|| *Comments on Walt Disney World Speedway:* View the most recent comment <#20> | Post a comment <#post> 1. Cooper posted: 03.29.2010 - 11:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Walt Disney World Speedway is a racing facility located on the grounds of the Walt Disney World resort near Orlando, Florida. It was built in 1995 by IMS Events, Inc., a subsidiary of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation, and was designed primarily as a venue for the Indy 200 at Walt Disney World, an Indy Racing League event. Currently, the circuit's primary use is as a venue for the Richard Petty Driving Experience, and the Indy Racing Experience, programs that allows fans to drive or ride in real race cars. It no longer hosts any professional competition. AutoWeek magazine and the Orlando Sentinel dubbed the track "The Mickyard" (a portmanteau of the Disney icon Mickey Mouse and Indianapolis Motor Speedway's nickname, the "Brickyard"). The track is a 1 Mile Tri-Oval with banking in the corners at 10,8.5,and 7 degrees respectively. The track was surprisingly built on a low budget, and couldn't handle the amount of spectators. Parking was a major problem, that made access to the course very hard. 2 races in the truck series took place in 1998 and 1999. 5 races in the Indycar series took place between 1996-2000. 2. Anonymous posted: 04.06.2010 - 7:14 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This track hosted the very first IRL race ever in January 1996 which Buzz Calkins won. Because of its southern USA location, all of the tracks major racesr were held in January. 3. schraderfan posted: 06.13.2010 - 3:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Let's save Tony's Orlando house 4. RLewis9 posted: 06.19.2010 - 1:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) It's a part of Disney's Wide World of Sports complex in Orlando. I was there a few years ago for Buccaneers training camp and saw the track, it looks like a neat little place, but they no longer hold races there, it's just a Richard Petty Driving Experience venue. Word is Disney didn't want to hold races there anymore because the noise from the cars would bother people visiting the resorts. 5. RaceFanX posted: 03.24.2014 - 9:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @4 Yeah, that's pretty much true. While they put an end to sanctioned races the track isn't going anyway as Disney does still promote it for the Richard Petty Driving Experience. They've always been know as a place where 'fantasies can become real' and play up the "want a chance to drive a real race car" aspect (it's been featured in several "Disney Insider" type TV specials advertising the resort to adults). In addition to the Richard Petty Driving Experience with NASCAR stock cars the "Mickyard" also has the Indy Racing Experience, a similar program where you can ride in or drive an IndyCar. The track also has an infield road course used for its new Exotics Driving Experience, a program that lets people drive real exotic supercars such as the Ferrari 458 Italia and F430 Scuderia, Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera, Audi R8, Nissan GT-R, and Porsche 997 S. While a permanent oval the track is largely built like a street circuit with no permanent grandstands, restrooms, or garages with the facility bringing in temporary ones when races were held (teams worked out of their haulers instead of garages like at smaller circuits or street tracks). The track's drainage pond was built in the shape of the famous three-circle Mickey Mouse logo and is known as "Lake Mickey." 6. Rusty posted: 09.13.2014 - 4:35 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) The reason this track no longer hosts any sort of events is because it was a NIGHTMARE! The track is literally right next to the Magic Kingdom parking lot. For people who aren't aware, the Magic Kingdom is the world's most visited theme park annually. You have TONS of guests pouring in to park to visit the park and others parking for the race, it created a massive overflow and Disney was forced to shake up parking procedures. Their first idea was to make all guests wanting to visit Magic Kingdom instead park in the Epcot parking lot and take a monorail or bus over, which obviously resulted in a lot of angry guests and created an overflow in the Epcot parking lot. So the next year Disney instead reversed it and made all race fans park in Epcot and take transportation over to the track. It still resulted in a overflow for Epcot's parking lot, made people angry and their transportation system struggled to get people around the resort. On top of all that, they annually held the race around the same time as the Super Bowl and the scheduled IndyCar race for 2001 would be the same weekend as the Super Bowl located south a bit in Tampa so Disney and the IRL both decided it was no longer worth it. Disney still uses the track as an attraction of sorts offering the Richard Petty Driving Experience and a IndyCar experience. They also do some marathons inside the facility, but there is no way they ever run a big league race at this track ever again. Not just because it is a total night for Walt Disney World, but the track no longer really meets safety procedures and Disney would never invest the money to get it up to standards. People complain they no longer invest the money in their theme parks to get the quality they used to, so no way would they shell up the dough for a disaster of a weekend. 7. Eric posted: 02.11.2015 - 7:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Disney has announced that the race track will not have anymore racing experiences. Disney has said that it expects to use the land for future transportation improvements, but has not elaborated on what those are. I do know that Disney think Magic Kingdom has a Parking issue since the FantasyLand Expansion they had. 8. Eric posted: 04.03.2015 - 7:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The racetrack has a new closing date. It is in early August now. 9. RaceFanX posted: 04.03.2015 - 8:07 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) It's a same to see the Mickyard die off but it was Disney Magic while it lasted. 10. Eric posted: 04.12.2015 - 7:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tragedy hit the race track today before it closed. A passenger in one of the Richard Petty Experience cars died at the track today. I don't know if the person who died was the guest. The information I read was " The male driver lost control and the right side of the Lamborghini struck a guardrail. A 36 year old passenger in the vehicle was pronounced deceased at the scene. The male passenger is from Davenport, Florida. The driver was transported to Celebration Hospital with minor injuries." 11. Eric posted: 04.12.2015 - 8:47 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) My thoughts are with the passengers family. 12. RaceFanX posted: 04.12.2015 - 9:09 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I'm very sorry to hear this. May the deceased rest in peace and my thoughts are with his family. 13. Eric posted: 04.13.2015 - 6:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The track is back running before it closes in August. The passenger was an instructor at Richard Petty Driving Experience. While the driver is okay, it sounded like the driver celebrated a birthday on the day the crash happened. 14. RaceFanX posted: 10.02.2015 - 10:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This track has now been demolished. The "Mickyard" is no more. 15. RaceFanX posted: 10.18.2016 - 7:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The track is basically gone, some pavement remains and that's about it, but "Lake Mickey" in the infield appears to still be there. 16. Anthony posted: 11.27.2016 - 7:18 am Rate this comment: (2) (3) Horribly designed track - so narrow and nowhere to pass. Also had bad angles, so made crashes violent. Thankfully its gone now. 17. RaceFanX posted: 09.17.2019 - 10:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This track cost just $6 million to built with the process being completed in just four months. The fact that it was a cheap project for the Mouse House, by comparison the Disney MGM/Hollywood Studios ride "Twilight Zone Tower of Terror" built in the same era cost $140 million, also likely played into the decision to remove it since the land was needed to add additional parking for the parks' Transportation and Ticket Center, where guests can catch ferries and monorails bound for the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. The speedway had some success but given that it no longer had pro events and was a lighter investment it was an easy thing to cut when they wanted to explore other avenues. 18. TxRacer posted: 12.04.2019 - 6:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The track would have been interesting to race on but the layout looks bad for racing. It's gone anyway 19. A posted: 02.12.2020 - 8:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) On satellite views the track area is still there with the lake in the middle. There appears to be a small bit of the track concrete on the backstretch remaining, which Disney seems to be using for parking or vehicle storage of some kind. 20. TheDewCrew posted: 03.04.2020 - 7:16 am Rate this comment: (2) (1) How ironic. I first discovered RacingReference while vacationing at Disney World, just miles from this track ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: