Drag race events originally planned for this weekend at EPCAL canceled

Two drag race events that were scheduled this weekend at the Enterprise Park at Calverton have been canceled.

The Town Board in January approved a total of 21 weekend drag race events on the taxiway of the 10,000-foot EPCAL runway. But Peter Scalzo, the promoter of the Race Track Not Street series, contacted town officials about a week ago and said that representatives of Luminati Aerospace had objected to the use of the taxiway, according to officials. 

Luminati Aerospace is headed by Daniel Preston, who has since moved his operations upstate.

The town owns only 35 feet of the 10,000-foot runway, and that is restricted for aviation use, according to deputy Town Attorney Annemarie Prudenti.

Mr. Scalzo is now amending his plans for the Calverton site to move all his races back to the 7,000-foot runway, where they were last year. Tickets sold for the April 2-3 events will be honored for a future date, Mr. Scalzo said.

“We have 19 more events, three for spring, and 16 more for summer and fall,” he said.

Ticketholders can email [email protected] to transfer tickets to a different date.

“We do have have people who bought the whole series,” Mr. Scalzo added.

Bird nesting regulations mean that April 16 will be last event before the summer series begins Aug. 20. The summer series is titled  “Racetrack Not Street 2022 Summer Classic.”

Mr. Scalzo received town approval in January to move the races this year to the taxiway of the 10,000-foot runway. 

The Town Attorney’s office will alter the January resolutions to move all of the race events onto the smaller runway. However, Mr. Scalzo said there is not enough time to do so prior to the weekend. The Town Board is expected to vote on the amended resolutions Tuesday.

Mr. Scalzo said he not requesting additional dates to make up for the two lost April dates.

More information on the events and for purchasing tickets is available by clicking here.

The Race Track Not Street series debuted last August at EPCAL and brought drag racing back to Long Island for the first time in 17 years. A second promoter also created a separate drag racing series at EPCAL called Scrambul Runway Challenge. That series returned with the Scrambul: Cold Fusion in March.