Trump proposes speedway on Long Island

NEW YORK (AP) -- If Donald Trump gets his way, cars could soon be hitting speeds of nearly 200 mph in one Long Island community.

The casino impresario and real estate mogul has bid $55 million to develop a 2,900-acre site on eastern Long Island for a NASCAR superspeedway, a Riverhead town official said Saturday.

Trump's plan also calls for a golf resort and industrial park on the site, which once housed an aircraft test flight facility for defense contractor Grumman, said Andrea Lohneiss, director of the Riverhead Community Development Agency.

The U.S. Navy once owned the Suffolk County property, but turned it over to Riverhead officials last September. Grumman, now known as Northrup-Grumman, no longer uses the site, located about 75 miles east of Manhattan.

A hangar on the property currently houses the reconstructed remains of TWA Flight 800, which crashed off Long Island in 1996. No decision has been made on whether the Boeing 747 will remain there or be moved to another location, Lohneiss said.

A NASCAR spokesman said Saturday he had not heard about Trump's proposal, but noted "New York is a very attractive market."

Last year, NASCAR attracted 11 million people to its tracks and 252 million television viewers. It has been called America's fastest-growing sport.

Tim Sullivan, NASCAR's manager of communications, warned that the organization wants to be careful about where and how it expands.

"We don't want to oversaturate a market," he said, noting that NASCAR already holds a race in Watkins Glen in upstate New York, and two each at Pocono International Raceway in Pennsylvania and Dover Downs International Speedway in Delaware.