The Ridge Motorsports Park is located near
Shelton, Washington
Shelton is a city in, and the county seat of, Mason County, Washington, United States. Shelton is the westernmost city on Puget Sound. The population was 10,371 at the 2020 census. Shelton has a council–manager form of government and was the ...
, approximately northwest of
Olympia, Washington
Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region.
European ...
.
Ground was broken for the Steve Crawford designed road course on 26 April 2011. The full road course is long with 16 turns and a change in elevation of more than from start to finish.
The first event at "The Ridge" was a charity event benefitting local Mason County food banks, held on 10–11 December 2011.
The first official race, a Washington Motorcycle Road Racing Association - WMRRA event, was held on 26 May 2012. Subsequent events include championship racing by regional car and motorcycle sanctioning bodies, lapping events by car clubs, motorcycle organizations, and other events.
For the 2014 season, turn 13 of the original road circuit was reconfigured to mitigate excessive surface degradation, and the terrain surrounding the road circuit underwent an enormous amount of grading and smoothing prior to the application of topsoil and hydro-seeding, to both enhance the appearance of the facility and to manage runoff. New poured in place concrete barrier walls were constructed to replace temporary barriers, curbing was added in several places and additional new paving was completed. Finally, a large spectator viewing area was created on the upper part of the site.
In 2015, an outdoor scale replica kart track was added to the site, named "Olympic Grand Prix", or "OGP". OGP is a 1/5th scale replica of the road circuit, including elevation change. Additionally for 2015, the available paved paddock area was nearly doubled in size.
For 2016, electrical power and water systems were brought on line and a bathroom & shower building was completed. Construction of a new motocross facility called "Ridge MX", also began in the spring of 2016, with initial test laps being run on 6 May 2016. An invitational pre-grand opening test event was held on 1 October 2016 and the official grand opening was held on 29 October 2016.
In 2020, The Ridge Motorsports park added a chicane to the front straight to slow down superbikes ahead of its inaugural
MotoAmerica
MotoAmerica is the organization that promotes the AMA Superbike Series since 2015. Sanctioned by the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM), it features six classes of road racing: S ...
event on June 26–28. Use of the chicane is optional for each sanctioning body and track day organizer.
Lap records
References
External links
Ridge Motorsports Park Official websiteMaps.google.comShelton Mason County JournalKitsap SunHooked On DrivingWashington Motorcycle Road racing Association
Motorsport venues in Washington (state)
Tourist attractions in Mason County, Washington
Sports venues completed in 2011
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