Autocross on a highway | Clay County Mountain Motorsports Festival

That’s something a little different. 

I'm down for anytime you get to legally do silly car stuff on public roads.

They used to do this same thing in Baltimore about 30 or 35 years ago. They shut down part of Key Highway, in Federal Hill, not far from Fort McHenry. I want to say there was an old GRM post about it.

Way, way back in the day, we used to autocross at night in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The lot was the size of a postage stamp, and we had to grid across the street. (So, technically, the Mod cars had to drive on a public road for a few feet.)

Still, much fun autocrossing somewhere in public. 

BmoreKeith said:

They used to do this same thing in Baltimore about 30 or 35 years ago. They shut down part of Key Highway, in Federal Hill, not far from Fort McHenry. I want to say there was an old GRM post about it.

 Whoa.  I googled it and found a link.  1985.

Autocross in Baltimore on Motorweek

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Been there done that in Milwaukee

Quoting Peter Calhoun:

The origins of the PAX Index go back to a series of street auto crosses in CenDiv to determine a Grand Champion. PAX being the Portage Grand Prix in Portage, IN home of multi-championship winning driver, car builder, and later school founder Jim McKamey.

In the 80's thru the mid-90's street events were held in Portage, IN, Springfield, IL, Waterloo, IA, and other municipalities that are escaping my memory. Waterloo was awesome!

I've heard that they did autocross on public roads in Knoxville, Tennessee a long time ago. It's an interesting option given how big parking lots are becoming rarer in many places.

Man I have a real soft spot for street autocrosses. Back in the CMS days we staged more than a few, mostly as part of town festivals in towns with small downtown business districts that could easily handle the logistics without closing down too much or needing too much crowd control.

The one in Fort Smith, Ark. was probably my favorite. If you look at the map of downtown, we used Garrison and Rogers from about 5th to 9th or 10th st, so we had a nice loop. They put barriers up all along the sidewalks so the businesses could stay open, and we autocrossed in the streets while fans walked the shops and watched the racing. The streets were pretty wide, so we were able to do a little more than just slaloms and offsets, but from the fan reaction it may as well have been IndyCars running around because people really dug it. During the main events the place was just thick with fans, and in some of the open areas folks set up campsites like you'd see on the hill at Road Atlanta and just partied all day.

I'm not sure the legal or logistical climate exists in too many places for stuff like this anymore. Ft. Smith, and the Colorado events, worked because they were small towns with existing festivals and we had a sympathetic (and powerful) advocate on our side on the city council or a major local business owner that could make stuff happen. I hope this Clay County event gets lots of support and is allowed to thrive.

Meh, come to the Westlake area of Austin and you'll see that course play out on a daily basis by some hyper fit, yoga pants mom in a 5100 lbs performance suv, navigating traffic while sipping on a pumpkin spice latte, ("almond milk, no whip...I said NO WHIP!!  Whats wrong with YOU?!?"), updating her Insta, while racing the other females in her tribe to be the first in the pick up line at the local school.

Guaranteed, she's gonna set the FTD.  The rest of you are just fighting for second.