Stopped by old Mesa Park today...

[rns0504]

Took a random little trip down to Fellsmere, FL to check out old Mesa Park today. For those who don't know, Mesa Park was a motorsports facility in the 90's/early 00's known for its long, roughly 1/4 mile Figure 8/ S-tracks. She closed her doors a few years back, but I still have tons of memories there and felt I needed to go back for one more look.

For those of you who never heard of/ saw it, watch the first 30 seconds of this video. You'll see the types of events that were run there, and right about the 30 second mark, theres a good overview of the track, so you can see the whole facility.

YouTube - the trickster @ hot water tour mesa park jet-ski competion
Here's the usual track design on this huge course.



Heres an action shot with Samson in it, during the park's prime. (remember that green roof building)



And, after years of neglect, here's how she lies today...


Welcome to Mesa Park!



Old Jet Ski ramp left for dead, with an overview of the grounds. I remember stopping at the Blue Top pavilion and getting my NASRA (North American Swamp Racing Association) button.



Another angle of the grounds:



Tech Tower in the middle of the racing field, where all races were watched/called from:



Another angle of the Tech Tower. Note the tastefully smashed window and falling insulation...




The old racing lane, this part made up the exit of the first turn. They would run 2-wide down this between the concrete barriers.



The concrete barrier wall that made the boundaries. I was scared ****less one day when Gary Porter launched Carolina Crusher off of this toward the crowd, and the hood flew off.



Entering the middle of the track, which would be the center of the Figure8/S-turn. Many a truck broke when hammering down on this part of the track, heading for the final turn.



If I stood here during a race, I would be crushed by 10,000 lbs flying over the finish line. Now home to fish and alligators...



If you cleared out these trees, this is where the trucks would park in between rounds, on top of one of the 2 pads in the middle of the track. Hence, Mesa Park

[rns0504]

PART 2

The old bleacher pads, from which I watched my heroes race at a countless number of shows over the years...



A view from the VIP stand, out onto the track...



What looks like and old leftover racing fuel drum, found near the entrance to the main pits...


Press box, whats left of it



Random piles of twisted metal...



Ahhh... the good old beverage stand







One last shot as I go through the exit gates for the last time of dozens of times in my life....



Goodbye, Mesa Park...



As you can tell, It was slightly emotional going back to this place where I have so many memories, and seeing it like this. Its the place where I first mer my heroes of back then, including Gary Porter, Scott Hartsock, Sky Hartley, Randy Brown, Paul Shafer, Calvin Carrington, Tony Farrell, Allen Pezo, Andy Slifko, and countless, countless others...

[BoltThrower]

Very sad.......that beer is no longer $3!!!

[thelegendaryone]

whats mesa mula and why do they sell cigars?

[carcrusher]

shame to see such a nice place go to waste like that. thanks for the pics.

may wanna edit some language in the first post though.

[rns0504]

If I remember correctly, you could win Mesa Mula in some of their contests to put toward purchases, and I think all purchases has to be in Mesa Mula, you had to go change your money first before you could buy anything. From what I remember at least, that was YEARS ago.


As for cigars, haha, cant answer that. I remember my dad going and buying like 4 at a time, lol.

[gmtgmt]

so sad to see a nice park like that just ....
why did it close? didnt it get enoght money?

[rns0504]

Heres an recent article on what they PLAN on doing to it:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/...-27vfellsmere/

and if you don't want to read all that, heres why:
MESA Park opened in 1999 but closed in 2002 because of a lack of profitability and a legal feud between the owners. It was auctioned off into parcels in 2003. The six investors who bought parcels haven't built anything there, and potential investors who might have some plans for the 110 acres haven't stepped forward.

The concerts and the sporting events at MESA Park weren't enough to sustain the $5 million facility, and co-founders Jeff Parsons and Kathy Gates became embroiled in a legal dispute regarding the park's revenues.

After Parsons failed to sell the park on his own, the land was divvied into 13 parcels and auctioned off for a total of $1.7 million, records show.

[honda50r]

Wow that's crazy? So late model dirts would run there? How does the condition go downward so fast? Wow amazing. Is there any way that video could be re-uploaded? It says "video No Longer Available"

[rns0504]

They would do tons of things there, from Monster Trucks, to Country Music Concerts, even flood the place and run jetskis as seen in the video!

Really sad to see it go...

Even one of our board members, Dingus, had his beginnings there, if I'm correct, and doesn't live too far from the place at all.