With all of the drama surrounding the opening of the new track, I decided to stop by this afternoon to check it out for myself and lend a hand if I could.

The facility is located right on 44th Street (2412 Port Sheldon Street) at the intersection of Chicago Drive in Jenison.  Even with the sign missing, it was easy to identify when I saw all of the activity outside and around the building.

As soon as I got out of my car, Uncle Everett came up, shook my hand and gave me the tour.  Throughout my visit, he gave everyone that walked through the doors the same tour.  That's just the kind of guy E is.

A hobby shop, food court, registration counter was built and the area for it was layed out.

My first impression of the place was, damn, this place is friggin huge!  It is truly a perfect facility to house an RC race track.  You almost can't believe the amount of space that is going to be available for pits, drivers stands, and the track.  I tried to grab a little video of it, but it's something that you're probably just going to have to see for yourselves.

In what will shortly become the pit area, I ran into the usual suspects (and some racers I haven't seen in a long time) cutting, drilling, routing, and painting pit benches in what can only be descibed as a manufacturing assembly line.  To a man, they all had smiles on their faces as they went about their business in worklike fashion.

A tech table was built out of a solid granite slab for checking camber and pitch on your RC. Ever get tired of trying to find a flat surface on the tables? No need at Proving Grounds. We got you covered!

All in all, I believe 30 new pit tables were constructed, creating pit capacity for somewhere around 130 racers, with room for many more in the area if necessary.  I don't think I've seen a better space for a pit area in my life.

This place has a lot of potential.  If day one is any indication of the participation level in this track, I'd be surprised if this isn't soon one of the top racing facilities in the Midwest.

This just in, here are the pits with the tables in it.