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Atlanta Speedway badly damaged by tornado

Wednesday night twister caused as much as $40 million in damage

Image: Atlanta Motor SpeedwayAP
Wind shredded grandstands and boxes circle a portion of the race track at Atlanta Motor Speedway. A tornado ripped through the track Wednesday night causing as much as $40 million in damage.

HAMPTON, Ga. - The Atlanta Motor Speedway looks as if it was in a high-speed crash after a tornado caused as much as $40 million in damage.

“Everything but the track surface has suffered some kind of damage, said speedway president Ed Clark, who estimated damage of $25 million to $40 million from the storm Wednesday night. “There are some buildings that will have to be torn down.”

Entire sections of the grandstand and luxury boxes are shredded. Oak trees, flagpoles and light towers are snapped. On some of the speedway’s condominiums, the roof is caved in and windows are shattered.

Every structure at the facility, which hosts NASCAR races and smaller events, was roughed up by a half-mile-wide tornado spawned night by the remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy.

While the speedway’s races for the next week have been canceled, NASCAR’s Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 — set for Oct. 30 — will go on, Clark said.

“We’ll be here and we’ll be running the race as scheduled,” he said.

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The bowl shape of the speedway helped the tornado form and it eventually remained on the ground for about four miles, also hitting the Tara Field airport in Hampton, the National Weather Service said. Four planes were overturned and two hangars were damaged at the airport.

Lans Rothfusz, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service’s Peachtree City office, said a preliminary investigation indicated the tornado was a category F-2 with winds up to 157 mph.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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