Amatol Racetrack

 place with historical importance, race track -dont use, abandoned / shut down, historical layer / disappeared object

 Upload a photo

amatol.atlantic.edu/speedway_menu.html

The site of the Atlantic City Speedway lies hidden in the forest along Moss Mill Road. The "Atlantic City" Speedway was situated more than 25 miles to the west of Atlantic City, near Hammonton in Mullica Township, New Jersey. Locals frequently refer to it as the "Amatol Race Track". The location of the track is found by walking a path off Rt. 561 (Moss Mill Rd.) to a rough oval dirt road that traces where the speedway once stood. The thick forest, undergrowth and thorny briers hamper exploration of the area. Ticks, yellow jackets and snakes make exploration a challenge during warm weather.
The Atlantic City speedway was built in 1926 on a portion of the former Amatol site at a cost of millions of dollars. The vast project was backed and sponsored by Charles M. Schwab, Marshall R. Ward, H. E. Clark and S.D. Clark. At a dinner at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia the invited press was assured that horse racing was not to be a feature of the track. It was pointed out that 1/5 of the U.S. population was located within 150 miles of the speedway. The Jack Prince Construction Company of Oakland Ca. was the contractor. The track was a steeply banked 1. 5 mile long and 50' wide wood oval and built to handle speeds of 160 MPH. The construction required 4.5 million board feet of lumber, enough to fill 253 railroad cars. The southern hemlock and white Engleman spruce boards were laid on edge in the construction of the track. A 50' wide dirt track was built as an "apron" on the inner side of the board track. The Atlantic City Motor Speedway Association was incorporated in the state of Delaware December 1925. The Atlantic City Motor Speedway Association held an exclusive franchise from the American Automobile Association. No other races could be held within 250 miles of the speedway.
The golden age of board track racing was in its twilight. Two years after it began, racing ended at the speedway. For a time a prominent automobile manufacturer used the track as a proving ground. In 1933 the great oval was torn down and the lumber sold. Later, the Hammonton Fire Department burned what remained of the speedway. Where once thousand of people lived, worked and played, the forest has again closed its leafy mantle. The outline of the track and the railroad cuts that served the Amatol munitions plant are still visible in an aerial view of the forest. A great diversity of plant and animal life now flourishes on the sites of the former Amatol munitions plant and Atlantic City Speedway. On the Amatol site today, one may spot those denizens of the Pinelands: the Northern Pine Snake, the bizarrely colored Pine Barrens Tree Frog, the rare Swamp Pink or the beautiful Dragon's Mouth Orchid. Over 1,700 acres of the Amatol and speedway site is now a New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife management area.
The website link above has more information and a photo gallery.