Thunder Bay Motor Speedway is a hybrid of motor sports complex design and entertainment/retail design. Operating at two distinct scales, urban and architectonic, Thunder Bay is driven by two primary concepts: procession and focus.

The procession is entertainment and retail programming surrounding the primary focus, the race. The events in the procession consist of pre-race viewing of race cars, retail purchasing of race memorabilia, night time musical event attendance, jumbotron video screenings, all-day restaurant and video-lounge access, and gallery browsing of the history of racing.

Focus events consist of viewing the race from the grandstands, concession purchasing, eating at the restaurant, and experiencing the race in the video lounge that streams live video from each of the drivers’ cars. Whereas the excitement of focus events persists for only the duration of the race, the excitement of procession events begins one or two days before the race begins and protracts for hours after a race has ended. The intent is to create a motor sports entertainment complex that broadens the experience of attendance into one of sustained engagement.

PROJECT STATISTICS
LOCATION: Frederick, Maryland
CLIENT: Ski & Co.
SIZE: 60,000 seats
YEAR: 1999
COST: $100 Million
PROJECT TYPE: Autoracing Facility, Sponsor Integration & Activation