Videogame build plots modern-day NASCAR on Hanford Motor Speedway

Fans of the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season computer game have had the chance to download a “fictional modernized build” of Hanford Motor Speedway, and drive 2003 Model NASCAR Cup cars around the 1.375-mile tri-oval. 

The video here is of Version 2 made available in October 2003. A subsequent Version 3 has undergone 16 revisions, the most recent in December 2024. 

@gone-sovereign's rendering of Hanford Motor SpeedwayThis build is only the second known video or computer game featuring Marchbanks and/or Hanford Motor Speedway. An Xbox game titled Indianapolis 500 Evolution released in 2009 included Hanford Motor Speedway among its track options. 

In adding a Hanford build to the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season options, @gone-sovereign wrote, “I assembled this build based on photo and video reference, Google Earth, and this track's appearance in Indianapolis 500: Evolution for the XBOX 360, which I own a physical copy of, and is in fact how I came to know about this track's existence! My goal in doing this was simply to try and preserve this track's memory in whatever little ways I could.” 

@gone-sovereign nicely credited me for research that went into her build, writing, “This track is a 1.375-mile tri-oval (though it was billed as 1.4 miles in the 60's). Turn 1 is progressively banked from 17 to 22 degrees, with Turns 2 and 3 being banked 8 and 12 degrees, respectively. There's also an infield lake that was used for drag boats, which I had scaled down slightly. If anyone wishes to make a period-accurate version of this track, I would endorse it, but be aware that this layout is roughly accurate to the tri-oval configuration that existed prior to 1967, after which point the first turn had been reconfigured and the track was widened to 90 feet.” 

Well done, @gone-sovereign!

It would have been nice to get some credit ...

Hanford Sentinel "Hanford History" article posted Dec. 14, 2013... for this short Hanford Sentinel story on the Marchbanks track posted Dec. 14. 

Two things bother me about this piece: 1)They cut and pasted my work without appropriate credit and 2) The Sentinel has all but ignored the track's history over the last few decades. 

Equally annoying is that even though there's only slight rewriting of my original work, they've slapped their own copyright notice on the story and are offering the Indycar photo reprint for sale. All of my work is published under a Creative Commons license that allows others to "copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially" as long as the work is attributed" ... "You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. ..."

This photo The Sentinel posted with the article is apparently of Darlington Raceway, reader Jim Thurman noted in the comments of this post.I published my stories under Creative Commons rather than traditional copyright because I pursued this as a collaborative endeavor and included a lot of other sources, particularly quotes from fan forums. That's why I have so many links to third-party sites to give credit where credit is due.

My frustration is magnified because at the beginning of this Marchbanks project I tried several times to talk to editors at The Sentinel, with no response. My original idea was to pitch a history project for them to pursue and publish, and offer my help if they wanted/needed it. Not that I'm anything special, but it'd be nice if the hometown paper were to invest a little bit in telling the story of this memorable track. The Marchbanks history retains high interest among many people -- I  know because I continue to get lots of traffic to my stories, years after they were first published. This isn't the first time my Marchbanks stuff has been republished verbatim elsewhere. But it's the first time an entity that should know better isn't following pretty basic rules for crediting creative work. 

OK, on the plus side, the Sentinel piece included a photo I have never seen that shows the track from the entry into Turn 1. The caption doesn't provide details, so I'll try to dig deeper. But the presence of what appears to be infield seating would indicate it likely was one of the NASCAR Grand National races. Any of my readers have any idea when this photo was taken?

Update on Sunday, December 22, 2013 at 4:59 PM by Logan Molen

Reader Jim Thurman posted a comment to this post indicating the photo of the stock cars barreling through Turn 1 is in fact of Darlington Raceway, not Marchbanks, as The Sentinel story suggested.

I've updated my original post to reflect Jim's information.

And the search for good photos from any of the Grand National races at Marchbanks continues.

Video of 1968 Champ Car race at Hanford

A 10-minute "Car and Track" video of the Fall 1968 Champ Car race at Hanford has surfaced, and it provides some nice insight in to the track. 

I've been on the lookout for the long-rumored video of Champ Cars at Hanford, so it was thrilling for me to stumble across this footage on YouTube. 

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