Beyond the Flag
Fansided

IndyCar: Five reasons destroying Walt Disney World Speedway was a mistake

By Asher Fair

24 Jan 1999: A view of the cars during the Disney World 200 IRL race at Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida. Mandatory Credit: Andy Lyons /Allsport
24 Jan 1999: A view of the cars during the Disney World 200 IRL race at Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Florida. Mandatory Credit: Andy Lyons /Allsport /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 6
Next
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – MAY 24: In this handout photo provided by Disney Resorts, a view of the new Pandora: World of Avatar  (Photo by David Roark/Disney Resorts via Getty Images)
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – MAY 24: In this handout photo provided by Disney Resorts, a view of the new Pandora: World of Avatar  (Photo by David Roark/Disney Resorts via Getty Images) /

Geographic location

Walt Disney World Speedway was located in Bay Lake, Florida near Orlando, Florida on the grounds of the Walt Disney World resort near the Magic Kingdom, one of four Walt Disney World amusement parks. Being near Orlando, Florida, the track was located in a rather warm climate…okay, an extremely hot climate.

It would have made a perfect location for an IndyCar race at the start or end of the season to extend the season, as the weather would not be too cold there in February or early March, nor would it be too cold there in October or even early November.

The series currently opens up on the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida already, so this race would have probably would have been better to end the season. That said, in its five seasons hosting IndyCar races, it was the season opener in all but one of those seasons.

At this point, it would have made more sense to end the season at Walt Disney World Speedway rather than start it there. The series currently hosts its championship finale at the Sonoma Raceway natural terrain road course in Sonoma, California in another warm climate. It has done so since 2015.

However, the majority of fans would prefer the championship be decided on an oval, which it did for many years prior to 2015. This would have been the perfect race for it, especially given all of the other reasons listed in this article.

The only disadvantage to having the championship finale at Walt Disney World Speedway would be the fact that the race would likely be held during hurricane season. As we saw this year with Hurricane Irma, that would not have been optimal.