I’ve lived on the East Coast my entire life, and during that time, I’ve visited my fair share of race tracks. Lime Rock Park, Watkins Glen International, New Jersey Motorsport Park, New York Safety Track—the list goes on. While Watkins is still my favorite on this side of the country, Pittsburgh International Race Complex comes in a close second.
Pitt Race, as it’s known in racer circles, is a 2.78-mile road course nestled in the rolling hills about 40 miles north of the city with which it’s named. While it doesn’t have as vast a history as some of the tracks mentioned above—it opened in 2002 as BeaveRun Motorsports Complex—the 400-acre facility has quickly become a hub of motorsports activity in the area, hosting numerous club races, enduro events, karting leagues, and autocross programs throughout the year.
The track’s current owners, Jim and Kathy Stout, purchased Pitt Race out of bankruptcy in 2010. Jim is a big Viper guy, having started his closed-course driving career in 2000 with a ’96 Viper GTS. Back when he and his wife bought the track, it was just 1.6 miles long, and used a layout Jim considered boring, according to an interview he did with Speed News back in 2023. So the duo decided to add an entirely new track just south of the original asphalt, which, when combined with the old circuit, made the 2.78-mile road course many know and love today.
I never drove Pitt Race before the second track was added, nor did I ever get to drive either track separately. All of my seat time was on the combined circuit, and damn, it was excellent. Full of quick corners, blind turns, and lots of rhythm, you could really get into a groove with slow or fast cars alike. Stout took inspiration from other tracks to make it happen. From that Speed News interview:
I owned part of [Virginia International Raceway] for a while and VIR always has been and still is one of my favorite tracks to drive. But when we ran the Viper Racing League, we ran everything from Brainerd to Sebring and Daytona to the tracks in the West Coast, Willow Springs and Thunderhill and everything in between. We had a heck of a lot of track experience and I kind of knew what I liked and knew what I didn’t like. I do like elevation changes, I like blind turns. I like the track. It has, and I think you mentioned the term rhythm. The track has some rhythm and flows nice. So, when we got done with the track I was very, very pleased with what we have. Very pleased.
Pitt Race might not be as well-known as Watkins Glen or Lime Rock Park simply due to its location, but it’s hosted some well-known events, like the 24 Hours of Lemons, ChampCar, GridLife, Tire Rack’s One Lap of America, and, of course, the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. This place is important to a lot of people.
Source: Pitt Race on Facebook
And now, it’s seemingly going away for good. Kathy Stout published a statement to Pitt Race’s Facebook page yesterday announcing the sale of the facility:
The Final Season of Pitt Race:
A message from Jim and Kathy Stout –
When the checkered flag is thrown, the green flag is waved for the next race. Pitt Race has been out passion. Westrived to make Pitt Race a premier motorsports destination. With much thought, Jim and I decided to step away from ownership of the facility. We thank our loyal customers, our dedicated vendors and sponsors, the unwavering supporters, and mostly our dedicated and passionate employees.
It’s been a fun journey and ride.
The message is a bit cryptic and doesn’t actually say much, other than that ownership of the facility is changing hands. But Grassroots Motorsports, citing unnamed sources, claims the facility will be sold to a “developer,” though the article doesn’t go into any more detail. Hooked on Driving, an organization that hosts track days, said on its Facebook page it will host Pitt Race’s final public event on November 8-9, reiterating that the course has been sold to a developer.
Users on Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) seem to think the place will be turned into a data center, though I haven’t seen that confirmed anywhere officially. I reached out to the track about this, and a representative told me they didn’t have that info to share at this time, giving me the following response instead:
We are focusing on the remaining events for the season and plan to give our customers the level of service and the experience they have enjoyed over the years.
Wampum, the town where Pitt Race is located, isn’t currently on a list of planned data center locations for the Pittsburgh area (for now). Whatever the land is used for, it sure sounds like it won’t be for racing. And that’s a damn shame.
Rest in peace, Pitt Race. You’ll be sorely missed.
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Yup! What a shame…an awesome track for…a damn data center? (If that’s true) That just makes it worse
I only kind of knew this existed, despite having lived in the region for 30+ years. Finally looked it up on a map, and I’ve biked basically right past it (couple hundred yards, max), but on a side with no signage or access.
Anyway, I wonder if I can get up with ere with my dad and his Boxster before it’s too late. He did a training weekend at Watkins Glen a decade or two ago, so…
What a beautiful facility, and what a shame.
Why can’t they replace the numerous Self-Storage facilities around the country with data centers! Instead of our race tracks.
Because this country is filled with hoarders that need a place to put their shit they’ll never use or look at again
The destruction of my home track (and also one of my favorites in general) was not on my AI Disruption Bingo card. Assuming it does end up becoming a data center.
Huge bummer on multiple levels.
If you need a mental image for the “developer”, just picture Christopher Walkin’s character from “Country Bears”.
I really hurts to realize I will never dip down into the corkscrew again. Its really a shame.
I’d finally gotten consistent and comfortable sending it through there… I don’t think there is a more satisfying couple of turns to get right anywhere. I couldn’t wait for my next trip out there. A shame indeed.
The only positive I could see coming out of this is maybe given the stakes, someone will get a quality scan of the track for future sim racing mods/development. Although I have to say the latest one for Assetto Corsa is pretty decent.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! It’s a great short track and the karts were always fun when I got to enjoy it.
Sad to lose yet another track. But I have to admit – I have never heard of this one.
“Developer” is such a misnomer. The land has already been developed into a great racing destination for people far and wide. These “developer” parasites feast and flip land for profit. They don’t care about what the long term or short term effects are on locals, or the environment. They build some crap and name it Fox Run ____ when in actuality all the foxes ran away. Maybe I’ve read too many Carl Hiassen novels, but I’m in agreement with him that these land cancers on legs should have a special circle of hell in Dante’s Inferno.
Is it only an American oddity that housing developments tend to name themselves after whatever nature they either paved over or drove out by building there?
It probably isn’t just in America, but I wish it was constrained here.
I hope it can at least get super accurately laser scanned before it’s demolished so that it can be preserved in racing games. If there’s still anyone who’ll do that anyway.
The irony is somewhere there is politician talking about how they added jobs by turning the race track to a data center. Maybe 5 to 10 jobs after it’s built. The race track didn’t take all your water or power and constantly emit noise. Amusing if it doesn’t effect you much. Some of the race track family’s like that take the money and buy land further out and build a new track.
At least they announced the closure ahead of time and didn’t pull an Atco
Atco had already been planning and announcing events for an entire season, but they abruptly closed in the middle of the season without any warning. WTF? They were even promoting events to take place the following weekend.
Old crumbling tracks closing isn’t new, but by all accounts PIR was a well run and maintained operation liked by many people, so this is very sad. And for a fucking data center? Ugh.
I doubt it would be a data center. Those are all pretty well planned out for a while. Plus, if Wampum didn’t give the FAANG a fat tax abatement, they won’t build it (like these tech companies are doing the locals a favor by eating up all their power and water).
This will just be turned into bland housing. While there is a need for housing, it’s not like that area is teeming with houses and there is no room left. This is appealing to a developer because it’s flat and cleared of trees. Easier and faster to lay down the necessary utilities and such without having to clear cut anything and level off the plot.
Having lived in the area, I can all but bet that the locals would NOT be interested in a data center. While it’s easy to poke fun at their Appalachian roots, the sense of distrust for outsiders does have some value–especially in the case of a data center.
It would be cool if they left the track in place as the road through the town and then set the speed limit to 150mph. I’d move to that neighborhood as long as the HOA covered damage to the SAFER barriers that made up the front of my house. The kids would just have to stay out of the front yard.
The “… and then set the speed limit to 150mph” along with the sheer absurdity/brilliance of the race track neighborhood concept got a full belly laugh out of me tonight. Well done, sir!
I hope that we eventually find out what entity bought the track and will be closing it. They need to boycotted. No mercy for companies that kill race tracks!
Well, it takes two as they say: the owners have agreed to sell it. Same as all of the farm land that sprouts subdivisions: the families voluntarily sold it to the developers.
That’s a shame – it’s always had a great reputation. That’s hardly a growing area, so I’m guessing any “development” will be industrial of some type. I’d rather see one of our land conservancies pick it up if racing is no longer in the cards.
Not a racer, but I’m going to pour one out for Pitt Springs. I hope it doesn’t become a data center, Amazon warehouse, or something else we already have way too much of.
OK, you’ve triggered a pet peeve, so I apologize in advance. But PIttsburgh is NOT ON THE EAST COAST. It’s nearly 400 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. Las Vegas is about the same distance to the Pacific and no one would describe it as being on the coast of anything.
That said, this is a massive loss. A fantastic track that was just recently repaved and got recent very nice upgrades to its facilities, making it one of the best in the region. It truly boggles the mind that they would do this after spending all that dough. And seemingly without even an attempt to sell to someone that would continue to run it as a motorsports facility. My first wheel-to-wheel race was there with Chumpcar (as it was called then), and I’ve been for several other track days and a couple Lemons races. There’s a special place in my heart for that place.
I live near Harrisburg, PA, which is about 4 hours east of the track. Harrisburg area to Ocean City, NJ, is another 3 or so hours. Not East Coast. I’ve lived here 70 years and can’t recall anyone ever referring to the area as East Coast. I approve of your pet peeve.
I mean, I live 3+ hours to the ocean, and I consider myself living on the East Coast. East Coast is a very general term to specify in a very very vague sense what part of the country you live in.
I don’t think you need to live walking distance to the beach to be considered on the East Coast.
I think if the state in which you live has a coastline, any place in the state counts. Pennsylvania doesn’t have any coastline, so I would say the distance is a good benchmark.
Philadelphia is very much an East Coast major port city. That you have to sail up the Delaware river a ways doesn’t matter (and it’s a tidal river at that). PA is very much part of the the East Coast region. These regions aren’t entirely logical – like Ohio being considered part of the “midwest”.
Though having been all over that state, I rather like the description of the state as “Philly, Pittsburgh, with Alabama in-between”.
Philly is for sure an East Coast city. Its culture, architecture, weather, etc are all coastal. As you pointe out, Pittsburgh is a different thing entirely. More Ohio valley than anything else given its economic, cultural and natural connections.
But PA isn’t technically on the coast, close, but not quite, which would seem to disallow people from the non-coastal areas from calling themselves coastal.
All pedantic semantics for sure.
Coast of the Delaware River works for me. <shrug>
Besides, “East Coast” is as much a state of mind as a geographic location.
If we’re going by state of mind, then I’d reckon all of the US is on the Depression Coast these days.
Only the better half. The lesser half seems to be reveling in it.
Aka ‘Pennsatucky’ as a co-worker from ‘Filthadephia’ calls it.
LOL – pretty spot on. And borders Ohiotucky. Both those states are kinda weird.
I actually call LV “west coast”…. it’s quite a long ways from Atlanta, which isn’t near the coast per se but has been called “east coast” by west coasters plenty of time in my experience.
If you aren’t East Coast, what are you? Midwest? New England? There’s only a limited number of choices and East Coast fits better than any others.
I disagree. Because it’s not on the east coast. Midwest, Appalachia, Great Lakes… Pennsylvania is a coastal state, but that doesn’t make every city “on the coast”. Philly? On the coast. Pitt? Not on the coast.
I dunno man, it’s pretty close to the coast when you look at it from the middle of the country. Just like everything in California is west coast, doesn’t matter if it’s like Death Valley or Lake Tahoe, it’s west coast. Everything in Pennsylvania is East Coast. My dad will argue for Ohio being East Coast, but I think he’s wrong and Ohio is midwest.
I live in Ohio and agree with you on that point. There is nothing coastal about Ohio. Ask your dad what Ohio is on the coast of. If he says Lake Erie, be sure to explain that’s to the north, not east.
there’s always “great lakes”
Ha, that was my first reaction too! I consider anything beyond Harrisburg as the midwest but that’s my problem.
My two cents if you’re not within three hours of the coastline on the Atlantic, but within five hours, I would say you’re in the middle east
Hahaha, I think of the Mid-East as being the middle part of the East Coast (VA, MD, DE, NJ), and the Middle East as being halfway around the world from there. I hear a Mr Trump, a self-styled ‘developer’ type of fellow, is going to ‘develop’ a Middle East resort in someplace called ‘the Gaza Strip’. He says it will be fine.
The Middle East is half a world away from there. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Yemen…
My first track day was at Pitt Race, on the newly-opened combined circuit. The track is excellent. This makes me quite sad.
As a Pennsylvania resident it hurts to see the track go there are 5 tracks within a 40 miles circuit. Pennsylvania has a lot of damn race tracks. In fact if you are going to a race track within 50 miles you will probably pass two race tracks on the way there.
Curious what tracks you are referring to? I guess circle track and dirt tracks like Penn Motor Speedway? For people in SW PA, with Pitt Race gone the next closest spot is Nelson’s Ledges on the way to Cleveland.
My new home track will be Mid Ohio. I love Summit Point but it is too far for me to go to more than every other year.
Race tracks are like golf courses, they need constant maintenance and upkeep and that means people and dollars. Given the location and weather, not sure if this one would lend itself to a Thermal Club / Chicago Autobahn type arrangement.
My same thought, the location makes it unusable for what, four or five months out of the year? The location may even get snow. Conversely, I compare it to something like Willow Springs, usable and bookable for the whole year, with summer being tortuous on cars (and people), with triple digit temperatures.
May even get snow? Oh, it gets snow…
That sounds like it could’ve been a great location for a winter driving school ala Below Zero. But alas, another one bites the dust.
Is there any economic case for running a winter driving school in the US? Most everyone I know thinks they’re an expert already…..
Every time a track closes, it feels like a gut punch to us (car enthusiasts). What a shame.
Why don’t owners add drive your car on the track $50. Have a few beaters $20 for 15 minutes. Buy a few salvage vehicles and sponsor buying track time on cars with a set top speed. Tracks are losing money because they don’t think past weekend races.
S
Pitt Race hosted lots of SCCA Track Nights.
I don’t entirely understand the full economics of it, but purpose built recreational facilities seem to have a perpetually tough time of it. Ice rinks are booked through the night with practices and league games, yet close. Golf courses, and even country clubs, with high fees and full tee times are closing somewhat rapidly. Popularity alone isn’t enough… and I wish I understood why.
I know someone that operated what appeared to be a VERY busy and fully booked Ice Rink. Like open and booked 20hrs a day 7 days a week busy. Last year, he closed it down. Culprit?? Insurance costs. The year over year increases became untenable. Insurance will eventually kill all that activities that are fun but are also prone to injury.