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=Motorsport in New York City / Motorsport in New York (state) / Staten Island NASCAR track / Marlboro Grand Prix of New York=

Overview
Existing NASCAR Cup Series tracks in close proximity to New York City include Watkins Glen International in upstate New York, Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, and Dover International Speedway in Dover, Delaware. Watkins Glen also held Formula One events from 1961 to 1980. New Jersey Motorsports Park, which has held races for the ARCA Racing Series and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East (a developmental NASCAR series), is located in southern New Jersey. The now-defunct Nazareth Speedway, located in eastern Pennsylvania, hosted the IndyCar Firestone Indy 225 event, and NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) and Truck Series events until its closure in 2004.

Early history
One of the earliest known automobile races in New York City was in 1896, when six cars competed in a race between the city and Westchester County, New York. In 1904, William Kissam Vanderbilt II began hosting the Vanderbilt Cup, held on a 25 mi circuit of local dirt roads in Nassau County, Long Island. In September 1908 (add date) Vanderbilt began construction on the Long Island Motor Parkway (also known as the Vanderbilt Parkway), a paved and grade separated limited-access highway between Queens and Nassau County. Vanderbilt planned to utilize a portion of the new parkway to host the Vanderbilt Cup. The course only used a section of the parkway located in Nassau County between Westbury and Hicksville. Following a crash in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup, the New York State Legislature banned all automobile racing outside of self-contained circuits. The parkway remained open to normal passenger traffic as a toll road until 1938, and was largely replaced by the free Northern State Parkway and Grand Central Parkway. The Vanderbilt Cup was later held at Roosevelt Raceway (now a horse racing course) in Westbury, Nassau County in 1936 and 1937.

A NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) race was held at Linden Airport in Linden, New Jersey in 1954. In June 1956 Wall Stadium in Wall Township, New Jersey hosted a race for NASCAR's Convertible Division, with Glen Wood of Wood Brothers Racing participating. In July 1958 the track held a race for the Grand National Series. The Vanderbilt Cup was revived as a Formula Junior event in 1960 at Roosevelt Raceway. In 1965, 1967 and 1968 the Bridgehampton Sports Car Races, held at Bridgehampton Race Circuit located in Suffolk County in eastern Long Island, were billed as the Vanderbilt Cup.
 * 1951 NASCAR Race(s) in New Jersey.

Weissglass Stadium
Located at Jewett Avenue and Richmond Terrace in Port Richmond, Staten Island was a Weissglass Stadium or Weissglass Speedway, which would host Saturday-night stock car races. Other events held at the stadium were the annual high school football games between Curtis High School and New Dorp High School, and Negro league baseball barnstorming games which included Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige. It was initially called Sisco Park after the Staten Island Shipbuilding Company which owned the park. It was later named after the local Weissglass Gold Seal Dairy company. The track was a 0.5 mi paved oval course. The former site is now used by warehouses, located across from the Port Richmond Water Pollution Control Plant.
 * One driver who raced at the Weissglass track, Nick Nicolette, would go on to make three NASCAR Grand National Series starts in 1951 and 1953, including two at Morristown Speedway in New Jersey.
 * Closed 1972.
 * Closed 1973.

Transition blurb
For many years afterwards, attempts have been made to establish an event for a major auto racing series within the New York metropolitan area, including Formula One, NASCAR, and IndyCar.

Meadowlands Grand Prix
In 1975 and again in 1983, a racing circuit to host a Formula One Grand Prix event was proposed for the New York City area. Potential sites included Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in the borough of Queens, and the Meadowlands Sports Complex in New Jersey. The Flushing Meadows plans were opposed by the local community and environmental groups, and the race was postponed and ultimately cancelled by 1985. The Meadowlands site would host the Meadowlands Grand Prix Champ Car event in 1984. The Meadowlands Grand Prix was run for eight seasons until 1991. The race was said to be unprofitable by the International Management Group (IMG), which managed the event during its last two years.
 * Details of the Flushing Meadows layout.

Grand Prix of New York
Following the final running of the Meadowlands Grand Prix in July 1991, plans emerged to relocate the race to a new street circuit to be created in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The promoters of the race believed placing the race in Manhattan would add "glamour" to the event and attract corporate sponsors, and had been negotiating with the New York City government for the previous 18 months. Issues surrounding the plan included the financial crisis of the time, the potential disruption to the Lower Manhattan area, the continued sponsorship of the race by cigarette brand Marlboro, and ultimately the potential financial gain for the city from the event. The New York City Sports Commission estimated at the time that the race could generate $56 million in economic impact, comparable to the NCAA Big East Men's Basketball Tournament held annually at Madison Square Garden. IMG meanwhile estimated the race could attract up to 70,000 spectators.

The temporary circuit would measure 1.3 mi and be shaped like a "dipper". The course would use streets circumscribing the World Trade Center. The race would be between 180 and 200 miles. A portion of the track would use West Street (West Side Highway) from Liberty Street north to Chambers Street, which would obstruct the entrance to the Brooklyn–Battery Tunnel. Potential top speeds of the cars on the "West Street straightaway" could reach 165 mph. Other streets on the circuit included Vesey Street, Church Street, and Liberty Street. Alternate sites to relocate the race included Washington, D.C., Miami, or Englishtown, New Jersey.


 * Marlboro
 * Then-Mayor David Dinkins desired to limit the advertisements promoting Marlboro during the race. Dinkins had previously opposed tobacco advertising on city property such as buses and subways. The Dinkins administration was pushing Marlboro parent company Philip Morris to create anti-smoking advertisements for the race, specifically targeted at adolescents.  A Manhattan-based anti-smoking group meanwhile found the potential ad campaign "counterproductive", and suggested that another Philip Morris brand such as Maxwell House or Miller act as the title sponsor instead.

In April 1992, IndyCar Champion Rick Mears surveyed the potential race course during rush hour traffic in a Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1. On January 24, 1992, the race was postponed to 1993 by the CART board of directors. It was initially scheduled for September 20, 1992. On March 3, 1992 the city gave final approval for the race, to be titled the "Marlboro Grand Prix of New York", to be held beginning in June 1993. The promoters signed a 10-year agreement with the city Franchise Concession Review Committee, which could be cancelled by either party after every year. As part of the agreement, Philip Morris would use 1,1000 of the 3,700 billboards it planed to rent for anti-smoking advertisements in the months leading up to the race. The promoting company, meanwhile, would pay the city $300,000 during the first two years of the deal. It would also cover the costs of municipal services such as police and sanitation, the costs of repaving the streets on the course, and the costs of assembling and disassembling the race circuit. It also initially promised to donate $350,000 during each of the first two years to Manhattan Community Board 1 (representing Battery Park City). The company later planned to start a nonprofit organization to promote city-wide youth safety programs.

In October 1992, however, the race was cancelled by the promotion company. The company cancelled the event due to rising costs, and the inability to find and allocate space for both the team garage area (paddock) and hospitality areas to be used sponsors. The company had considered using various parks in Battery Park City for hospitality space, which was rejected by the Battery Park City Authority. The company instead moved the race to Cleveland as the Grand Prix of Cleveland.

Trump Motor Speedway

 * 1995
 * Bridgeport, CT
 * 1996
 * 1999
 * In February 1999, Trump offered to purchase the former Grumman facility in Calverton, Long Island for $55 million, in order to construct a racetrack along with a hotel and golf resort. The site had recently been used for the investigation of TWA Flight 800 in 1996. Riverhead Raceway, used for the regional NASCAR Modified Series, was also located in the area. However, three other regional NASCAR tracks on Long Island had ceased operation.
 * On March 11, 1999 1999, Trump signed a deal with then-NASCAR president Bill France Jr. at Trump Tower in Manhattan to construct a New York-area racetrack. The provisional "Trump Super Speedway" circuit would cost up to $400 million, and have 100,000 seats with provisions to expand to 300,000. Potential sites included Monticello in the Catskill Mountains region of upstate New York, northern New Jersey, or Connecticut. At the time, the Long Island site fell out of favor, due to the distance from potential fans in New Jersey and Connecticut.
 * On March 11, 1999 1999, Trump signed a deal with then-NASCAR president Bill France Jr. at Trump Tower in Manhattan to construct a New York-area racetrack. The provisional "Trump Super Speedway" circuit would cost up to $400 million, and have 100,000 seats with provisions to expand to 300,000. Potential sites included Monticello in the Catskill Mountains region of upstate New York, northern New Jersey, or Connecticut. At the time, the Long Island site fell out of favor, due to the distance from potential fans in New Jersey and Connecticut.

2000s: Staten Island NASCAR track
Beginning in 2003, a NASCAR track called Liberty Speedway was planned, with potential sites at the Meadowlands and Linden in New Jersey. In 2004, the International Speedway Corporation (ISC) owned by NASCAR began negotiations with the Bloomberg administration about developing a race track in the borough of Staten Island. At this time, the Meadowlands site fell out of favor due to a lack of space, potential traffic congestion, and political opposition. The Staten Island track, which at that time was planned to be 2.5 mi in length (the same distance as Daytona International Speedway), would be located in Bloomfield in the West Shore of Staten Island. The site was located near the Goethals Bridge to New Jersey, and north of the former Fresh Kills Landfill. Much of this area was a former industrial park and petroleum storage facility owned by the GATX Corporation. This was the site of the 1973 TETCo gas explosion, which killed 40 workers at the oil facility. In August, the ISC agreed to purchase two parcels of land in Bloomfield. In December 2004 the ISC along with The Related Companies purchased the 675 acre Staten Island site from GATX for $100 million. At the time, ISC spokesman David Talley stated, "We need to be in the New York market. It's important that we're mentioned in the same breath as the Yankees and Mets, Jets, Giants, Knicks and Rangers...We need to be in the media capital and have close proximity to the Fortune 500 companies based in New York". At the time, the speedway was projected to open in either 2008 or 2009, and was anticipated to host "three or four events a year".
 * Description of SI speedway.
 * 3/4 mile "high-banked oval"; similar to the existing Richmond Raceway NASCAR track in Richmond, Virginia.
 * 80,000-seats
 * At the time the planned 80,000-seat track was the largest proposed sports venue in the city, with greater potential seating capacity than the proposed West Side Stadium or the future Barclays Center.
 * The new track would be accessible to New Jersey via the Goethals Bridge, which leads to the New Jersey Turnpike.
 * Transportation.
 * The track would only have 8,500 parking spaces available near the facility. The plan was for most race fans to travel to the track via buses or ferry, and use park and ride facilities to access these forms of transportation. A new ferry landing was planned for the site, with ferry service operating between the track and Whitehall Terminal (South Ferry) in Lower Manhattan.
 * In addition to the racetrack, a 620,000 ft2 shopping center would also be constructed.
 * The ISC also planned to preserve 245 acres of wetland as a bird preserve.
 * The ISC hired former Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari as a lobbyist. The initial deal struck in 2005 was for three years and up to $540,000, to be payed in monthly installments of $15,000. Ultimately, Molinari's firm received $1.5 million.
 * Challenges in building the the track included filling the 100 acre of marshland located only a few feet above sea level, and cleaning up contaminates such as oil.
 * Then-City Councilman James Oddo voiced concerns over potential traffic congestion.
 * Environmentalists.


 * Upon reviewing the proposed transportation plan for the track, College of Staten Island professor Jonathan Peters criticized the plan. Instead, he suggested upgrades to local road infrastructure, as well as a bus rapid transit line running between St. George Terminal in northeastern Staten Island and the track via the former North Shore Branch of the Staten Island Railway.


 * Robert Straniere
 * commented that Watkins Glen International in upstate New York had "40 full-time jobs"; would not create many permanent jobs.

In September 2004, Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated his skepticism of the plan, also citing traffic issues. In November 2004, the ISC invited 20 city officials and activists including then-Borough President James Molinaro and State Assemblyman Michael Cusick to a NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway (an ISC owned track) in order to encourage support for the Staten Island track.

On April 27, 2006, a public hearing was held concerning the track at the Michael J. Petrides School, attended by 1,000 people. The hearing turned violent when a proponent of the project representing a construction union was said to have put then-City Councilman Andrew Lanza in a headlock, leading police to end the hearing after 45 minutes. Afterwards Lanza commented, "This is the end of the road for NASCAR". Shortly after the hearing, ISC official Michael P. Printup claimed that the racetrack could generate $200 million annually in economic activity, and create 75 permanent jobs.

After protests from environment groups over pollution and the loss of wetlands in the area, and from local residents over potential traffic congestion and parking issues, in 2006 NASCAR cancelled plans for the track. According to the ISC, the track plans were abandoned due to a lack of political support to re-zone the area for development, and "unacceptable approval requirements" which could lead to high construction and operation costs.

2010s
In July 2012, New York State Assembly candidate Paul Saryian proposed reviving the plans for the Staten Island track as part of a potential bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Around 2012, Formula One again planned to hold the Grand Prix of America on the proposed Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey, but by 2014, the plan had fallen through. In 2015, NASCAR was seriously considering buying stock in order to build a track in New York City.

Description

 * Eltingville to the east; Arden Heights to the west.
 * The center of the terminal contains a large layover area for buses.
 * The terminal building contains a waiting area, bathrooms, and snack vending machines. Currently the bathrooms are employee-only. The terminal is one of only three locations on Staten Island with MetroCard vending machines, along with the St. George Terminal and Tompkinsville Staten Island Railway stations.

Located adjacent to the northern and eastern end of the Korean War Veterans Parkway (formerly the Richmond Parkway), which runs west to the Outerbridge Crossing to New Jersey. Just to the west of the terminal are two unused lanes of the highway, which cross over Arthur Kill Road and Richmond Avenue and end at the east side of Richmond Avenue, leading into the former Brookfield Avenue Landfill. The highway was planned to continue northeast through what is now the Staten Island Greenbelt towards the Staten Island Expressway.

History

 * In 1995, the New York City Transit Authority released the findings of a two-year study of Staten Island mass transit conducted by the STV Group. The study proposed creating five intermodal transit centers including an "Eltingville transfer center", along with hubs at St. George, Port Richmond, Grasmere, and the Staten Island Mall.
 * The bus stop area of the terminal was completed by 1998.
 * The main portion of the transit center, including the terminal building as parking lots, was built in 2003 or 2004, with 223 parking spaces.  Prior to the construction of the terminal building, the dispatcher for the station worked out of a bus parked on Richmond Avenue.
 * On October 5, 2009, ground was broken on an expansion project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, in order to add 159 parking sports to the facility. The new parking area was opened on July 26, 2010, with the project costing $2.3 million. The project also opened the unused northern (westbound) spur of the Richmond Parkway just north of the terminal, to allow trucks to serve to serve the cleanup of the Brookfield Avenue Landfill (part of the Fresh Kills Landfill complex) across Richmond Avenue to the east.

Local

 * S55: Staten Island Mall to Rossville via Annadale Road
 * S56: Staten Island Mall to Tottenville High School via Arden Avenue
 * S59: Port Richmond to Eltingville (with a peak extension to Tottenville)
 * S74/S84 Limited: St. George Ferry Terminal to Tottenville via Richmond and Arthur Kill Roads
 * S79 Select Bus Service: Staten Island Mall to Bay Ridge via Hylan Boulevard
 * S89 Limited: 34th Street HBLR station to Eltingville via Richmond Avenue

Express

 * SIM1: Lower Manhattan via Church Street and Broadway
 * SIM1C:Midtown Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
 * SIM4:Lower Manhattan via Church Street and Broadway
 * SIM4C:Midtown Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Madison Ave
 * SIM5: Lower Manhattan via Water Street
 * SIM6: Midtown Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue
 * SIM7: Union Square via Sixth Avenue, Broadway, and West Street
 * SIM8: Midtown Manhattan via New Jersey and 42nd Street
 * SIM10: Midtown Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Sixth Avenue
 * SIM15: Lower Manhattan Downtown Loop via Church Street and Water Street
 * SIM22: Midtown Manhattan via New Jersey and 42nd Street
 * SIM31: Midtown Manhattan via Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue

AE History
The founder of Dominic F. Gatto Jr. began his career as a school bus driver in 1971 for the Staten Island School Bus Company, after serving in the Army during the Vietnam War. Gatto purchased the company in 1974. In 1980 Gatto began operating 160 routes under the Staten Island Bus Company. Around this time, many of the city's long-term school bus contracts were established. Gatto would later acquire other companies that were awarded contracts. The company was renamed Atlantic Express in 1986, and in 1989 began commuter coach service to Manhattan. In 1990, the company began operating paratransit in New York City. The company was sold to Greenwich Street Capital Partners in 1998, with Gatto continuing to serve as president and CEO of the company.

In June 2001, Atlantic Express was awarded the franchises to seven express bus routes between Staten Island and Manhattan, beating out incumbent operator Academy Bus. Academy proceeded to cease operations of the routes on June 22, 2001. The takeover of the routes drew controversy, with Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) international president Lawrence J. Hanley (representing drivers from MTA New York City Transit) accusing then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani of awarding Atlantic Express the routes as a result of campaign contributions from the head of the company Domenic Gatto. Gatto had previously provided a specially-designed bus used during Giuliani's reelection campaign in 1997, and had donated $2,000 for Giuliani's U.S. Senate campaign in 1999. In July 2001, the New York City Council filed suit to cancel the franchises, claiming the charter for bus franchises required input from the council and that this provision was ignored.

Shortly afterwards, Atlantic Express received a $2 million city subsidy to operate two of the Staten Island routes, the X23 and X24, while the MTA's New York City Transit division would take over two other routes (rebranded as the X21 and X22). Atlantic Express route continue to operate the AE7 route without a subsidy. The remaining two routes were discontinued. In November 2001, Atlantic Express was also awarded a five-year extension to its contract to operate Access-A-Ride paratransit service, and to operate the Hudson Rail Link shuttle service for Metro-North Railroad stations in the Bronx. The contracts went into effect in January 2002.

On August 16, 2002 Atlantic Express filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company emerged from bankruptcy in 2004, with a $45 million loan from Banc of America Securities.

In December 2007 during the trial of Salvatore Battaglia, a Genovese crime family member, in Manhattan federal court, it was revealed that Gatto had made secret annual payments of up to $50,000 to the mafia beginning in 1974. Battaglia was the former head of the ATU's Local 1181 branch which represents school drivers, separate from the branch representing MTA bus drivers. During the trial, the payments from Gatto were described as extortion. The company had previously contracted a John A. Gotti-linked firm to pave a school bus parking lot in 1995.

In late 2013, Atlantic Express declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Part of the Bankruptcy was that Atlantic Express lost approximately 100 buses due to the devastating Superstorm Sandy on October 29, 2012. In order to help with replacing the damaged buses, Bird Bus Sales had a 100 bus emergency order that consisted of 100 2014 BlueBird Visions that would be donated to Atlantic Express so they would not have to waste a single penny to pay for the buses.

Services
In New York City, Atlantic Express operated two express bus routes under contract to the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the X23 and X24 from Staten Island to Manhattan, sharing the same fare structure as all express buses operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The operating rights to these routes were awarded to Academy Bus in bankruptcy proceedings, although most of the coach fleet was excluded from the sale.

Under the name Hudson Rail Link, Atlantic Express had operated ten bus-to-rail shuttle routes in The Bronx, under contract to Metro-North, to Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil stations on the Hudson Line. The Hudson Rail Link contract was awarded to Logan Bus Company in bankruptcy proceedings.

School bus service
In addition to fixed route service, Atlantic Express also served approximately 104 school districts in five states with yellow school bus service, primarily in the Northeast. Atlantic Express at its peak had operations in twelve states, but had significantly downsized and had exited the mid-western and southwestern United States, and Florida well before its closure. Its bankruptcy was cemented by former Mayor Bloomberg, as he is well known for being a Union buster. ATU 1181 was much too weak of a union (and still is) to dispute contracts with Bloomberg and said company.