscar Series

Year Date Driver Team Manufacturer Race Distance
Laps
2008 August 31 Brazil Oswaldo Negri & South Africa Mark Patterson Michael Shank Racing #60 Ford Riley 105
2009 May 3 Sweden Niclas Jönsson & Brazil Ricardo Zonta Krohn Racing #76 Ford Lola 87
2010 August 18 United States Jon Fogarty & United States Alex Gurney Bob Stallings Racing #99 Chevrolet Riley 116
2011 July 24 United States Scott Pruett & Mexico Memo Rojas Chip Ganassi Racing #01 BMW Riley 117
2012 May 13 Italy Max Angelelli & United States Ricky Taylor Wayne Taylor Racing #10 Corvette DP 117

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.