Update to NASCAR video game returns live racing to Hanford Motor Speedway

An online racing league devoted to the NASCAR Racing 2003 Season computer game has a new track on its schedule: a revitalized Hanford Motor Speedway whose layout and dimensions draw from the  early to mid-1960s while adding visually stunning, modern-day amenities racegoers would never see at the real track during its heyday.  

This update is a follow-up to my post from last year, when I wrote about Nikki Contey’s early efforts to bring Hanford Motor Speedway back to life 55 years after its last race.

Overview of the track looking down the frontstretch from Turn 1.Contey updated that initial build and unveiled her latest version in a recent weekly race of the NR2003 Fuel Grand National Series. That race was livestreamed on YouTube via the North American Sim Racing Network and featured announcers, replays and lots of action. A separate feed livestreamed in-car cameras and lively driver conversations. “This track is nothing short of picture perfect,” one of the announcers noted, while another called it “technically difficult” to drive.

Contey’s No. 85 Hot Topic car was among the 18 entries in the 140-kilometer race. 

Turn 1 put driver skills to the test. In upping the ante with this new design for an “ancient” gaming platform, Contey studied maps and descriptions from my blog, and detail from the Dick Wallen video of the 1964 USAC stock car race at Hanford and “Indianapolis 500: Evolution,”  a 2009 XBox videogame that also featured Hanford among its track options. 

The Goodyear blimp and busy marina were among Contey's embellishments. “The race was a bit of a barn-burner to be totally honest, but I think it also demonstrates that this track is every bit as difficult today as it was in the early ‘60s,” Contey said. “I made a point to tell people that the Dick Wallen video of the 1964 USAC race here showed A.J. Foyt in his prime roughing up the Turn 1 wall twice.” 

Contey’s build includes progressive banking in Turn 1, a front stretch that goes slightly uphill, TV broadcast cranes and camera people, and orchards and an irrigation pond outside the track. 

Hanford is among a wide variety of tracks on the Season 8 schedule. “I am proud of this,” Contey said. “It’s my own personal model railway.” 

Contey is hoping people who actually drove that version of the Hanford track could share any feedback on her design. 

“I would be interested to know what someone who ran at Hanford/Marchbanks in real-life thinks of my build,” Contey said. “The track specifications outlined in the maps shown on your blog entry seemed a little bit outlandish compared to the Dick Wallen video, but I was also noticing from re-watching said video that I think I underestimated the Turn 2 banking a little bit. I also kinda think that the developers of “Indianapolis 500: Evolution” overestimated the circuit's elevation profile, judging by what's on that site now in real-life. In any case, it's been so long since I started this track that I'm not sure I really care about fixing those nitty-gritty details, because I certainly took some creative liberties of my own, haha.” 

Those creative liberties include a yacht marina inside the track (the real track did have a lack, but was used exclusively for drag-boat races), an “easter egg” in the infield lake, a robust infield with modern facilities and abundant advertising signs common at modern-day tracks. 

NASCAR Racing 2003 Season fans can download Contey’s new build here.