Woody Creek, Colorado · Est. 1963
Six decades of racing on America's highest mountain circuit — and a plan to preserve it for decades to come.
Without the community's help, we can't make this happen
Add your name to show Pitkin County that preserving Aspen Raceway matters to the community.
1952 – Today
Before there was a raceway, there was a town that closed its own streets. In the early 1950s, sports cars ran the corner at the Hotel Jerome while Aspen watched from balconies, sidewalks, and the beds of parked pickups. It was thrilling, it was loud, and it was happening a few feet from the front doors of the drugstore.
It was also, eventually, untenable. The crowds grew, the cars got faster, and it became clear that the racing needed somewhere of its own — a place built for it, away from town.
On July 27, 1963, the racing moved to Woody Creek — and stayed.
What opened that summer became the highest racetrack in the country, at 7,900 feet. For the next sixty years it did what the street races did, only safely: it gave the valley somewhere to gather. Race weekends drew families out to the hillside with coolers and lawn chairs, tailgates down, kids on the roofs of trucks. Generations of Aspen locals learned what a car sounds like at full song here.
Today the track and its facilities are outdated and no longer meet modern safety, environmental, or operational standards. The proposed redevelopment preserves what the Raceway has always been while making the improvements the site needs — safer, greener, and built to deliver far greater community benefit than ever before.
Not every piece of Aspen history belongs in a museum. Some places are meant to keep making memories.
The plan before Pitkin County
The Raceway stays a raceway. Same 45-acre shelf, same 1.1 miles it has run since 1963 — rebuilt to standards the original track was never held to.
What a preserved Aspen Raceway means for the community
Free, year-round access to the track and classrooms will be offered to the Upper Valley law enforcement and first responders at the redeveloped Aspen Raceway. This access will save hours of travel to other cities for required training, and keep crews close to the community and their families. Support for the Raceway is support for the community's safety.
Free teen driver-ed, re-established for local high school students, covering winter driving, summer driving and general car safety will be a crucial part of the new programming. These courses will be run by driver safety nonprofits and the local Sheriff's Office to teach proper technique on the Valley's demanding mountain roads, because well-trained young drivers save lives.
The Aspen Raceway's entrance will be relocated towards McLain Flats Road, ensuring that no raceway traffic disrupts the neighborhoods of Woody Creek. Plus, important upgrades to Upper River Road and the Smith Hill intersection are planned, including a 25 mph limit (down from 35), sight-line fixes, and support for safer Rio Grande Trail crossings in Woody Creek.
The redevelopment would include the building of fourteen below-market homes for Raceway employees. When not needed for staff, they will be prioritized for first responders, including firefighters, deputies, ambulance crews, and mountain rescue personnel.
Employees will also have access to 24 e-bikes, two EVs, electric carts available on site, RFTA Zone Passes, and transit support reaching Beaumont, Red Hill Lofts, the Response shelter and Good Deeds homeowners across the Valley.
The redevelopment plans include 100% funding of the Woody Creek Trailhead on the Rio Grande Trail, sight-line improvements and seasonal water stations at trail crossings, and the annual support to the County's Slow and Say Hello campaign.
A 450,000-gallon fire-water tank and 24/7 hydrant system meeting Fire District standards, contributions toward AFPD master planning, on-site suppression, dual access, and an emergency command station will be instated.
On-site wastewater treatment and reuse, solar offsetting for most of the site's energy, EV infrastructure, drought-tolerant native landscaping, ecological restoration, dark-sky lighting, low-profile architecture, and wildlife-friendly fencing will be focal points of the new Aspen Raceway's operations.
The Aspen Raceway redevelopment plan preserves a culturally significant use of the racetrack while bringing the property up to modern safety and environmental standards.
The new Aspen Raceway will provide 16-20 full-time jobs plus seasonal work, along with steady support for local contractors, vendors and service providers.