Staten Island Bar-B-Q
They may love cars, but they still had plenty of tough questions about how a NASCAR track would work on Staten Island.
Members of the Richmond County Corvette Club, and several off-Island guests, grilled representatives of track developer International Speedway Corp. (ISC) last night, quizzing them about traffic, parking and Nextel Cup race schedules at a proposed 80,000-seat stadium in Bloomfield.
At the end of the night, though, most of the 90 or so car buffs who gathered in the Island Chevrolet showroom in New Dorp to watch ISC’s presentation applauded the developers, and the club president said several members said they support the track, tough questions aside.
“Even though they asked the most difficult questions, they’re the most avid fans,” Corvette Club president Jack Pally said. “At the end, they show where their hearts are, that’s why they applauded.”
Still, not everyone in the room agreed the track would be a good idea.
“I like racing. I’m a racing fan. I just don’t think the borough is big enough. I hope I’m wrong,” said Westerleigh resident Paul Giovannini. He asked the developers if they’d be able to handle the bridge traffic from vacationers coming back on Sunday nights.
“I think it’s more of a problem than they’re saying,” he said.
ISC hopes it will be able to make traffic manageable for its three racing weekends each year by limiting parking to 8,400 on-site spots and forcing the majority of fans to take buses and ferries to the track from remote park-and-ride locations.
“Three weekends out of the year, you adapt, you change your routine,” said Castleton Corners resident Ron Victorio, who said he felt Islanders should think about the positive elements of a speedway.
James Sinski, a Bergenfield, N.J., resident who attended the meeting, pressed ISC officials about how a New York track would be able to get two races from NASCAR for the Nextel Cup series, the sport’s top racing circuit.
“It’s difficult to get the dates, though, isn’t it?” he said, wondering out loud which tracks might lose a race.
John Graham, ISC’s vice president for business affairs, said that, although he couldn’t guarantee Nextel Cup races, NASCAR has expressed enough interest in coming to New York City for developers to say they’re confident they’ll get two dates.
ISC must go through a lengthy public approval process, culminating in a City Council vote, before it can start building on the nearly 700 acres of industrial waterfront land it recently purchased on the Island’s West Shore. If approved, the track could be open by 2009 or 2010.
Just after he wrapped up a multimedia presentation on the track plan, Graham answered two questions he said he heard from several people at the start of the meeting.
“Yes, you can absolutely have your Corvette car club meetings at the track. No, I’m sorry, you can’t drive your cars around it,” he said.
source Staten Island Live
