New Jersey Motorsports Park

New Jersey Motorsports Park

130px Thunderbolt (top) and Lightning (bottom) circuits
Location	8000 Dividing Creek Road, Millville, Cumberland County New Jersey
Time zone	GMT-5
Coordinates
Capacity	Open seating without capacity limitation
Opened	2008
Major events	AMA Superbike Championship (2009-Present) ARCA Racing Series (2008-Present) American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association 2013 SCCA (2008-Present) CCS (2010-Present) 24 Hours of LeMons (2011-Present)
Surface	Asphalt
Length	2.25 mi (3.62 km)
Turns	14
Lap record	1:10.211 (Carl Skerlong, King Taco Pacific Coast Motorsports, 2008, Atlantic Championship[1])
Lightning Raceway
Surface	Asphalt
Length	1.9 mi (3.06 km)
Turns	10

New Jersey Motorsports Park is a road course located in Millville, Cumberland County, New Jersey, United States. It has a somewhat turbulent past, being the subject of repeated noise complaints from neighboring property owners. In 2010 the NJMP declared bankruptcy, and has been struggling since to gain a foothold. It has hosted races since opening in 2008 and currently boasts a schedule including AMA Pro Road Racing, ARCA Racing Series, American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association, and SCCA events.

Current tracks and facilities

Thunderbolt and Lightning Raceways

New Jersey Motorsports Park is located on 500 acres immediately adjacent to the Millville Municipal Airport, a location that was dedicated in 1941 as America’s First Defense Airport, which played a key role in the country’s World War II military efforts.

NJMP is one of only a handful of facilities in the world housing two circuits that can be operated simultaneously. The tracks both feature many elevation changes, along with lengthy front straightaways. One of the best known features of this course is a stretch on Thunderbolt Raceway known as "the Jersey devil."

The Park offers open seating which allows spectators to venture throughout the grounds. Grandstands are available in several locations, in addition to camping areas and on-site hotel and condominium accommodations. The facility includes a full-service bar and restaurant, The Finish Line Pub, located at the center of the property.

F1 Karting at New Jersey Motorsports Park

In addition to the two road courses, NJMP includes a 1.1-mile (1.8 km) karting facility called F1 Karting. Like the park itself, F1 consists of two tracks that can be operated simultaneously. It hosts daily arrive-and-drive programs, and offers custom experiences for groups. The complex also hosts competition events sanctioned by various regional and national series.

Millville Army Air Field

The Millville Army Air Field opened as a gunnery school for fighter pilots for the Republic P-47 “Thunderbolt” in 1941. During its four-year existence, about 1,500 pilots received advanced P-47 Thunderbolt fighter training here.

New Jersey Motorsports Park embraced this rich history by naming its marquee 2.25-mile racetrack “Thunderbolt Raceway.” The 1.9-mile road course – Lightning Raceway – is named after the P-38 Lightning, a WWII fighter aircraft.

The facility also carries the historical WWII theme by naming its track-side condominiums “The Villas at Breighton.” Breighton was the name of an allied airfield in Great Britain, where many of the Millville-trained P-47 pilots served during WWII.

Other ties to the WWII theme include the English Tudor design of the clubhouse, the Officers Club's Q-Hangar design that contains Cumberland County’s largest banquet facility and the Timing Tower that resembles a WWII air traffic control tower. Upon visiting New Jersey Motorsports Park, you will also notice that NJMP safety and security vehicles are based on WWII MP Jeeps.

While building the various structures at New Jersey Motorsports Park, many WWII artifacts were found and collected for display at the Millville Army Air Field Museum, located on the opposite side of the Millville Airport. The Bore Site range, located just outside Thunderbolt Raceway Paddock was used by Thunderbolt pilots during training as a range to calibrate their machine guns.

Today, a P-47 Thunderbolt- No Guts, No Glory aircraft is based out of Millville Airport. It is one of only nine in the world still in working condition.

History of racing at New Jersey Motorsports Park

Events

NBC's Octane Academy held its east coast qualifier at the Park's 1.9-mile Lightning Raceway in January 2013.

Pro racing

Many renowned racing series have visited at New Jersey Motorsports Park. The first was Grand-Am's Rolex Sports Car Series in 2008, with Oswaldo Negri and Mark Patterson capturing the first-ever Thunderbolt trophies. The ARCA Racing Series and AMA Superbike Championship also joined the NJMP schedule, holding annual points-paying races at the northeast facility.

Other notable events include the "Devil in the Dark", a 12-hour endurance race put on by the South Jersey region of the SCCA. Regional and national sportscar and motorcycle clubs also hold hundreds of track-day events at the two circuits each season.

Race history

American Superbike

Year	Date	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance
					Laps	Best Lap
2009	September 5	Josh Hayes	Yamaha Motor Corp.	Yamaha	23	1:21.979
2009	September 6	Josh Hayes	Yamaha Motor Corp.	Yamaha	23	1:21.287
2010	September 4	Josh Hayes	Team Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	21	1:21.210
2010	September 5	Josh Hayes	Team Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	23	1:21.242
2011	September 3	Josh Hayes	Monster Energy Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	23	1:21.264
2011	September 4	Blake Young	Rockstar/Makita/Suzuki	Suzuki	23	1:21.904
2012	September 8	Josh Hayes	Monster Energy Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	23	1:20.737
2012	September 9	Josh Hayes	Monster Energy Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	23	1:20.895
2013	September 14	Josh Herrin	Monster Energy Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	20	1.21.804
2013	September 15	Josh Hayes	Monster Energy Graves Yamaha	Yamaha	23	1:20.716

ARCA Racing Series

Year	Date	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance
					Laps
2008	September 28	Justin Allgaier	Allgaier Motorsports	Chevrolet	48
2009	September 13	Patrick Long	Cunningham Motorsports	Dodge	67
2010	August 15	Casey Roderick	Bill Elliott Racing	Dodge	67
2011	May 22	Andrew Ranger	NDS Motorsports	Dodge	67
2012	July 1	Andrew Ranger	NDS Motorsports	Dodge	67
2013	July 28	Andrew Ranger	NDS Motorsports	Dodge	67
2014	June 1	Andrew Ranger		Dodge	67
2015	June 18	Kyle Weatherman		Dodge	67

Rolex Sportscar Series

Year	Date	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Race Distance
					Laps
2008	August 31	Oswaldo Negri & Mark Patterson	Michael Shank Racing #60	Ford Riley	105
2009	May 3	Niclas Jönsson & Ricardo Zonta	Krohn Racing #76	Ford Lola	87
2010	August 18	Jon Fogarty & Alex Gurney	Bob Stallings Racing #99	Chevrolet Riley	116
2011	July 24	Scott Pruett & Memo Rojas	Chip Ganassi Racing #01	BMW Riley	117
2012	May 13	Max Angelelli & Ricky Taylor	Wayne Taylor Racing #10	Corvette DP	117

External links

• New Jersey Motorsports Park Official Site
• Facility Overview video
• Track History at racing-reference.info
• Trackpedia guide to NJMP
• Track Rental Informational video
• F1 Karting at New Jersey Motorsports Park video
• NJMP Official Photo Gallery (2008-Present)