Red Stripe Raceway at Runaway Bay Park. The name alone sounds like it was a good time. It was a good time! A good time had by all, drivers and fans alike. The first major road course built by longtime driver Mike Fitzlaff was a fitting track for drivers that featured great car control like his career is known for. It had twists and turns and short fast streets coming out of sweeping wide corners. This had the effect of the track being faster than what it originally would look like. A definite challenge for drivers to win the fabulous ceramic Ferrari trophy.
The wide radius turns made the hairpins turns that you could take at higher speeds than most. This led to a lot of brave drivers breaking deep into the turn then hitting the gas, while others coasted slower into the turns and hitting the gas early coming out of the turn. Depending on the drivers style that made passing easier on one hand but more of a challenge on the other because it depended on which style the driver was using, and sometimes an elite late breaker would need to change and break early and become an accelerating early driver or vice versa in order to complete a pass.
Scenery was added in that could sometimes be quite treacherous. The track featured lots of large rocks and a couple of metal barricades that more than once a car that got thrown into them came out in more than one piece. Tall trees came next. While nothing hid the corners like the buildings at Rapids International Raceway, the scenery was just eye catching enough that it could sneak up on you and suddenly you lose your breaking point and off into the rocks you went. Fans loved looking in the rocks for car parts and other bits of interesting souvenirs. There was plenty of room for team transports and that could also block parts of the track.
The original version looked like more of a wider version of Bayside international with a very similar track layout, just with a wider infield section.
The track had very short and fast Esses section. It had the effect of throwing the drivers off balance. Drivers had to decide if they should try and go fast through this little section or slow down and take it easier and accelerate fast coming out. Basically it was dependent on whether the driver was a late breaker or an early accelerator from the turns. Either way it had the desired affect of slowing the drivers down just enough that it kept the racing close.
The beauty of the track was that it was a flowy circuit that was quick but not one that relied on strictly fast cars to win. A driver could have a medium or even a heavy downforce set up on the car and still have a chance to win because cars with lighter downforce often found that they would be too fast for the track. Red Stripe Raceway at Runaway Bay hosted many different drivers as winners in ISF, Indyslotcar, and ARA racing. While it’s unofficial, the easy bet is that this track had the most variety of winners on it during its time. That’s quite a nice legacy to have. Especially since this track was built on legacies. Especially that of Alan Kulwicki, whom Mike knew personally.
It was a pleasure to be in the pits at this track...
Steve "The Wrench" Ratchett
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