I’d kill to live next to a race track. Waking up to the blaring roars of V8s in the morning sounds like my idea of the perfect alarm clock. While most people reading this probably feel similarly, there are far more people who don’t. I can understand why. Hearing loud noises when you’re just trying to relax in your backyard probably isn’t the most enjoyable thing.
With hundreds of oval tracks, drag strips, and road courses throughout the United States, people who live close by are bound to complain. And they certainly do. The most recent notable squabble between a race track and its nearby residents lies with the historic Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca. The Northern Californian track, which has been around since 1957 and runs most of the year with a 90-decibel sound limit, was sued by a group of nearby residents in 2022 for being a “public nuisance” that “has caused and will continue to cause irreparable injury not subject to money damages.” The case was settled out of court last year, according to HistoricMotorRacingNews.com.
Then there was the drama a few years back at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Since 1959, the track has been banned from running races on Sundays via an injunction spurred by annoyed homeowners within earshot of the track. But in 2015, Lime Rock attempted to amend that injunction by adding two Sunday dates to host professional-level events. In 2020, the courts ruled against Lime Rock, and Sunday events remained off the table.
Source: Brian Silvestro
And don’t forget that whole Freedom Factory ordeal. Lawrence Garrett Mitchell, known online as Cleetus McFarland, famously purchased an unused oval track in Florida back in 2020 to use for his YouTube antics. In 2022, he caught wind of developers pushing to rezone an area next to the track for housing construction. While the nearby houses themselves wouldn’t immediately spell the end for the Freedom Factory, Mitchell rightly worried the residents who moved in would surely voice their concerns about the noise.
Mitchell attempted to stop the rezoning from happening, gathering fans to show up at a town vote. Despite his pleas, commissioners voted 5-2 to rezone the land for housing. Mitchell’s last update on the matter was published in 2024, where he showed housing development beginning on the land:
My point is, race tracks have it tough when it comes to dealing with neighbors. I can’t help but feel bad for these facilities since, most of the time, it was the tracks that got there first. But as Road & Track points out in its coverage of the Laguna situation, nuisance case law usually wins out.
North Carolina’s Solution
North Carolina just passed a law that makes life a lot easier for people who run race tracks. Buried in Article 10 of House Bill 926 is a section titled “Protect The Right To Race.” In what seems like very clear terms, it prevents nearby property owners from bringing cases against racing facilities over “nuisances” (a.k.a. loud noises). From the bill:
A racing facility shall not be subject to any action brought by a surrounding property owner under any nuisance or taking cause of action if the developer of the racing facility obtained all permits required for construction of the racing facility and established a vested right in the development of the property or contiguous group of properties where the racing facility is located before the surrounding property owner either purchased the real property or constructed any building in the area of the racing facility.
In other words, if the race track was there first, you can’t complain about the noise, since you moved in after it was there. Seems like a common-sense approach to me.
Source: DepositPhotos.com
The law will only defend race tracks against properties located within a three-mile radius of the track’s facilities. So if your top-fuel dragsters are annoying homeowners five miles away, they still have a right to legally voice their concerns.
North Carolina is a fitting state for such a law. You could argue it’s the racing capital of the country, personnel-wise. From The Drive:
It makes sense that North Carolina would be pro-racing. NASCAR has a huge presence there, both with major corporate offices and R&D shops. The state is home to plenty of tracks, too. In addition to big-league motorsports venues like Charlotte Motor Speedway, North Carolina has about 40 active tracks that host public events (per a 2021 state budget document) and 28 short track venues that run racing “on a near weekly basis,” according to the North Carolina Motorsports Association.
The National Speedway Directory shows how the state’s tracks are geographically distributed—kind of all over the place. SEMA says North Carolina’s economic output in relation to motorsports is $3.82 billion annually, creating “nearly 20,000 jobs, paying over $1.35 billion in wages, and contributing more than $477 million in taxes.”
North Carolina isn’t the first state to pass a law like this. Iowa passed a very similar law back in May, with much of the same stipulations.
A racing facility or racetrack shall not be subject to any action brought by a surrounding property owner under nuisance, taking, or other theory if the racing facility or racetrack was built before the surrounding real property owner either purchased the real property or built in the area of the racing facility or racetrack.
The only difference here is, the Iowa law doesn’t define a distance limit, which means even more legal leeway for race tracks.
Maybe if our government can get the government funded, it could throw a line like Iowa’s into the bill. No one would notice, right?
Top photo: DepositPhotos.com
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Gingerman Raceway in MI observes a 1 hour quiet time 12-1 on Sundays at the request of a nearby church which was there before the track. I have no issue with such measures.
I have a friend who rented a home in Los Angeles that back up to a street that was nicknamed “Candy Cane Lane” because they went nuts with lights for the holidays. He had to sign a document that acknowledged that before he could sign the lease.
20+ years ago, in central Virginia, they built a development of homes close to King’s Dominion amusement park… the new residents complained about the sound. Did they not notice the giant park and the roller coasters peaking up above the treelike when they signed their mortgages?
I built my house 5.3mi from an oval dirt track with a ton of forest and elevation changes between us and the rumble is quite something on summer Saturday nights. When the V8s run you can occasionally hear the crackling over the rumble if the atmosphere is right. I can’t imagine how bad it would be living near that track.
But the fact is I wouldn’t have any cause to complain if I had built closer because they were there first. If I didn’t like it then I should have opted out of building there. Proximity to the noise is every bit as much a characteristic of the property that should be evaluated pre-purchase, just like road access and drainage. Caveat emptor.
They need laws like this for airports, too.
I went to high school just over one of those rolling hills from Laguna Seca that R&T described. At that time, development in that area was minimal. The noise level from race days was audible, but not annoying, at least not to me. However, some very pricy development started just as I was graduating, and those buyers likely have cash… hopefully they can find a workable solution.
This is a good, common sense ordinance. All the Karens that want to exert their pearl clutching power can pound sand and move elsewhere.
No honest North Carolinian would deny that our legislature is often (ok very often) dysfunctional. There are times however that they get something right. This is one of those times.
Come to think of it, NC laws are pretty friendly to auto enthusiasts overall. Our inspection laws for classic vehicles are very loose, our “Year of Manufacture” license plate statute is frankly awesome, and the laws here surrounding kei trucks are also much friendlier to them than some other states I could mention.
Another relatively recent auto-related legal measure that was decisive, topical and popular was the outright banning of the “Carolina Squat.”
On top of all that, we get to share a state with Torch AND SWG!
Truly heaven on Earth
Weathertech owner Dave MacNeal bought/sponsors a race track – how cool is that? I’m old enough to have bought things at their Downers Grove headquarters, and later at the factory outlet in Bolingbrook. He used to run a lot of commercials on the radio.
The Girl Scout camp my daughters have gone to is 2 miles from Road America – definitely not where I would want to live, and of course tents don’t block the sound out very well. But agree that unless you’ve been living in the area since before the track opened up, you don’t get to complain about it being there now.
Go Team NAPA!
I don’t know how deliberately this photo was chosen, I just want the editors here to know I noticed and it warms my heart.
Ron Capps, by the way, is someone I’ve met on numerous occasions. It’s a long story but he invited us out to Bakersfield last year to hang out and watch him run a fuel altered at the March Meet. He’s a seriously cool dude, and the best representative a sponsor could ask for.
This happens a lot with gun clubs/shooting ranges. It’s way out in the country so it doesn’t bother anyone, and then all these people build around a freaking gun range, and complain about the sound of gunfire. Like, what the hell did you think was going to happen? There need to be more protections against idiots with no critical thinking skills. Just a simple thing like this. “If it was there first, then no, you have no case.”
You might want to check your last paragraph. The federal government open or closed has no responsibility in local zoning laws or noise ordinances.
Let’s be honest these laws are only good for as long as no developers comes in offering millions in taxes and bribes. At least racetracks are better than airports but they are vital and operate every day and most of the night.
Yeah, “raceway was there first” is reasonable, I think. New development is a totally different matter, but for moving near a racetrack…it’s like complaining about the fire station two doors down from the house. You had ample opportunity to know it was there.
Freedom Factory and BMP actually won for now anyway. Anyone buying one of the houses in the new development has to sign paperwork saying the track was there first and they can not complain about the noise.
If people had any sense either in governance or in their private lives zoning R1 residential right next to light industrial wouldn’t even be allowed. Most sports stadiums are built in areas zoned light industrial and are surrounded by belts of light industrial or commercial to buffer them against the encroachment of residential. This is because sports stadiums require a lot of supporting infrastructure that is hostile to residential use, like parking lots and advertising surfaces. Race tracks are even bigger than something like a football stadium, and between the various chemicals, emissions, and noise can be just as hostile to the surroundings as a chemical production facility when in use. You wouldn’t zone houses to be right outside the fence of a DuPont plant, so why the hell would you do that with a race track? Just because it’s used two days out of seven? Come on.
Tell that to the high school down the street. If I’m outside I can hear the,football games. Fortunately my house is well insulated so I don’t hear it indoors. I’m so glad we didn’t even consider the house at the edge of the field.
“Hearing loud noises when you’re just trying to relax in your backyard probably isn’t the most enjoyable thing.“
Any American who doesn’t appreciate the roar of the crowd/engines should be deported.
The system worked today. F**k the NIMBYS!
The right answer is, if you don’t want to hear that in your backyard, then don’t buy a house near a racetrack. Its not like they’re some hidden, top secret, mysterious facilities that nobody knows about
No matter what you are talking about it can be annoying if it is too often or at the wrong time. At least racetracks operators are operating in the daytime. Warehouse operations are 24 hours.
It’s funny because houses in Speedway, IN near IMS don’t come up for sale often and fetch a small fortune when they do. But on race weekends everyone will let you park in their yard, for a price. I remember one year some guy was doing a deal, like $80 and it included beer and he was barbecuing ribs and grilling steaks, with the idea being you’d have dinner after the race and miss the worst of the traffic before going home.
That’s definitely one of the places people are happy to live next to the track.
My wife’s coworker’s mom lives there. She loves it.
I’m not sure if I would…I love cars, but man, I guarantee there would be times when I’d be going nucking futs over it.
I miss going to races there. My dad had tickets to the inaugural Brickyard 400, and while I was too young then, after a few years I started going with him every year. A local paper gave him press passes to go as a photographer and we met many of the drivers, and I had many Brickyard Burgers while wandering through the merchandise trailers.
But a lot of those people will set up canopies with TVs outside so they can watch the races, with the TV muted because they can obviously hear the cars. And there’s the lady who makes Jell-o shots for the Indy 500 every year. They truly do love the track there.
Love that!
This is similar to why Austin isn’t weird or cool anymore.
Back 10-15 years ago, established music venues that had been there for many years started getting complaints from people who moved in to brand new condos that someone thought was a good idea to build right next to the venues.
Live music is what made Austin great (among other things too). So…
You’re moving to a place? Cool… don’t get mad that the thing your new place is near just continues to operate as it was. Similar things happen with college towns where (non student) people move in and go “there are too many students living near me”.
It’s bullshit. People need to use a tiny bit of critical thinking.
That last sentence is true in soooo many areas.
I agree with LTDScott
Exactly, I remember living in Florida when Trump bought Mar Largo. He tried to shut down the Palm Beach airport because noise etc. Didn’t go well
Maybe he has better lawyers now.
Now do something similar for farms and the smells that come from farms. No complaining allowed
Yep… this is happening a lot too. New housing development being built on more farmland, but still very close to active farm/ranch land.
It’s almost as if the new tenants could have done more research…
There was a case I heard about a while ago involving a car dealership that set up shop near a grain elevator. The dealership sued the elevator, trying to get money from them to cover the expenses related to having to wash all the cars on the lot ever other day during harvest season.
The judge threw it out, on the basis that the elevator was there first (by decades!) and the dealership chose to move there instead of picking some place farther away.
Score one for Captain Obvious.
They probably got that land dirt cheap and greed didn’t want to let go.
Yeah, that’s coming up a lot in my state, to the extent that when I was shopping back in 2023, my realtor was even kind of hesitant to show me anything near farms, because she had been getting that so much from customers lately. Fortunately, in my case, that was exactly what I was looking for, because my entire goal was to move to a spot with less people around, ended up with a field across the road in front of me and a field behind me on the other side of my fence.
Ya, my first thought from reading the law is “Why make it specific to race tracks?”. Make it so that you can’t bring nuisance complaints if the property was already there and there isn’t some sort of unreasonable increase to the nuisance.
Good point. Don’t buy a house on a fairway and expect to not get hit by the occasional golf ball. Don’t buy a house across from a school and not expect traffic during drop-off/ pick-up
For fifteen years I lived three miles from a track that they used to shake down old F1 cars on, and also track days and some industry testing. You could hear the F1 cars well enough to tell which part of the lap they were on. Some of the production cars were loud enough for that too.
I was fine with it, I drove round there a few times too, but my neighbours would complain about it.
The track would get noise complaints on days it was shut, just from unrelated loud cars driving nearby.
People eh?
Hearing F1 cars (I’m assuming at least V8s if not in the V10 era) at full chat from your house? I’d think that would be a selling point…
haha it’s kind of like the crazies who were complaining about a new windmill causing them headaches or whatever… before it was even turned on.
People suck
I used to live near Darlington motor speedway. You could hear the cars in the background but not overly loud. I would get free tickets for the races. I hate traffic I would arrive after the start park right at the gate. Get warned to be gone before the race was over. Left at 10 laps to go be at the bar across the street from my rented trailer, yes no sugar coating, it was a airstream permanent parked but I could get to the bar and watch the last 5blaps and best of all no traffic.
Can we expand this to NYC?
Someone from a few houses away complained about the noise of my kids racing RC cars in my driveway.
The cars were electric powered.
I’ve seen something like that done with the city or county have an interest in something. Like a sports stadium. Where it will be part of closing on a house in a new development and continues to further sales at closing. But good they are just blanketing it with a law so if something slips though the cracks they can’t raise a fuss.
Ive never understood people that move close to something then complain. The farmers normally have the best way to deal with these people. I was driving by a field the other day when I smelled raw sewage. At first I thought pig manure but it was definitely sewage. This field is near two new developments and the way they drive out of there they have to be super entitled. So I don’t doubt they have been giving him and his workers problems. There is a newer sewage plant not too far from that field and they lifted the ban on using it a few months ago. Hope those people didn’t want to open their windows.
I grew up outside of Frankfort, KY, a few miles away from the county landfill. There was a newer development across the street and down a ways that was fighting to close the landfill…which was there before the development began.
It’s stinky as hell there, and it has to suck, but I’m not stupid enough to buy a house near a landfill and then wonder why it smells.
My sister bought a house in newer golf corse development that was still building retail , apartments and some townhouse I think some custom stuff too but most of the standard single family by big developers was done. There is a what she thought was big hill on the back side of the development but is actually a dump. She laughed about it most of her neighbors had laughed about it or didn’t care all that much. Then the Californias started buying houses in there and turned it into something. They wanted it all hauled off somewhere. Kept yelling about environmental impact and things they didn’t understand. The dump people responded by building a dirt bike track over their filled area.
They should have some sort of noise notice/covenant added to any home being sold within a certain distance of a track, so people are aware up front it’s an issue.
You bought a house near a race track and then complain about noise. Some people are just beyond help.
I absolutely do not agree with these people. But I grew up in a town that had an oval dirt track in the outskirts. Over 2 miles away you could hear it. Personally, I liked it. It was a sound of summer. And the track opened in 1953, so it’s not like I had a justifiable leg to stand on if I didn’t. And closing the windows made it so you couldn’t hear it, at least where my house was in relation to the track.
The idea you need to buy right near a race track to be bothered by it, isn’t exactly true. If you can easily hear it within 2 miles, that means there’s nearly 13 square miles affected. I think most people would agree there’s a lot of that 13 square miles that isn’t “right next to the track”.
Again, I’m totally on the tracks’ side here. But I a small part of me thinks, “If I made noise that affected 2 mile radius around me, that wouldn’t be right.”
Agreed but people complain about trains. I’ve lived right by tracks and never woke up after 30 days to get used to it. Even now my last two domiciles I live close enough to see and hear the same coal train travel by and sleep like a baby. But really who doesn’t love Coltraine?
I live in a town with a large stadium and people complain about all the people and noise and traffic and mess. Then when it was not used while under construction, they complained about the drop in tax income and the loss of revenue in the area. People always think they are the exception to the rules when it affects them.
They always sell out of racing season. However if you aren’t informed you should be able to sue the realtor
We autocross at a site with circle track and drag strip that’s been around since the 1950s. They still get complaints occasionally from people that bought houses nearby within the last few years.
“They still get complaints occasionally from
peopleIDIOTS that bought houses nearby within the last few years WITHOUT HAVING DONE ANY HOMEWORK OR RESEARCH ON THE AREA”There… fixed it for accuracy.
Several years ago my dad bought a house not far from Luke air force base. At closing they had to sign a document that the air force base was there first and they’re not allowed to complain about the noise. Shortly after buying the house he moved my grandfather in with him. Much to my father’s delight Grandpop immediately wrote a letter of complaint to the air force base. He didn’t complain about the noise though, instead he complained about the heat. You see, back in his days serving in the US Army Air Corps all of the planes had fans on the front which provided a nice cooling breeze but these days the air force is up there tooling around in flying blow torches and that’s why Phoenix was so damn hot!!! I miss Grandpop.
I live under the flight path of the Luke F35’s. SOUND OF FREEDOM.
The sad thing is that they built a racetrack (Arizona Motorsports Park) next to Luke. They had so many restrictions due to complaining neighbors (likely much less quiet than the Jets next door) that they ended up giving up and selling the property and track to be turned into warehouses. Huge loss IMO.
People are OK with the F35’s and not a race track? My biggest takeaway from the base I live near going from F16s to F35s was just how FREAKING LOUD the 35s are on approach compared to the 16s.
(note: I’m not actually complaining, just making the observation)
Okay a military Air Force base and a race track near residential housing already there? Yeah I am with the homeowner.
The Air Force actually got into some hot water with Phoenix over the F-35. Apparently it’s like 2-3x louder than they said it would be. I think they are limited to the amount of total noise they can emit daily.
Well sometimes it’s asshole pilots ignoring flight restrictions.