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

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

Walt Disney World Speedway was recently destroyed after closing for good. Here are five IndyCar-related reasons why this was the wrong move.

Walt Disney World Speedway was a 3-turn, 1-mile tri-oval speedway that hosted IndyCar races for five seasons. It opened in November of 1995 and hosted those five IndyCar races from 1996 to 2000, with one race in each of those seasons. In fact, the track hosted the first ever Indy Racing League race in 1996 in a race won by Buzz Calkins.

The track also held one NASCAR Truck Series races in each of the 1997 and 1998 seasons. It was eventually closed after nearly 20 seasons of operation in August of 2015 before it was then completely destroyed.

In the 15 seasons from the track’s last IndyCar race to 2015 when it was eventually destroyed, the track really served no purpose aside of hosting the Richard Petty Driving Experience, the Indy Racing Experience and the Exotic Driving Experience. The track was joked to have been the “fastest ride in Disney World”, which was actually true if you choose to look at it that way.

While IndyCar had not raced at the track in over 15 years when it was finally destroyed and had no immediate interest in returning, it’s hard to keep from wondering how a return to the track would have gone down and what it would have meant to the series.

On that note, let’s have a look at five reasons why tearing down Walt Disney World Speedway was a mistake.

ORLANDO, FL – MAY 23: General views of the Magic Kingdom on May 23, 2017 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images)

Popular destination

Walt Disney World is one of the if not the most popular tourist destinations in the world. So obviously having an IndyCar race there would have benefited the sport. But not only would it have benefited both the sport; it actually would have benefited Disney itself.

Some people just don’t like racing. But more people than you’d think have simply never been exposed to it, and even if they have, they are probably more likely to refer to IndyCar as NASCAR than they are to tell you who won last year’s IndyCar championship.

Because non-IndyCar fans are composed of not only people who don’t care about IndyCar but people who simply have never been introduced to it as well, Walt Disney World Speedway hosting an IndyCar race would have exposed the Disney parkgoers to competitive racing action that they otherwise simply may not know about, thus benefiting the sport.

As far as benefiting Disney World itself goes, Walt Disney World Speedway hosting an IndyCar race would have shown IndyCar fans that there is more to Disney World than kiddie rides and people dressed up as movie characters, thus making one of the if not the most popular tourist destinations in the world even more popular.

All in all, Walt Disney World Speedway hosting an IndyCar race would have been a win-win for both the sport and Disney itself. Sure, IndyCar isn’t the most popular sport in the United States, much less in the entire world, while Disney World is one of the if not the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

But there is no doubt that it is not just popular but growing in popularity, so associating it with Disney World would have been, without a doubt, a win-win for both the sport and Disney itself in both the short run and the long run.

Fanbase booster

This slide kind of connects with the previous slide except it focuses on the younger children as opposed to the general Disney-going population as a whole. When many people think of Disney World, they think of little kids having a great time going on rides and meeting their favorite Disney characters.

Now inject IndyCar into that, with a pack of more than 20 cars coming down the front straightaway of Walt Disney World Speedway at over 200 miles per hour. This would certainly grab the attention of many of the youngsters having the time of their lives at Disney World.

Right now, young race fans are lacking when compared to young fans in other sports like football, baseball or basketball. The average child or teenager is unfortunately more likely to be able to tell you who the third-string quarterback of the Cleveland Browns is than who won the Indianapolis 500 last year. Sadly, that’s just the way it is.

Why is this? Sure, maybe some young children don’t enjoy racing. But the fact is, the majority of them have simply never been exposed to it. Having a race at Walt Disney World Speedway would have helped to grow the sport from the ground up, starting with the part of the population that IndyCar will not be able to survive without several decades down the road.

The appeal to young children that an IndyCar race at Walt Disney World Speedway would have had is an appeal that no other track across the United States or even the world would have had. Having a race at the track would have been a perfect opportunity to focus on the future of the sport’s fanbase.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – MARCH 19: In this handout photo provided by Disney Parks, in a special moment for Magic Kingdom guests, the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, streaked across the skies above, Cinderella Castle (Photo by Mariah Wild/Disney Parks via Getty Images)

Media attention

As referenced in the slide about Walt Disney World being one of the if not the most popular tourist destination in the world, there would have been a lot of benefits for both IndyCar and to Disney had an IndyCar race been scheduled annually at Walt Disney World Speedway before it shut down and was demolished.

Why? Because when you associate anything with Disney, the media is going to be all over it. And when the thing which you are associating with Disney is IndyCar, which is growing as America’s premier open-wheel racing series featuring the fastest drivers in the world, big things happen and all of a sudden you have a story that every news outlet wants to be the first to report and give a million takes on.

When you put all of that together, you get what promises to be a remarkable event that perhaps even produces a sell-out crowd, and that’s even if the track would have added more than the 30,000 seats it had when the final Indy Racing League race won by Robbie Buhl was held there back in 2000.

Media attention isn’t always a good thing, which makes good media attention all the more valuable. That is exactly what an IndyCar return to Walt Disney World Speedway would have done on so many levels, and that’s even before the green flag would have flown. However, with the track no longer there, that won’t happen unless another track is build, which seems very unlikely.

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.

FORT WORTH, TX – JUNE 10: Will Power, driver of the #12 Verizon Team Penske Chevrolet (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Another oval

IndyCar currently has just six ovals on the schedule. They race at Phoenix International Raceway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Gateway Motorsports Park. Three of those race tracks are superspeedways, and three of them are short ovals.

The series used to race on many more than just six ovals, and there have been many calls for IndyCar to race on more ovals each season, including superspeedways like Fontana and Michigan for IndyCar to potentially bring back the Triple Crown.

While it’s not a superspeedway, Walt Disney World Speedway would have been a good option, and it would have been a good option for pretty much every other reason listed in this article in addition to the reason on this slide as well as the reason listed below. Plus, the 2018 aero kit is supposed to enhance the racing on short ovals, which is what the track was.