Theme Park Thursdays feature photos from one of our theme park adventures in the past.
Steve on the Speedway! (2009)
Hey, it's me! My sister took this photo from another car on the Tomorrowland Speedway during a trip to Walt Disney World in December 2009. You'll note that I'm also holding a camera. Shocking, I know.
The Speedway is located in the Magic Kingdom and opened with the park in 1971 as the Grand Prix Raceway. It was then shortened in 1987 to fit in Mickey's Birthdayland, while also being renamed the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway. A partnership with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway helped facilitate the "Indy" branding. That agreement ended in 2008 and the track changed names again, this time to just Tomorrowland Speedway. The track was modified again in early 2011 to accommodate the Fantasyland Expansion.
It's a historic ride that has a weak theme to "tomorrow" and really long lines, but it's something you just gotta do when you visit!
My memory of this ride was that I had just purchased a Mickey baseball cap. It had a blue bill and the hat was a cream color with blue pin stripes (like a 1940s baseball uniform) and a small Mickey head in the middle. Upon cruising down the speedway, the hat flew off my head and was promptly run over by the car behind me. I picked up the hat on the next go around it was filthy. I still wore it.