Today, I join my friend Kim, who runs the Frontierland Station blog, on her Fastpass to History blog hop.  This blog hop looks back on the history of Disney.  This is one of my favorite blog hops because I like history, in general, and Disney so it’s a marriage of two of my favorite things.

This week, I’m looking back on the history of the Tomorrowland Speedway at Walt Disney World.  Tomorrowland Speedway is one of the few attractions that is still running from when Disney opened in October of 1971.

When Walt Disney World opened, the current Tomorrowland Speedway opened as the Grand Prix Raceway and had a sponsorship from Goodyear Tires.

Disneypix does a great job in this picture of capturing two of my favorite attractions as a child: the speedway and the skyway.  I could have ridden those attractions all day…with brief breaks to ride Dumbo.

The track, itself, remains pretty much unchanged from when the attraction opened back in 1971.  The only alteration to the track occurred in the early 90’s.  Part of the track made way for Mickey’s Birthdayland which is now New Fantasyland.

Disney entered an agreement in 1999 with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which brought some of the historical elements (33 car scoring pylon, yard of bricks, etc.) of the Indianapolis Motor  Speedway to the attraction.  The attraction was also renamed “Tomorrowland Indy Speedway.”

A few years later, Disney could not come to terms to an extension of the agreement with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  As a result, Indy was dropped from the name to what we know it as now “Tomorrowland Speedway.”  However, the 33-car scoring pylon still remains at the attraction.

What does the future hold for Tomorrowland Speedway?  I think the ride is in need of a re-theming.  As I talked about earlier this week in Re-imagine, refurb, or leave alone, I would like to see the ride re-themed into a Candy Crush Sugar Rush type of experience.  Alter the track some to make drop of easier and not spend a lot of time waiting.  I also think that a Candy Crush Sugar Rush theme could make this attraction a fun bridge from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland.

Thanks for reading!