Savannah's racing legacy idles

SAVANNAH, Ga. - The checkered line is still visible on Hutchinson Island, but most cars that pass over it are driven by workers from the nearby hotel.

Concrete barriers and red-and-white rumple strips are still in place, though hard to spot amid vegetation sprouting in the summer heat on Georgia's coast.

A couple of pedestrian bridges still span the road, but nary a fan clamors to cross.

Just across the river from historic Savannah, the whine of race cars has given way to the gentle chirping of birds nestled in swampy ponds and the occasional roar of a bobcat. A grandiose plan to resurrect the area's proud racing history - the first American Grand Prix was held here in 1908 - wound up in bankruptcy court.

Now, a beautifully designed road course sits empty.

"It was great," said CART star Helio Castroneves, who won the inaugural - and only - Grand Prix of Savannah Harbor. "It's really a shame. The circuit was so smooth, so clean."

The track was supposed to be the first step in the development of Hutchinson Island, where slaves once worked on massive rice plantations and murderers more recently dumped bodies.

Dr. Rick Timms, who lives in Savannah and works on the CART medical staff, was a driving force behind the track. CART officials, including former chief steward and former driver Wally Dallenbach, helped design a 1.965-mile county road to serve as a 10-turn circuit.

"It's the first time in this country that a street circuit has been predesigned and built for the purpose of being a temporary road course," Timms said.

After the road was built, an Indy Lights race was held in 1997, featuring such up-and-coming drivers as Castroneves, Tony Kanaan and Cristiano da Matta. A CART race, hoped for within three years, never happened.

Though deep in NASCAR country, 35,000 came for the lone race weekend. Most were bused across glimmering Talmadge Bridge, its cable span looming over the city like a giant sailboat. Others came by water taxi.

The track might have been world class, but in the end the Colonial Motorsport Group's bankruptcy court bill was $3 million.

Attempts to resurrect racing fell through. ARCA tentatively scheduled a race last year, but never saw the green flag. Another promoter talks of a vintage-car race, but that hasn't passed the discussion stage.

So, while new tracks are sprouting up all over the country, the Grand Prix Circuit at Savannah Harbor is stalled in pit road - maybe for good.

"I'd love to see it used," said Timms, part of Colonial.

He is well read on the city's racing history, which dates to 1904, when the Savannah Automobile Club built a 17-mile stock car course through roads more accustomed to horses.

In 1908, the club put in the winning bid for the inaugural American Grand Prix. Using convict labor, the club refurbished and lengthened the course to 25.3 miles.

Savannah's second race, two years later, drew 60,000 fans. In 1911, Savannah was home to both the Grand Prix and Vanderbilt Cup, America's most prestigious road race in the early part of the century.

"That was the reason for our whole thing," said Timms, who helped put together a study guide on racing now used in schools as part of Georgia history. "The parallels are amazing."

As it turned out, Savannah's brush with racing in the latter part of the century provided some grim lessons on the fiscal realities of the sport. The race course is now merely a sleepy road serving the island's new luxury hotel and golf resort - where the flagsticks are topped with checkered banners - and the city's sparkling convention center.

Yellow signs in turns 4, 5 and 6 admonish motorists to maintain 20 mph, while a group tees off nearby. The abandoned paddock is a parking lot for hotel workers such as banquet chef Michelle Matiya.

She calls it the "pits" and admits taking a spin around the track.

"I wanted to see how fast I could go," she said, grinning.

It certainly was faster than any race car has gone it in a while.

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