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Shangri-La Speedway

Defunct motorsport venue in Owego, Nee York

Summary

Defunct motorsport venue in Owego, Nee York

Field	Value
name	Shangri-La Speedway
location	Owego, New York
coordinates
logo	TIOGAMPlogo.png
logo_caption	TIOGA Motorsports Park 1991–2005
opened	1946
closed	2005
former_names	Tioga Motorsports Park; Shangri-La Motor Speedway
layout	Oval
surface	Asphalt
length_km	.8
length_mi	.5
turns	4
layout2	Dragway
length2_km	.2
length2_mi	.125
layout3	Inner Oval
length3_km	.16
length3_mi	.1

Shangri-La Speedway was a half-mile (0.8 km) oval race track in Owego, New York. The facility also included an eighth-mile (0.2 km) drag strip and a tenth-mile oval track for microds (a type of wooden-bodied go-kart raced in many clubs in upstate New York). Its formal name was changed to Shangri-La Motor Speedway (in use from 1979 to 1991) and to Tioga Motorsports Park (in use from 1992 to 2005), but most racers and fans still referred to it as "Shangri-La".

Overview

Over a span of fifty years, Shangri-La hosted automobile races of various kinds, AAA Championship Cars, stock cars, Modifieds, Supermodifieds, and supporting classes. Shangri-La's weekly racing was widely considered among the best in the sport during several different periods, including years when nine-time NASCAR National Modified Champion Richie Evans and six-time NASCAR National Modified Champion Jerry Cook were regulars.

The speedway hosted one NASCAR Cup Series event in 1952 and the race was won by Tim Flock.

In August 1991, longtime NASCAR independent driver J.D. McDuffie won a celebrity race at the track. This occurred just one day prior to his fatal racing accident in the Bud at the Glen at Watkins Glen International.

Track history

Shangri-La Speedway was opened in 1946 by Bill Owen, who planned and built the track with help of family members. It was closed in 1956 due to neglect and small crowds but then briefly re-opened in 1959 by a group of area drag racers; after a few events it closed in the same year. It was again re-opened in 1962 by Fran Gitchell and operated by the Zacharias family from 2002 until 2005 when it was shut down to allow gravel mining from the property. Nothing remains of the track itself, and the grandstands and buildings were demolished.

A replacement track in nearby Tioga Center, known as Shangri-La II Speedway, opened in 2009.

Photo gallery

Image:TiogaMotorsportsParkFinale.jpg|Start of final races in 2005 Image:TiogaMP1.jpg|TIOGA Motorsports Park sign. Image:TiogaMP2.jpg|TIOGA Motorsports Park buildings. Image:TiogaMP3.jpg|Shangri-La Speedway (former parking area). Image:TiogaMP4.jpg|Shangri-La Speedway (outside area).

Weekly featured division and sanctioning body

1946–48: ESRA (Eastern States Racing Association) Sprints
1949: ESRA Sprints and unsanctioned Stock Cars
1950–56: unsanctioned Stock Cars
1959: NASCAR drag racing
1962–64: unsanctioned Supermodifieds and Modifieds
1965–72: unsanctioned Modifieds
1973–75: NASCAR National Modified
1976–78: NEARA (Northeast Auto Racing Association) Modifieds
1979–2000: NASCAR National Modified
2001–2005: unsanctioned Modifieds

Visits by major touring series

1946–48: AAA Championship Cars, AAA Sprint Cars
1952: NASCAR Grand National Series
1970: All-Star Racing League
1979–91: ISMA (International SuperModified Association) Supermodifieds
1987–88: American Indycar Series
1987–88, 1995–97: NASCAR Busch North Series
1985–89, 1994: NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour

Track regulars who went on to Cup racing

Geoff Bodine
Brett Bodine
Todd Bodine
Jimmy Spencer

References

"Through the Years at Shangri-La: The Final Chapter". Monnat, Michael E. Gater Racing News, August 26, 2005.
Bourcier, Bones. RICHIE!: The Fast Life and Times of NASCAR's Greatest Modified Driver (1st ed., 2004). Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA: Coastal 181. .
Mark Southcott, NYRaceZone.com

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

nascar-tracks sports-venues-in-tioga-county,-new-york 1946-establishments-in-new-york-(state) sports-venues-completed-in-1946 2005-disestablishments-in-new-york-(state) defunct-motorsport-venues-in-new-york-(state)

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