![]() ![]() Coming into Turn 4 was a slight left-hander onto the drag strip's shutdown portion, and after snaking around the back half of the dragway, Turn 12 turned left onto the drag strip back towards the starting line to complete the lap. Parts of the existing drag strip were incorporated into the road course build. The asphalt circuit had a 30 ft (9.1 m) track width, 55 pit boxes within the 880 ft (270 m) pit lane, and could officially hold 52,000 spectators. ![]() However, entering the early 1980s, the interest of adding a road racing circuit to the grounds began to mount, and in 1985 a road course was constructed by then-owner Jody Trover, featuring 2.600 mi (4.184 km) and 1.010 mi (1.625 km) configurations. Throughout the 1970s, the raceway primarily held regional drag racing events. Having been developed on dormant swampland that was long ago buried by the Mississippi River, the track soon adapted the nickname of "The Swamp". Initially conceived as a 0.125 mi (0.201 km) drag strip, the track was extended to a full 0.250 mi (0.402 km) in 1971. Louis International Raceway was built in 1967 as a drag racing facility by Wayne and Ruth Meinert on property originally purchased by David Bergfield. Track history The original road course built in 1985 was demolished by 1996 to make way for the oval track and drag strip used today. The track also hosts Formula Drift, the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series and the Confluence Music Festival. Under its new leadership, World Wide Technology Raceway went from the brink of demolition to one of the very few tracks in the United States to host the NASCAR Cup Series, NTT Ind圜ar Series, and NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series all during the same year. Louis real estate developer and former Indy Lights driver Curtis Francois and renamed Gateway Motorsports Park, saving the facility days before being scrapped. ![]() On September 8, 2011, the facility was re-opened by local St. On November 3, 2010, Dover Motorsports closed the facility. In 1998, the then named Gateway International Raceway was purchased by Dover Motorsports, a group that also owned what is now Memphis International Raceway, along with the Nashville Superspeedway and Dover International Speedway. It was later re-added to the schedule for 2017. After mediocre attendance, the event was dropped altogether after 2003. In 2001, it was dropped from the CART series schedule, and switched alliances to the Indy Racing League. For 2000, the race was moved to the fall. 500), CART scheduled Gateway the day before to serve as their Memorial Day weekend open-wheel alternative without direct conflict. ![]() Rather than scheduling a race directly opposite the Indy 500 (as they had done in 1996 with the U.S. The first major event held at the facility was the CART Series on Saturday May 24, 1997, the day before the Indy Racing League's Indianapolis 500. It features a 1.250 mi (2.012 km) oval that hosts the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and the NTT Ind圜ar Series, a 2.000 mi (3.219 km) infield road course used by SpeedTour TransAm, SCCA, and Porsche Club of America, a quarter-mile NHRA-sanctioned drag strip that hosts the annual NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series Midwest Nationals event, and the Kartplex, a state-of-the-art karting facility. Gateway Motorsports Park (formerly Gateway International Raceway and currently World Wide Technology Raceway for sponsorship reasons) is a motorsport racing facility in Madison, Illinois, just east of St. ![]()
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