Old Bridge Township Raceway Park: a quiet loop next to the famous quarter mile

In early 2003 the Raceway Park website announced something that sounded almost perverse in a place built around the roar of dragsters. Next to the famous quarter-mile strip, a separate road course 1.35 miles long was to be built, lit along its whole length, and its future users received a warning: “Be prepared for the sound level to be on the quiet side”. The operator hoped to open in the spring of 2003. In June 2007 riders of the AMA Supermoto championship raced on the new loop, and in 2008 the operator declared it “officially available” and put a driving school and open track days in the calendar. A decade later, drag racing disappeared from the venue where dragsters had raced for half a century, and the modest loop in Old Bridge Township carries on.

Location	230 Pension Road, Old Bridge Township, New Jersey, USA; postal address Englishtown
Type	motorsport complex: road course, a drift arena on the site of the former dragstrip, motocross tracks and a kart track
Road course	1.35 miles (approx. 2.17 km), width of at least 40 feet (approx. 12 m), a 1,400-foot (approx. 427 m) straight 50 feet (approx. 15 m) wide, a 90° right-hand turn, a left-hand turn with 16° of banking, a “mini corkscrew”
Venue opened	4 July 1965 (quarter-mile dragstrip)
AMA Supermoto round on the new loop	3 June 2007
Owner	the Napp family
Major events	NHRA Springnationals (1968), an annual NHRA national event (1971–2017), best known as the Summernationals, an AMA Supermoto round (2007), Formula Drift rounds (2021–2025)
Status	road course active, drag racing ended in January 2018

A farm with an Englishtown address

The track began with family money from the construction business. According to Speed Sport, the Napoliello family of Newark owned the company Napp-Greco, sold their shares in it in 1961 and began looking for a new place to put the capital; in time they became known as the Napps. Vincent Napp Jr. and his brother Richard were then driving their fast cars legally on the starting straight of Old Bridge Speedway, where drag races were held. According to the history posted on the venue's website in 2010, the idea of bringing big-time drag racing to the New York area came from Vincent and Louis Napp together with Vincent's sons, and after a long search they chose a 308-acre (approx. 125 ha) farm in Madison Township. The NHRA, the American drag racing association, describes Vincent and Louis as brothers.

The first pair of cars sped down the quarter mile in July 1965, and in an official statement the family gave the opening day as 4 July. The name caused trouble from the start. The venue did not lie in the town of Englishtown, but it received an address there because the Englishtown post office was closer than the branch in Madison Township. In 1975 residents voted to rename the township Old Bridge Township, and the track adopted the new name in the 1980s; fans kept calling it Englishtown or E-Town anyway.

In 1968 the track hosted the NHRA Springnationals, its first national-level event, and from 1971 it hosted the Summernationals, previously held in York, Pennsylvania. Don Garlits won the Springnationals that year. In all, E-Town hosted 48 NHRA national events. Phil Burgess, an editor of “National Dragster”, recalled that in the 1970s and 1980s the barriers did not stand right next to the track, which gave photographers full side-on shots of the cars but also ended in runs off into the grass; protective walls along the strip were installed in 1990.

The largest crowd at one time, however, was drawn by music. On Saturday 3 September 1977 the Grateful Dead, the Marshall Tucker Band and the New Riders of the Purple Sage played on the grounds of Raceway Park. “Billboard” recorded 107,019 tickets sold at 10 dollars in advance and 12 on the day of the concert, and receipts of 1,091,790 dollars. Promoter John Scher told the weekly that preparing the site and the stage took two weeks and cost about 600,000 dollars, and that the concert grounds were fenced off with hundreds of truck trailers with their wheels removed. Years later “Relix” wrote of more than 125,000 people present. The number of tickets sold was the record for a ticketed concert in the United States until June 2024, when George Strait drew 110,905 people to Kyle Field stadium in Texas.

Five years for one loop

The 2003 announcement described a technical track: roads 40 feet wide, a straight 1,400 feet long and 50 feet wide, a right-angle right-hand turn, a left-hand one with 16° of banking, and a “mini corkscrew”, in which the road drops and turns left. The operator counted “approximately 13 turns”, adding that “Some could be considered 2 turns”, and planned to admit both cars and motorcycles to the loop. The spring of 2003 passed without an opening. The next version of the website said there was not even a tentative date, because many major projects were still to be done, including barriers, debris fences and lights, for which it estimated “Several months minimum”.

The track's website, in a text dated August 2004, reported final approval for building the loop and earth berms being built at that moment; completion was announced for 2005. That date was not kept either. In March 2007 AMA Racing added Raceway Park to the calendar of the AMA Supermoto championship, races for motorcycles on a course combining asphalt with a dirt section. The second round of the season took place on Sunday 3 June 2007. The website NJMotocross reported that the venue for the event was a “brand new road course”, to which the training track designer Carl Anderson had added two sections with motocross-style jumps. The forecast of rain kept spectators away, and in the top class, already riding in drizzle, Mark Burkhart won ahead of Jeff Ward.

In May 2008 the track's website announced that the loop was “officially available” and could be rented. No car races under the auspices of any federation were being held on it yet, but it had already hosted several supermoto events. In the summer the website already gave a calendar of schools and open track days for novice and intermediate drivers, starting on Monday 21 July. Two September dates were cancelled. The operator explained that the reason was the “overwhelming attendance” at the truck race, so at the venue what was loud still ruled.

By 2010 the programme had taken the form of a club. Completing the school earned a licence at one of four colour-coded levels, from green for beginners to red for racing members, and outside open track days there were timed runs with staggered starts and no passing. EMRA, SCCA and NASA licences were also recognised. The school cost 225 dollars for eight hours, an open track day 125 dollars for six hours. The operator described the loop in a sentence it still repeats today: “It's challenging enough to test any street legal sports, touring, or performance car, yet safe enough to allow amateur and recreational drivers to ride side-by-side or safely pass each other in a competitive setting”.

The end of the quarter mile

The road course matured in the shadow of a dragstrip that suffered a tragedy in 2008. On Saturday 21 June, in the last qualifying session for the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals, the Toyota Solara of Scott Kalitta, a two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion, burst into flames at a speed of about 300 miles per hour (approx. 480 km/h). According to Motorsport Memorial, the engine exploded, damaged parachutes did not slow the car and it hit the barriers at the end of the sand trap. The driver died soon afterwards in a hospital in Old Bridge. Kalitta had begun his career at this very track, in 1982. Eleven days later the NHRA announced that from the event in Denver, Top Fuel and Funny Car would race over a distance of 1,000 feet (approx. 305 m) instead of the full 1,320 feet, for the time being on a temporary basis. In 2018 Motorsport.com recalled that the shorter distance had been introduced after the quarter mile was judged too dangerous at many facilities, especially older ones such as Raceway Park.

The family looked for other paths. David Napp, the second oldest of Vinny Napp's five sons, said in 2025 that from 1985 his father had spent a decade talking to NASCAR about a track for that series on the other side of the venue and was ready to put about 15 million dollars into it. The answer he remembered was: “You build the track, and we'll come take a look at it”. For a decade after his father's death in 2002, Napp said, the track's days were numbered, because it no longer fitted the area that had grown up around it; the township was tightening fire department and police requirements at the entrances, and the local roads were not built for trucks with trailers.

On Tuesday 16 January 2018 Raceway Park informed the NHRA that it was ending quarter-mile and eighth-mile racing with immediate effect, which also cancelled the 49th Summernationals planned for June. The family spoke of reorganizing the business: it kept the grandstands with the VIP tower, parts swap meets, car shows, motocross, karting, drifting, a “full program” on the road course and the Old Bridge Township Airport that it owns. According to “The Capital Sports Report”, cited by “Drag Illustrated”, sections of the dragstrip were to serve as a storage yard for Copart, an online car auction house. The NHRA put it in its own way: the venue had gone out of the drag racing business and into the car storage business. “we never intended on hurting anyone by ending our facility after 53 years”, David Napp explained later.

An arena between the grandstands

The dragstrip's second life came from another corner of motorsport. In November 2019 Formula Drift announced that its New Jersey round was moving from Wall Speedway, from whose grandstands and paddock the series had grown, to Englishtown. The former NHRA strip was to be turned there into a lit drift arena between the grandstands, with the dragstrip tower and tunnel as part of the course. Michael Napp, presented as the owner and president of Raceway Park, boasted of grandstands and facilities for more than 20,000 spectators. The COVID-19 pandemic struck the event from the 2020 calendar, and the first round on the new figure-eight track took place in June 2021. The series called the venue the first purpose-built drift arena in the US, and Matt Field won there in a Chevrolet Corvette. Formula Drift president Jim Liaw spoke of the series' biggest event in its history on the East Coast.

The latest round so far brought weather drama. On the Thursday before the 2025 event a violent storm passed over the venue: it snapped trees, destroyed tents and crushed several cars, and part of qualifying was moved to Friday. Adam LZ won in a BMW E36, scoring his second victory in his career, both in New Jersey. In November 2025 Formula Drift moved its 2026 round to Stafford, Connecticut. “the facility is going through an acquisition process and we were unable to secure a commitment to our 2026 event date”, explained the series' president Ryan Sage, adding that the arena in Englishtown had been built for Formula Drift.

A green licence for cash

A driver who wants to take the loop in their own car starts with the novice school. In 2026 it costs 225 dollars in advance, with sales ending at 16:00 on the Friday before the event, or 250 dollars on site, payable in cash only. The day begins at 09:00 with an hour of classroom instruction on braking, shifting gears, apexes, tyre pressures and turn-in points, followed by two hours of driving in small groups with an instructor who, according to the programme, “will stress the importance of being smooth”. After a lunch break for which everyone brings their own food, and a second part of theory, come lead-follow laps until 17:00. The graduate receives a “green” track licence and can drive on open track days, from 11:00 to 17:00, for 125 dollars in advance or 150 on site. Anyone who has not been to an open track for two years must retake the school.

The licence alone is not enough. Every car needs an inspection form filled out by a dealer, a workshop or a mechanic, brought to every event. The form requires, among other things, at least half of the brake pad material remaining, road tyre tread no shallower than 3/32 inch (approx. 2.4 mm), a secured battery and a muffled exhaust; the track reserves the right to refuse cars that are too loud. The driver must be at least 18, have a helmet (it can be rented on site), a shirt with sleeves (even short ones), trousers and closed shoes, and arrive with a full tank. Electric cars are not admitted to the loop at all; the operator cites the New Jersey State Police. The advance prices for the school and the open track are exactly the same as in 2010.

Six hundred houses on the township map

A dispute with the township is under way over the future of the loop and the whole site. In 2023 the Old Bridge authorities tried to rezone part of the complex for single-family housing, and Raceway Park sued the township; its attorney at the time said the ordinance was meant to “rob them of their use of that property”. In 2025 the matter returned with new force. A state affordable housing programme obliged Old Bridge to provide 673 units, and one of the sites picked was the south-eastern part of the 534-acre (approx. 216 ha) track grounds. The plan under consideration assumed up to 600 homes together with services and retail, although only about half of the land is suitable for development for environmental reasons. The township planning board voted to begin a procedure to determine whether the track qualifies as an “area in need of redevelopment”. “If it were up to me, I'd put up a 'closed for building' sign in this town. It's disgusting. If we don't comply, we get sued”, said board member Erik DePalma.

The loop's calendar for 2026 shows both continuity and uncertainty. The school with open track planned for 27 September was cancelled. On the operator's website in October 2026 the next dates in this series were 25 October and 22 November. The loop's subpage still carries the same description as in 2010: a straight of 1,400 feet, a right-angle right-hand turn, a left-hand one with 16° of banking and a small corkscrew.

Timeline

• 1965: 4 July, opening of the quarter-mile dragstrip in Madison Township.
• 1968: NHRA Springnationals, the first national NHRA event at the track.
• 1971: the first NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown.
• 1975: Madison Township is renamed Old Bridge Township; the track adopts the name in the 1980s
• 1977: 3 September, Grateful Dead concert, 107,019 tickets sold.
• 1990: protective walls along the dragstrip.
• 2003: announcement of the construction of a road course 1.35 miles long.
• 2004: the track's website announces final approval for building the loop.
• 2007: 3 June, AMA Supermoto round on the new loop.
• 2008: the loop “officially available”, a calendar of schools and open track days; 21 June, the death of Scott Kalitta at the dragstrip.
• 2018: 16 January, the end of drag racing.
• 2021: the first Formula Drift round at the arena built on the site of the dragstrip.
• 2025: the last Formula Drift round; the township planning board starts a procedure to determine whether the track is an area in need of redevelopment; the series announces its move because of the venue's acquisition process.