This weekend marks an important chapter in the history of NOLA Motorsports Park, a track that sits south of the hustle and bustle of downtown New Orleans in the town of Avondale, Louisiana.
Prior to this weekend, most people who knew of this circuit could recall one experience of watching a race at NOLA: The infamous 2015 IndyCar Grand Prix of Louisiana, a rain-soaked, washed-out affair which drew few spectators, was mired in off-track court dramas, and it all led to a three-year deal being cut short after just one year on the IndyCar Series calendar.
From there, this track may as well have been dead in the eyes of the mainstream racing fan from outside the Louisiana bayou.
And yet, here we are seven years later at the same circuit. In April, the 4.4 kilometre circuit was named as a replacement venue for the SRO Motorsports America series when a planned visit to the new Ozarks International Raceway was called off.
It was a surprise when it was announced, but the eleventh hour addition of NOLA Motorsports Park to the SRO America calendar has given this venue a new lease on life, putting it on the biggest stage it’s had in many years.
“Obviously it’s a little unconventional,” said Arto Kazakov, Social Media and Media Marketing Manager of NOLA Motorsports Park. “And we’re very grateful that SRO had the trust and confidence in our team to put together this event in such a short time frame.”
“Quite frankly, I think we were really well prepared for it, because we just finished having the SVRA [NOLA Speedtour] with Formula 4 and the Formula Regional Americas Championship, so a lot of that infrastructure is in place.”
In the years since that weekend in 2015, there’s been all manner of grassroots events that have taken place at NOLA, but nothing at the scale of what GT World Challenge America and its supporting series have brought to the track. Not in a long time, at least.
So the question is – when Ozarks was rendered unfit for GT racing last month, when SRO America needed a replacement venue to fill its May calendar slot – out of all the great road courses across the United States that could have had an extra date on their calendar, why NOLA?
This opportunity is the end result of a lot of hard work and effort to bring the circuit back not just to what it once was in 2015, but much better than it had been before, according to Kazakov.
“We’ve been doing a lot of work to the park in the past year. We have a new General Manager, David Pace, who’s been here for about two years now.” Pace has been the driving force behind NOLA’s push to return to the biggest stages of American motorsport, using his knowledge as a team manager and event promoter.
“And we’ve been doing some major renovations to the track, the Events Center, other facilities, timing and scoring. We’ve been improving our internet, all of that.”
“Our goal is really to bring motorsports back to New Orleans on a major scale – and have it stay for good,” Kazakov says with a smile.
It wasn’t easy, of course. NOLA Motorsports Park has been making gradual upgrades since 2019. But the damage left behind by Hurricane Ida late last summer caused things to kick into high gear in the months since, for better or for worse.
“Hurricane Ida was pretty devastating for New Orleans as a whole. But a lot of that damage, honestly, wasn’t storm related,” said Kazakov. “After Hurricane Ida, Entergy – which is the power company which supplies all of Southeast Louisiana – had every single one of their trucks which was servicing New Orleans parked on our paddock.”
“And with that much weight sitting there for an extended period of time, the paddock did start to sink – and there was a lot of cracks which we’ve been patching.”
It’s by no means the most undulating circuit in the US, but it has its own character with its mixture of low-speed technical corners and sweeping S-curves. The goal has been to take the work of circuit designer Alan Wilson (previously of Barber Motorsports Park and Utah Motorsports Campus fame) and fix crucial areas of opportunity.
“We’ve repaved the whole straightaway. We’ve repaved turn 16. And the big major renovation has been the re-sloping,” something that will be key to improving the key weakness of the circuit from seven years ago: The amount of standing water that could accumulate in the event of heavy rainfall.
“A large part of that re-sloping, was because of the drainage issues. We’re here kind of in the marshlands, there’s a lot of subsidence. So that’s kind of why you have so many potholes in New Orleans – but it’s an issue for us here too.”
“Part of the repaving was really re-sloping. The track has been re-sloped, issues with drainage and all that you know several hundred tons of dirt which we removed from the track will now allow for the water to drain properly. And there’s been channels built in, where the water will drain properly.”
“We’ve created a new viewing area on the north side of the track, which is an elevated grass berm which fans can now stand on – or even drive their golf carts up on.”
And according to Kazakov, the team at NOLA Motorsports Park have much more in the works to bring the people to the circuit. “There’s more in the works, for sure. We plan on bringing back a supercar driving experience where fans and regular people can come out here for a day and pay to drive a supercar on track with a professional driving instructor.”
Along with the supercar driving experience, there are plans for new grandstands, a walking trail around the perimeter of the circuit, an off-road course, and even a paintball and axe throwing venue!
“We really just want this to be a place where people can come have fun, even if they’re not familiar with motorsports,” Kazakov said. “You know, motorsports is a very welcoming community and we want to get people in on it. And we want them to learn, and see just how much fun they can have out here.”
By the admission of SRO Motorsports America President and CEO Greg Gill, the promotion and its series have shifted away from being spectator-driven events in recent years. But thanks to an all-out marketing campaign that’s gone down in just several weeks, this weekend has attracted some dedicated and curious fans to the circuit – some of whom are first-time NOLA Motorsports Park attendees who’ve never experienced anything of this scale this close to their homes.
“Really, our big challenge has just been getting people to know that we’re out here. There’s so many local people that didn’t even know we’re out here. So we really have been doing a huge marketing push – we’ve been giving media ride alongs, we’ve been working with some local groups to get kids out here and try go karting for the first time. We really are trying to change that image and show people that we mean business this time.”
Assuming the event goes down in the books as a success, does NOLA Motorsports Park now have a permanent home on the SRO America calendar? Would it potentially return to IndyCar – or, given that Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America is already here, would make a first-time appearance on the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship schedule?
That’s not yet been decided, but everything short of a Formula One Grand Prix (NOLA is an FIA Grade 2 circuit, after all) is being considered for the future.
“I think we’d love to stay on the SRO calendar. And you know, we’d love to get back to the IndyCar scale eventually. I think that’s our true goal.”
“We really are looking to bring the biggest events we can here.”
And what a comeback it would be if they were to pull it off.
Images © NOLA Motorsports Park / SRO Motorsports Group America
