The Ridge Motorsports Park

The Ridge Motorsports Park
Location

1060 West Eells Hill Road

Shelton, Washington, near Olympia, Washington, United States of America
Coordinates 47°15′20.41″N 123°11′25.01″W / 47.2556694°N 123.1902806°W / 47.2556694; -123.1902806Coordinates: 47°15′20.41″N 123°11′25.01″W / 47.2556694°N 123.1902806°W / 47.2556694; -123.1902806
Broke ground 26 April 2011
Opened 26 May 2012

The Ridge Motorsports Park is located near Shelton, Washington, approximately 25 miles northwest of Olympia, Washington.

Ground was broken for the Steve Crawford designed road course on 26 April 2011. The full road course is 2.47 miles long with 16 turns and a change in elevation of more than 300 feet from start to finish.

The first event at "The Ridge" was a charity event benefitting local Mason County food banks, held on 10 & 11 December 2011.[1]

The first official race, a Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association - WMRRA event, was held on 24 May 2012. Subsequent events include championship racing by regional car and motorcycle sanctioning bodies, lapping events by car clubs, motorcycle organizations, and other events.

For the 2014 season, turn 13 of the original road circuit was reconfigured to mitigate excessive surface degradation, and the terrain surrounding the road circuit underwent an enormous amount of grading and smoothing prior to the application of topsoil and hydro-seeding, to both enhance the appearance of the facility and to manage runoff. New poured in place concrete barrier walls were constructed to replace temporary barriers, curbing was added in several places and additional new paving was completed. Finally, a large spectator viewing area was created on the upper part of the site.

In 2015, an outdoor scale replica kart track was added to the site, named "Olympic Grand Prix", or "OGP". OGP is a 1/5th scale replica of the road circuit, including elevation change. Additionally for 2015, the available paved paddock area was nearly doubled in size.

For 2016, electrical power and water systems were brought on line and a bathroom & shower building was completed. Construction of a new motocross facility called "Ridge MX", also began in the spring of 2016, with initial test laps being run on 6 May 2016. An invitational pre-grand opening test event was held on 1 October 2016 and the official grand opening was held on 29 Oct 2016.


Lap Records

Pilot Time Vehicle Type Vehicle Date Set
Miles Jackson 1:32.962 Sports Racer JFC Racing Stohr CSR July 28,2013[2]
Adam Robarts 1:38.807 1000cc Motorcycle Yamaha R1 May 28, 2016[3]
Andy DiBrino 1:40.000 600cc Motorcycle Yamaha YZF-R6 July 15, 2012[4]
Michael McAleenan 1:41.124 Sports Car Lowe Group Racing BMW E46 M3-GTR Sept 18, 2016[5]
Eric Johnson 1:42:932 Kart KTM June 22, 2013[2]

References

  1. "Backers hope two local motorsports parks aren't too many". Kitsap Sun. 2011-07-16. Retrieved 2013-12-24.
  2. 1 2 "Look back and look forward". The Ridge Motorsports Park. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
  3. http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/adam-robarts-claims-pirelli-bounty-for-breaking-his-own-track-record-at-the-ridge-motorsports-park/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. "Dunlop Tires set track records". Dunlop Racing. 2012-08-01. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
  5. (PDF) http://www.icscc.com/2016/results/race13/race_13_results.pdf. Missing or empty |title= (help)


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