Lake Afton
Circuit info:
- Address:
Lake Afton Race Track
Sedgwick County
Kansas
USA- Circuit length:
- 1.800 miles/2.897 km
- Circuit type:
- Temporary parkland course
Circuit history:
A classic circuit used since the 1960s for numerous SCCA club racing events, Lake Afton is located alongside the lake of the same name, west of Wichita.
The circuit is laid out on lakeside roads in a park maintained by Sedgwick County and is literally out in the middle of nowhere. The nearest town is Goddard, still some five miles away.
Although the track layout has not changed since racing began, it is thought that the start/finish line was once located on the opposite side of the circuit to present.
What is certain is that by the 1970s the start/finish line was firmly established on the long main straight, with the paddock area next to the pits. Spectator areas were confined to the inside the track.
The hot pits were on the grass next to the main straight with a long line of 55 gallon steel drums separating them from the track. The dummy grid lined up on a short piece of road, perpendicular to the straight and roughly where the finish flag is located on the map above.
The curving part of the track towards the end of the lap, after the end of the series of curves, actually went between some park buildings and was lined, in later years, from 50/75 yards from the first turn all the way through the curves with 55 gallon drums on both sides.
Lake Afton was fast and pretty hair-raising, especially if you lost control. One driver who did just that was Terry Raffensperger of Tulsa, who in the early '80s went off the main straight racing a Formula 440 in a rainstorm and crashed, suffering injuries which left him quadriplegic. He remained active in SCCA, however, including serving as race chairman for races at the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit.
Scott Liebler also crashed at Afton when the rear wing came off his Formula Atlantic, but he recovered and returned to racing (he was killed in a later race at Road Atlanta). There have also been a couple of fatalities at Afton.
SCCA racing eventually ceased at Lake Afton because the safety requirements made setup so time-consuming and difficult. Where once there were haybales, water barrels emerged. The long line of 55 gallon steel drums (filled with water) then became 2-3 rows of drums in the later races.
What once took a long weekend to set up became six weekends of work. Since then the safety parameters have become such that neither could be approved today.
Despite no longer being used for car racing, the circuit continues to the present day, running karting events twice a year.
Additional information by John Lee, Joe Fan and Rocky Entriken
