The Ridge Motorsports Park

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

The Ridge Motorsports Park
Location1060 West Eells Hill Road Shelton, Washington, near Olympia, Washington, United States of America
Coordinates47°15′20.41″N 123°11′25.01″W
Broke ground26 April 2011
Opened26 May 2012

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 October 2016.

Lap records

PilotTimeVehicle TypeVehicleDate Set
Miles Jackson1:32.962Sports RacerJFC Racing Stohr CSRJuly 28,2013* pre-2014 configuration[2]
Adam Robarts1:37.791000cc MotorcycleBMW 1000RRAugust 17, 2019
Adam Robarts1:39.939600cc MotorcycleKawasaki Ninja ZX6RAugust 21, 2019[3]
Michael McAleenan1:41.124Sports CarLowe Group Racing BMW E46 M3-GTRSept 18, 2016[4]
Eric Johnson1:42:932KartKTMJune 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. "Look back and look forward". The Ridge Motorsports Park. 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-09-26.
  3. "WMRRA: Adam Robarts Wins Four Races, Breaks Records At Ridge Motorsports Park". Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. 2019-08-21. Retrieved 2020-08-04.
  4. "2016 Olympic Grand Prix results" (PDF). International Race Drivers Club. Retrieved 2017-09-22.


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