A three-turn oval built in 1995 beside the Magic Kingdom parking lot, which hosted Indy Racing League cars until 2000 and closed in 2015.
Walt Disney World Speedway was a one-mile oval beside the Magic Kingdom, built in 1995 for the Indy 200. Its Indy Racing League races ended after 2000, driving programmes took over, and the track closed in 2015.
Walt Disney World Speedway was a three-turn oval in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, on the resort's grounds. Built in 1995 for the Indy Racing League's Indy 200, it later became better known for driving experiences than for major series racing, and it closed for good on 9 August 2015.
AutoWeek magazine and the Orlando Sentinel nicknamed it The Mickyard, a blend of Mickey Mouse and the Brickyard at Indianapolis. This article covers how the track was sited and built, how race-day parking shaped its life, what happened on track and why the speedway was demolished.
Why was a speedway built at Walt Disney World?
The speedway went up in 1995, put together by IMS Events, Inc., part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, mainly to host the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World. The Indy Racing League race was the reason for the project, and the track was designed around it.
Greg Ruse of Buena Vista Construction chose the location in September 1994. It was a triangular plot next to the Magic Kingdom parking lot, close to Disney's Polynesian Resort, and the project was first announced on 23 January 1995.
The layout was meant to fit inside the existing road network, so only minimal rerouting was needed. That mattered on a site squeezed between theme park infrastructure and the resort, where there was little room to spare.
A three-turn oval beside the Magic Kingdom that ran Indy cars, then driving experiences, before a 2015 closure.
Who designed the track and how was it built?
Kevin Forbes, the chief engineer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, designed the three-turn tri-oval. Construction used 5,200 tons of asphalt and 1,600 m of concrete outside walls, and the job was completed on schedule despite a very wet summer.
Groundbreaking took place on 27 June 1995. Mari Hulman George, chairman of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway board, took part in the ceremony and gave the track one of the first bricks from the Brickyard's paving.
The one-mile track required roughly 16 km of restraint cabling and 2 acres of fencing, 700 m of concrete pit walls and the outside walls, plus that large asphalt surface. Weather was the main obstacle. June and July 1995 were the wettest on record in Orlando, with 75 inches of rain, and Hurricane Erin passed through during the work.
Final paving was completed on 18 October 1995, and the track was dedicated on 28 November 1995. Five Indy Racing League cars, with drivers including Arie Luyendyk and Lyn St. James, flew over the crowd in a V formation as fireworks went off. Indy Racing League testing started on 27 November.
Why did the speedway have no permanent grandstands or garages?
The track was built on a very limited budget, so only the surface, retaining wall and catch fence were permanent. Seating, restrooms and support buildings were erected temporarily, and teams worked out of their transporters because there were no garages.
The approach had worked well for temporary street circuits such as Long Beach, but it had never been tried on an oval. The savings were significant at first, and track officials could adjust the seating each year to match ticket demand.
The arrangement had a price. Temporary bleachers went up each November for the January race, and the grandstand footprint covered part of the Magic Kingdom lot. That lot was unusable for nearly three months, including the busy holiday season at the theme park.
The infield had a Disney touch as well. Three linked ponds were shaped like Mickey Mouse, and the pond known as Lake Mickey was added a year after opening because of drainage concerns.
What were the first years of racing like?
The first race was a Formula Ford 2000 support event on 26 January 1996, and the Indy 200 followed the next day. In its early years the track also served as a year-round test venue, but three serious crashes between 1997 and 2000 shaped its reputation.
The unofficial all-time mark belongs to Buddy Lazier: 19.450 seconds at an average of 185.089 mph, set on 13 January 1996. The warm Orlando winter made the track attractive to teams for preseason testing.
The early years also brought danger. Eliseo Salazar crashed in turn one during testing on 11 January 1997, fracturing his lower back and missing two races. Two weeks later Davy Jones broke his neck in a practice crash in turn three on 23 January 1997.
On 6 January 2000 Sam Schmidt was paralysed in a crash during preseason testing. The track had been built before SAFER barriers were introduced, and many people believe the barriers might have reduced harm in all three incidents.
How did race-day parking shape the event?
Race-day traffic became a major problem within a few years. Disney first parked spectators in the Magic Kingdom lot in 1996 and 1997, then from 1998 sent them to Epcot for shuttle buses. That eased complaints from theme park guests, but it raised costs and travel times for race fans.
At first the site looked like an advantage, because it sat beside the Magic Kingdom lot. After a couple of years, though, race-day traffic control was overwhelming, since fans arrived in the same window as regular theme park guests, at one spot.
In 1996 and 1997, race spectators were parked in the Magic Kingdom lot while theme park guests were diverted to the Epcot lot. Those guests then made a roundabout trip by monorail or bus from Epcot, changed at the transport hub onto the Magic Kingdom monorail loop, and drew many complaints.
The 1997 IRL race was cut short by a sudden rainstorm. Fans rushed for their cars, and gridlock followed on World Drive and the roads around it for several hours.
From 1998, race fans parked at Epcot and rode shuttle buses to the speedway, while theme park guests parked as usual at the Magic Kingdom. Fans had to arrive earlier, and Disney's own bus fleet was too small for the job, so outside bus companies were hired. Race operations became far more expensive as a result.
Why did the Indy Racing League leave?
The IRL race ended after the 2000 season because Walt Disney World and the series could not agree on a 2001 date. The January slot was too early for most teams, and a possible clash with Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa worried Disney, so the race was removed from the schedule permanently.
Teams were not ready for a January race, and the calendar typically left a six-week gap before the second event of the season. Talks looked at moving the race to Labor Day weekend and eventually to a new facility near U.S. 192, but neither happened.
The Truck Series had already decided not to renew its deal with the speedway after 1998, for similar reasons. Later the IRL added races at Homestead in south Florida in 2001 and St. Petersburg near Tampa in 2005, which helped fill the gap in the state.
How did driving experiences keep the track busy?
From 1997 the Richard Petty Driving Experience let members of the public drive real stock cars, and it became the track's main year-round activity. The Indy Racing Experience joined it in 2008, and an Exotic Driving Experience for high-end supercars began in 2012.
The Petty program began in the 1997 off-season. It was the only track used by that program that operated roughly 365 days a year, weather permitting. A single-lane car tunnel was built for 1997 to help with access, and a visitor center and gift shop followed in the summer of 1999.
Before that the operation had worked out of trailers and tents, with few utilities. A new visitor center and a modest garage gave the program a permanent base, and the track's year-round use grew from that point.
On 13 November 2008 the Indy Racing Experience was announced as a second tenant. Its two-seater IndyCars gave fans rides with professional drivers, and Indy cars were also available for fans to drive themselves.
On 16 January 2012 the Exotic Driving Experience opened for high-end supercars. Its Exotics Course was a one-mile layout run clockwise that mixed part of the oval with a street-type section.
What other races and events took place there?
The track hosted NASCAR Truck Series races, USAC Silver Crown and Formula Ford events, an Infiniti Pro Series test and an alternative energy rally. Several of those events were short-lived, and the Truck Series race ended after 1998.
The Chevy Trucks Challenge ran from 1997 to 1998 as the season-opening event of the Truck Series. The gap of 10 weeks to the second race led to its end, and a 1998 running was extended by a green-white-checker finish.
The Silver Bullet 50 and the Formula Ford Walt Disney World Challenge were both 50-lap, 50-mile races. Formula Ford winners included Sam Schmidt in 1996, Urubatan Helou Jr. in 1997 and David Besnard in 1998. The Silver Bullet 50 went to Brian Tyler in 1998, Mike Bliss in 1999 and Brian Tyler again in 2000.
The oval was also part of the Walt Disney World Marathon course in some years. In February 1999 the seventh annual SunDay Challenge Alternative Energy Vehicle Rally used the track, and in April 2002 the Infiniti Pro Series held its first test there, with Robby McGehee driving over 100 miles.
What were the speedway's key figures and records?
| Measure | Detail |
|---|---|
| Built | 1995, by IMS Events, part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation |
| Dedicated | 28 November 1995 |
| First car race | Formula Ford 2000 support race, 26 January 1996 |
| Layout | Three-turn tri-oval, one mile (1.6 km) |
| Designer | Kevin Forbes, chief engineer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway |
| Unofficial all-time record | Buddy Lazier, 19.450 seconds, set 13 January 1996 |
| Permanent buildings | Track surface, retaining wall and catch fence only |
| Fatal accident | 12 April 2015, driving instructor Gary Terry, 36, Exotic Driving Experience |
| Closed | 9 August 2015, demolition from late August |
Why did Walt Disney World Speedway close?
The closure was announced on 27 March 2015 and took effect on 9 August 2015. Demolition followed to make way for transport improvements, mainly a larger and reconfigured Magic Kingdom parking lot and entrance.
The track had one fatal accident on record between 1995 and 2015. On 12 April 2015 Gary Terry, a 36-year-old driving instructor, died in a crash during an Exotic Driving Experience run. He had been in the passenger seat of a Lamborghini supercar when the car left the road and struck a metal guardrail.
The Florida Highway Patrol investigated. It said that running the cars the reverse way round, against the layout's intended direction, may have been a contributing factor. It described the crash as an accident and filed no charges, because the track was on private property.
Demolition began in late August 2015, and the site became a large lake alongside the expanded parking. Teams had used the track for testing after the major series left, because its warm winters made it a useful place to run cars in the off-season.
What is the speedway's legacy?
Its legacy rests on the IRL's Florida years, the driving programmes that filled most of its calendar and the temporary-facility design that set it apart from other ovals. The Mickey-shaped ponds and the race-day parking story are the features people remember most.
