Attention: GPL Sim Track Developers
This website originated when a young fellow in Finland needed some photos of Meadowdale Raceway to help develop a Grand Prix Legends sim version of the track. I took the 100+ photos that can be seen as the 2001 current track condition series.
Then came the problem of getting the picture files to him. My country copper dial-up connection runs at 26.4 on its very best days, so e-mailing them was not an option, and I did not have a CD burner at the time. A friend suggested I set up a temporary website using one of the free servers then available. I did that, and the next thing I knew, I had five ghost track websites!
However, the student/developer in Finland found his track sim project interfering with his studies and shelved it. This was about two years back. At the time he indicated he would work with anyone who was interested in continuing his Meadowdale project.
I post this note with the thought that another developer might want to contact him and see what the current status of his project is, and perhaps carry it through to completion. I have zero skills in that direction.
The Meadowdale track property has been purchased by local park and forest preserve districts. It is now apparent that it will not become a subdivision or shopping center and forgotten, as has happened to so many old tracks. Steps are being taken to restore the course, but only as a recreation area, not a racetrack.
A good sim of Meadowdale should have greater popularity and a longer life since gamers will have an opportunity to actually visit this historic Illinois venue and walk through the turns and radical elevation changes that they would see on the sim.
I know there is a Meadowdale layout for the Papyrus 2003 NASCAR program. However, hosting an international Grand Prix was one of the stated goals for Meadowdale at its inception, so it would be more appropriate to have a GPL version of the track. The 1967 time period for GPL also coincides with the 1958-1969 life of Meadowdale International Raceway.
It coulda been. It shoulda been. But now you are the only hope of putting F1 cars on Meadowdale International Raceways!
