Rallycross: Looking for 10+ acres of land within 100 miles of D.C. (farm land, old fairgrounds etc)

Figured I'd throw it out there. We're looking for a new rallycross venue for someone who wants to earn some cash ($1000-1500+ per DAY) from their unused land. It would need to be within about 100 miles drive of Washington DC (in any direction). And obviously would need to be in a location where there aren't any close-in neighbors who would mind a bunch of cars driving around on it all day one Sunday per month (with an occasional 2-day event).

Would need to be 10+ acres (the more the better) and largely cleared and smoothish (though some rolling terrain would be ok depending). Grass, dirt, gravel. Any unpaved surface will work, as long as you don't mind it getting torn up a bit. We will do work on the site to smooth/clear if needed to some extent (we currently rent a grader to work our current venue), but nothing major. We have full insurance ($10 million+) so no liability worries, etc.

Anyhow, if anyone here owns (or knows anyone who owns) some land and wants to make some cash for doing nothing with it, shoot me an email!

Who is the member here that lives in Cumberland, MD?

I'll ask a few friends in PG county, maybe the Deputy that lives on the Eastern Shore.

JFX001 wrote: Who is the member here that lives in Cumberland, MD? I'll ask a few friends in PG county, maybe the Deputy that lives on the Eastern Shore.

you mean Speedycop (Jeff Bloch)? If so, I've already asked him.

We're currently out in Frostburg (right next to Cumberland) and looking for someplace closer in since a lot of our members are from Baltimore area and Richmond - so a venue more towards the I-95 corridor is far preferable to something at the extreme western direction.

Ah, more east than west, understood. I think that it was apexcarver that I was referring to, but it doesn't matter now anyway.

Yeah, we basically cut our attendance by 50% from the year before when we moved from Summit Point (about an hour ouside DC) to Frostburg (almost 3 hours outside DC). Basically we lost everyone that doesn't live west of DC. Our current venue is huge and great, but just too far away to support the program without tight financial margins. Plus it requires a lot of maintenance work (we had to rent a grader for the last few events)

Get something north of Baltimore and I'll raise up the suspension and throw offroad tires back on the sandrail to come play with you :)

too bad you can't use the power line fields right along 95 between Powder Mill and 198. ;-)

I'm looking for the same thing around Columbus, OH.

JThw8 wrote: Get something north of Baltimore and I'll raise up the suspension and throw offroad tires back on the sandrail to come play with you :)

North of Baltimore is Susquehanna region pretty much. We have to run physically within the bouns of WDCR ;)

AngryCorvair wrote: too bad you can't use the power line fields right along 95 between Powder Mill and 198. ;-)

yeah, there are a few places like that that I always think about when I drive by. Stupid utility companies. Like we're gonna hit your dumb high-power transmission line towers

EvanB wrote: I'm looking for the same thing around Columbus, OH.

Lol....our current site is as close to Columbus as it is to DC.

Let me if you'd be interested in the old Chestnut Ridge Country Club site in Baltimore County. It's 230 acres (about 180 of which is useable, there's a trout stream on the property that we wouldn't want to be within a few hundred yards of and some neighboring houses) on Falls Rd just off 695 and I83. It hasn't been used for golf in over 3 years and the greens have been removed.

The site would also be perfect for rally sprints with enough space to have courses, paddock and grid for each thanks to a large parking lot and over 200 acres.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.444862,-76.6914402,3a,75y,182.11h,78.79t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sfiSVN3hGLk8s-wkNSuCQQQ!2e0

Looking out onto the site via google street view.

The paddock area and old club house view street view:

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.4460551,-76.6860737,3a,75y,188.34h,94.25t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s_q-M-8ptflCoIqjzSgqZmA!2e0

JFX001 wrote: Ah, more east than west, understood. I think that it was apexcarver that I was referring to, but it doesn't matter now anyway.

Picked up and moved to Gaithersburg, but my mom is still out that way.

I'm sorry I was one of the fallouts but with the venue being out there and rough I don't think my poor protege would have lasted a few events.

I will keep my eye out for anything though.

captdownshift wrote: Let me if you'd be interested in the old Chestnut Ridge Country Club site in Baltimore County. It's 230 acres (about 180 of which is useable, there's a trout stream on the property that we wouldn't want to be within a few hundred yards of and some neighboring houses) on Falls Rd just off 695 and I83. It hasn't been used for golf in over 3 years and the greens have been removed. The site would also be perfect for rally sprints with enough space to have courses, paddock and grid for each thanks to a large parking lot and over 200 acres.

um yes....I think we will be in touch. Let me touch base with my chairman

I wonder what noise issues there might be there with the course surrounded by neighborhoods, especially with our events starting at around 9am on Sundays. All cars running have mufflers, but certainly not much stock mufflers.....Hard to get an idea how close/far the houses are from the usable area. Thoughts?

irish44j wrote: I wonder what noise issues there might be there with the course surrounded by neighborhoods, especially with our events starting at around 9am on Sundays. All cars running have mufflers, but certainly not much stock mufflers.....Hard to get an idea how close/far the houses are from the usable area. Thoughts?

I have a feeling you will get noise complaints if your venue is within 'view' of a neighborhood. Even if you have all stock mufflers and you can't actually measure any noise from the cars in the neighborhood. Trees are your friend.

This would cut my 3 hour and 160 mile one way trip down to about 20 min from my shop. Yes please.

Hope this works out.

rcutclif wrote:

irish44j wrote: I wonder what noise issues there might be there with the course surrounded by neighborhoods, especially with our events starting at around 9am on Sundays. All cars running have mufflers, but certainly not much stock mufflers.....Hard to get an idea how close/far the houses are from the usable area. Thoughts?

I have a feeling you will get noise complaints if your venue is within 'view' of a neighborhood. Even if you have all stock mufflers and you can't actually measure any noise from the cars in the neighborhood. Trees are your friend.

I suspect that as well, but looking at the overhead there seem to be some areas of the course that are a good way away from houses, and the hilly terrain would mask noise (and view) of what's going on perhaps.

Sent it to our rally-x chair, we'll see what he thinks.

It does give me the thought to look for other golf courses in more rural areas that may have gone out of business though.

Oh there's a lot of out of sight out of mind area of the course from the houses. Heck we hunt deer during shotgun season on the property without issue.

Why no more running at Summit Point?

There would be something so satisfying about rallycrossing on a golf course.

Check me if I'm wrong Sandy, but if I kill all the golfers, they're gonna lock me up and throw away the key...

wvumtnbkr wrote: Why no more running at Summit Point?

The area we used to use the state dept is now using for training.

If you guys get that golf course I'm so driving two-hours to run that event.