“The House of Drift” will be open for business at least until 2023.
Update: Official announcement posted.
It looks like the developers who decided Irwindale Speedway was more valuable as a shopping mall and premium outlets than for racing put those thoughts on the back burner. According to McLeod Tuner Series who was in attendance at Thursday Night Thunder at Irwindale Speedway earlier today (Dec. 28, 2017), it was announced over the PA system that “Irwindale Speedway is staying open.” Allegedly, according to Maximum Driftcast, Irwindale is staying open for five more years to be exact.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdRYog2gf-B/?taken-by=mcleodtunerseries
Talking About Cars is LIVE with breaking news & Racing at Irwindale Drag Strip! https://t.co/lZTVEVNFRV
— Talking About Cars on Power Tube TV!! (@talknaboutcars) December 29, 2017
For racing fans in California, the announcement that Irwindale was closing isn’t something new to hear as it’s been announced unofficially so many times before. But after reports came out that developers were definitely going to develop it commercially with a confirmation from Irwindale’s VP back in August, it looked like Irwindale was closing for sure. The last event for the Irwindale Event Center is scheduled for January 27 (which they’ve appropriately called “The Finale- Night of destruction and fireworks) with an official eviction date of January 31st.
As for Formula Drift, specifically, which is the loudest racing community advocating to keep it open, Irwindale has been on the schedule for the past 15 years. 2018 will be the first seson that FD would see California only having one location to throw an event at.
For now, I can’t seem to find any official confirmation that Irwindale is staying open so I’m going to take McLeod Tuning’s word for it.
One commenter on the Maximum Driftcast Discussion Board on Facebook was keen to point out that if you click “Directions” under Round 8. in Las Vegas, it takes you to Irwindale. Does Formula Drift know about this extension before anyone else?
And if they aren’t closing, will they still have their scheduled “Night of destruction and fireworks” on the 27th? I hope so.
We’ll find out shortly enough.
