Why does the National Gaurd near my have a road course?

[edit: "Guard"...sorry 'bout that]

So I was flying (as in, a passenger on a commercial flight) from Memphis, TN to Columbia MO the other day and was doing my typical sightseeing from the air. It is particularly fun for me to find ractracks and airports.

This time, I saw what appeared to be a roadcourse...and it's only a 30 minute drive from my house in Jefferson City, MO! I assumed it was maybe a Highway Patrol training course or something along those lines.

But still...a publicly owned roadcourse...this could have potential!

So I looked it up on the googletubes today and found that it appears to be a National Guard facility.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=mo+highway+patrol+test+track+jefferson+city&sll=37.788081,-91.669922&sspn=13.701653,11.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=mo+highway+patrol+test+track&hnear=Jefferson+City,+MO&ll=38.550481,-92.07118&spn=0.007904,0.021887&t=h&z=16

Any idea what this is and what the National Guard would use it for? It even has a pit loop...

Clem

Look at the way the pavement gets wider on the outside of the corners! It's a drift track!

I know, right?!

kind of makes me want to join up!

Damn, just looked on Bing and no 'birds eye' view. If my base had that, I may have re-upped.

I can just invision some sad-sack drifter swating away flies on a 120 degree Iraq day bemoaning: "And the dude said all I had to do was show up twice a month and I'd get unlimited track time, yo!"

By the way, notice what looks like a big putting green and a fishing lake? The plot is definitely thickening!

I wonder what lap times are for a Hum-V.

In reply to ClemSparks:

Its adjacent to the Guard facility, but could it be that it's not part of it?

Um, it is actually called a Highway Patrol Test Track. Likely, it belongs to the county, and is used for driver education. We have one similar out by our local Community college.

Looks like 4 patrol cars on the infield.

Take a good look- there are 19 cars parked by the track, all with light bars. Cop Central.

Hummers don't drift.

subrew wrote: Um, it is actually called a Highway Patrol Test Track. Likely, it belongs to the county, and is used for driver education. We have one similar out by our local Community college.

If you're talking about how it says that in the google maps serch bar...that's probably there because those were the words I originally plugged in for the search, in hopes I'd get that lucky. I ended up just zooming in on where I remembered it being while looking from the plane.

I'm not doubting it's used as a police training thing...just clarifying why it says "Highway Patrol Test Track near Jefferson City MO" in the header.

Clem

cwh wrote: Take a good look- there are 19 cars parked by the track, all with light bars. Cop Central.

There are also tanks and cannons a few hundred yards to the west. Cool!

drive thru' dunkin donuts would be money right there.

Appleseed wrote: Hummers don't drift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gV-K7EM6B_M

Says who

There's something like that near me as well. I think it's state police though. I tried to drive there one time but it's all fenced off.

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Laguna Seca is on a military installation.

Will wrote: Laguna Seca is on a military installation.

I'm pretty sure it's not on Fort Ord, just adjacent to it.

We autocross on the National Guard/State Police driver training facility every weekend:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=fort+devens&sll=38.912508,-77.452068&sspn=0.010836,0.022638&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Fort+Devens,+Suffolk,+Massachusetts&ll=42.57331,-71.605346&spn=0.010255,0.022638&t=h&z=16

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Every time I go to Laguna, my father in law tells me about going to basic at Fort Ord and having to run up some sand hill over and over while people raced on the track. This was Vietnam era.

After I graduate Air Force basic in September, I'll be going to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, which is about a half hour from Laguna Seca. Guess where I'll be spending most of my weekends?

In reply to John Brown:

Every single time I drive through Lansing on I-96, I think about how I would love to get out there and drive any of their courses.