In nearly three years since Palm Beach International Raceway (PBIR) closed the gates for the final time, there has been a lot of news about the facility that was supposed to never see racing again, and be converted to warehouses.

The original sale fell through after a lengthy battle with commissioners, the property sat untouched, and rumors circulated that there could be a chance of survival. Recently, we learned from two sources that the top bids to return racing to the South Florida have fallen short.

After three years sitting idle, will the money come through and nearly 60 years of racing history at PBIR come to a permanent end? Or will a buyer swoop in to save the track after the big name developer fails to come in with the payment?

In a state that has seen several dozen tracks since the 1950s, Palm Beach International Raceway looked to have the staying power, even going through a complete revamp in 2008 to become an all-concrete track.

Fourteen years later, April of 2022, the track saw its last action, and the land was going to be repurposed for warehouses. And although the southeast Florida area has been devoid of an operational quarter-mile track since, there’s been a good bit of news that could return PBIR to its former glory.

The sale never went through due to a variety of factors, and the track has continued to sit vacant and unused. The owner at the time of the closure, IRG Sports and Entertainment, has since fallen into liquidation of their assets, and as of a few weeks ago, the 174-acre property was listed on the open market with a “call for price” listing. Could the track possibly be saved?

As we originally reported at the end of October of this year, the California-based Irwindale Dragstrip would shut its gates permanently. Along with sister half-mile circle track Irwindale Speedway, the tracks would be the latest casualty in a 2024 season that saw multiple tracks shut down or sold for re-development.

The Irwindale tracks first opened in 1999 for the Speedway, and 2001 for the Dragstrip. When the announcement came about the tracks’ future, the remaining events would become the final time for drag racing enthusiasts to make a trip down Irwindale’s eighth-mile saw a sharp increase in attendance. With the final dragstrip event scheduled for December 8th, over 200 tickets were sold for the last dragstrip event.

Although the news of tracks opening and closing in 2024 has been favoring the re-opening / new tracks side of things, news broke today that California will lose another track at the end of this season. Irwindale Drag Strip and sister half-mile circle track Irwindale Speedway will close their gates at the end of 2024.

Communication is an important tool in any relationship, and this can even more important in racing, as the car and driver being in sync can allow them both to perform at their best. How can we use communication to keep the hobbies of cars, racing and drag-and-drive alive?

The news for drag strips has already had some good headlines in 2024, and unfortunately, some bad ones as well. And while we recently reported on plans for a South Dakota drag strip to reopen in 2025, a track in southern Florida could also make its final laps in 2025.

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