Dominion Raceway Tour

The Dominion Raceway & Entertainment complex combines a 4/10 mile banked oval, a 1/8 mile drag strip, a festival concert venue, and a 2 mile road course in a single facility just off I-95 in Thornburg, VA. The oval recently opened, and the rest is still under construction. To see the photo gallery covering this tour and the raceway complex, click here.

Randy Bell led our April 16 driving tour in his Boxster Spyder. Randy is member number one of the Dominion Raceway driving club, which is conveniently located close to his home. When we arrived at Dominion Raceway, there was a long line of racers waiting to sign up for the oval-track race scheduled for that evening. Some of us drove around the line and parked along the pit-out area of the road course, while others parked beside the entrance road and walked to the main building.

The director of the driving club, Jim Lorimer, took us to the roof for a bird’s eye view so we could easily see the oval and most of the road course. The 2700-foot front straight passes beside the main building and ends in a left turn named after the nearby Po river. As we watched, the base layer of the front straight was being patched to repair damage caused by the wet winter weather. The road course is 36 feet wide everywhere, has 12 turns, and has 70 feet of elevation change. It is driven counterclockwise and passes under the bridge in the photo above.

We ate lunch in the main building, and co-owner Steve Britt explained the planned operation of Dominion Raceway. Free passes to the evening’s oval race were offered to those who could stay, but most of us had to head home during the afternoon.

The PCA First Settlers Region (FSR) planned a DE for the weekend of April 30 and May 1, but that DE had to be canceled because the road course was not ready in time. Their next DE at Dominion Raceway is scheduled for July 9 and 10.