DaLuded

My dad just sent me this e-mail... sounds pretty interesting.

Hampton revs its motorsports plan

The city is negotiating with a developer from North Carolina to construct the first building for its fledgling plans to develop a racing technology hub.

The city is ready to kick off the development of its local motorsports industry with the construction of a building that could house as many as five motorsports tenants.

Hampton selected Regional Cos. of Charlotte, N.C., from three proposals submitted to develop and construct a $4 million, 55,000-square-foot building on 6.5 acres in Langley Research and Development Park, said Ray White, director of economic development for Hampton.

Michael Phillips, chief executive officer of NuView Development Group in Suffolk, also is working in partnership with Regional Cos. in the venture.

White said the final negotiations would be completed when the company meets Hampton officials to set terms of an agreement...

Regional Cos. and its affiliate, Charlotte-based Commercial One, will serve as a local marketing arm for the Hampton Motorsports Technology Alliance, a collection of economic-development teams, racing experts and officials from Old Dominion University's Langley Full Scale Tunnel.

The alliance promotes the Peninsula as a motorsports incubator because teams can test at ODU's wind tunnel and Langley Speedway. The area also is home to automotive companies, such as Ford and Siemens...

Shaheen concurred that the two biggest draws in attracting motorsports tenants for Hampton were the NASA Langley Research Center and the Langley Full Scale Tunnel

RPRacing

i think this is being spearheaded by the same people who are building the drag strip in virginia beach...

DomesticRice

I just cant see big racing teams testing at langley speedway.

turbochad

No, but you should see the big racing teams that do come to use Langley's (run by ODU) large wind tunnel. I've been there to see Ferrari and several NASCAR teams test there.

DaLuded

What have you seen Ferrari test out there? Just curious because I think that would be pretty damn cool to see something like that.

DomesticRice

Yeah there are plenty of Nascar teams that test at the wind tunnel, but I was only talking about the track.