Скачать или смотреть Mickey Mouse and the INDY RACING LEAGUE! History of The WDW Speedway in Pi Minutes!

Back in the 90s Disney teamed up with the IRL (Indy Racing League) and built the Walt Disney Speedway on the edge of the Magic Kingdom Parking Lot. Weird, right?

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Part Two!    • Ride a Cars Car at Disney World! History o...  

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History in Pi Minutes is a series where I look at some popular topics in Disney or Theme Park History and cover them in a bite size format.

Back in the 90s when Michael Eisner was in charge, a lot of Disney projects were motivated primarily by spite. Most famously, California Adventure being built around the idea of recreating famous sights from around the state to spite the rest of california for drawing tourists away from Disneyland.

Before that, a similar concept was applied to the East Coast.

Although there aren’t as many famous sights to replicate from Florida aside from swamp lands and the guy who sells Gator Jerky out of the back of his pick up truck on sunday afternoons under an overpass near Disney Springs.

Eisner did notice that out of state visitors were leaving the Disney bubble to see racing!

Afterall, the Daytona Speedway is one of the most famous tracks in the world!

And Disney wanted a piece of that action.

Fortunately, at this same time, someone else motivated by spite was working on a new project and needed partners.

The Indy Racing League, founded by Tony George, was created with the intention to make Indy Car Racing cheaper and more accessible compared to the well established C A R T. But some say it was really just about Tony not wanting to play by someone else’s rules.

He wasn’t just some random guy with a dream, Tony was the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the home of the Indy 500. So, he had some weight behind him. But most of the big name talent was with CART.

So, Tony needed a new “Big Name”

A name like Mickey Mouse!

The first ever race for the Indy Racing League happened in 1996 at the new Walt Disney World Speedway.

This speedway was built on the edge of the Magic Kingdom Parking lot. A location that allowed them to save on infrastructure costs.

Another way to keep costs down was to just not build anything other than the road itself. The stands for audiences, garages for the racers, and even bathrooms were all temporary structures set up when needed and torn down when they weren’t.

In honor of the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s nickname, The Brick Yard, and the Walt Disney World Speedway’s rodent owner… The new course was unofficially dubbed the Mickyard.

For a while, the Speedway seemed to be a big success. And the location in Florida made it accessible year round compared to tracks up north which often closed for the winter.

But over time, the issues with the location and design began to become apparent.

Setting up and tearing down the temporary facilities became increasingly expensive and annoying. The demand for parking at the Magic Kingdom rose as crowds at the park grew, leading to more and more operational difficulties. And ultimately the demands of a growing racing league and the demands of a growing theme park were at odds with each other.

This came to a head in 2001 around disagreements over when to schedule the first race of the season to avoid being too early in the year or too close to the Super Bowl in Tampa.

The contracts were not renewed and this was the end of professional racing at Walt Disney World.

The IRL went on for many more successful years, but the split from CART hurt both leagues and caused interest in Indy racing in general to plummet thereby helping to facilitate the rise in stock car racing.

Something some say never would have happened if the Disney name, and by extension broadcasting rights on ABC, hadn’t helped legitimize the IRL.

So, the Walt Disney World Speedway arguably inadvertently lead to the NASCAR and stock car racing boom of the 2000s.

But what happened to the Speedway once the racing stopped? That’s a story for another time.


Want to learn more about the history and go in depth?

Midway to Main Street (the artist formerly known as Rob Plays) did an excellent video covering this topic!
The Walt Disney World Speedway and the Indy 200
   • The Walt Disney World Speedway and the Ind...  

Alt_Driver did an excellent write up on the History
https://altdriver.com/racing/walt-dis...

B-Roll and Reference Videos:

   • The Tradition, Pageantry and Excitement of...  
   • 2012 Indy 500 Commercial - Back Home Again  
   • 2021 Daytona 500 | NASCAR ON FOX HIGHLIGHTS  

This Video was made by Zach (AKA Pi the Disney Guy).

Mickey Mouse and the INDY RACING LEAGUE! History of The WDW Speedway in Pi Minutes!