Latest news with #Englishtown
The Drive
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
A New Jersey Racing Institution Could Be Destroyed for Housing Development
The latest car news, reviews, and features. We see it all too often these days, but yet another local racing institution is under threat of being dismantled for housing expansion. This time it's Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. Due to the state's affordable housing directive, the township must identify sites to develop new homes, and one of them is a southeast tract of the 534-acre Raceway Park venue. A plan under consideration would raise as many as 600 units on the property, which first opened in 1965 and is historically best known for drag racing. Raceway Park ceased drag racing in 2018 due to rising costs, but still operates a road course and motocross track, and holds karting and drifting events, including a round of the Formula Drift championship. Just 50% of the land is considered viable for development due to environmental factors, MyCentralJersey reports, and the proposal would supposedly leave behind space for some kind of motorsport facility, as well as other commercial and retail uses. This is not Raceway Park's first brush with redevelopment. Back in 2023, the Old Bridge Township Council attempted to move forward with a plan to rezone a portion of the land for single-family homes. The track sued the town, with Raceway Park's attorney at the time telling MyCentralJersey that the 'ordinance is looking to rob them of their use of that property and basically zone it into disuse.' A small public airport also sits beside the track. A scene from Raceway Park 20 years ago, when the track still held drag racing events. Krissy Krummenacker/Reading Eagle via Getty Images The two parties have been in negotiations since to reach a new agreement, which brings us to the present. At a meeting last month, the township planning board voted to 'begin the process of determining whether the raceway qualifies as an 'area in need of redevelopment,'' according to . New Jersey's Fair Share Housing Development Plan calls for 146,000 'affordable housing units' across the state over the next decade, whether through rehabilitation or new construction; Old Bridge is tapped to contribute 673 homes. It's worth noting that the township doesn't appear to be excited about the task of finding the room. Board members called the obligation 'unfair,' per , and one was quoted as saying, 'If it were up to me, I'd put up a 'closed for building' sign in this town. It's disgusting. If we don't comply, we get sued. So in the end, we really don't have a choice.' Perhaps even more frustrating, under New Jersey guidelines, only 15% to 25% of units within an 'inclusionary' residential development are typically designated as 'affordable,' according to MyCentral Jersey , while the rest may be sold at market rate. In 2023, Atco Dragway, another long-running drag racing venue in the state about 50 miles southwest of Englishtown, closed after a 63-year history. The Drive has reached out to Raceway Park for comment, and will update this story if we hear back. Got a tip? Send it our way at tips@
The Drive
15-07-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Sung Kang Confirms Live-Action Drift Movie With Big-Name Car Guys and Audience Participation
The latest car news, reviews, and features. Sung Kang, known as 'Han' in the Fast and Furious flicks (coincidentally being referenced for the second time today) has just confirmed he's making a live-action drift movie called Drifter with a handful of other well-known car-world personalities. They're going to be shooting part of it at a public drift event this summer. We've been hearing that Kang's been working on a drift movie for years—as of 2023, the rumor was it was going to be a live-action Initial D kind of thing. But now I'm guessing that's just how it was being pitched to investors. In an Instagram post that just went up today, Kang was joined by Brian Scotto (founding member of The Hoonigans) and Adam LZ (famous American drifter and YouTuber) in announcing that they're going to be doing a drift movie that's 'real,' along with Rutledge Wood (previous Top Gear USA host) and James Pumphrey (Donut Media OG). They're going to be shooting at least part of it at the Legends Of Drift event coming up next month (August 23-25) at Englishtown, New Jersey's Raceway Park. The event itself put out an announcement with a few more details. I'll drop it in here: 'Legends of Drift is more than just an event – it's a live-action celebration of drift culture, the car community, and cinematic storytelling. Taking over Raceway Park in Englishtown, NJ on August 23–24, 2025, this two-day experience blends a real drift competition and car show (just like what you've come to love and expect from the LZ World Tour events by Adam LZ & Drift Games) with the filming of DRIFTER — a passion project directed by and starring Fast & Furious icon Sung Kang. Expect non-stop tire-shredding action, an epic car show, fantasy battles, vendor booths, crowd giveaways, and much more. Joining us are some of the biggest names in drifting and car culture: Adam LZ, Brian Scotto, James Pumphrey, Rutledge Wood, Dai Yoshihara, Chelsea DeNofa, Luke Fink, Dave Egan, Jarod DeAnda, Grant Anderson, Chris Rudnik, Nate Hamilton, and many more guests still to be announced.' I guess if you get yourself tickets and wave your arms like an inflatable guy outside a used car dealership, you just might see yourself in the bleachers when you go to watch the movie! The emphasis on 'realness' in the promo video below makes it sound like this won't be a work of fiction, but I suppose they could do real stunts with a made-up narrative for drama. Either way, I'm excited! Got any more Hollywood tips for us? Drop us a line at tips@
The Drive
20-06-2025
- Automotive
- The Drive
Formula D Car Taken Out by New Jersey Storm
The latest car news, reviews, and features. A nasty storm tore through parts of New Jersey Thursday afternoon, causing chaos at the Formula Drift event at Englishtown. It was particularly gnarly for Jeff Jones, who returned to the paddock to find a tree had fallen on his Z, puncturing the windshield and crushing the roof. Nobody was hurt in the incident, but the damage to the car was enough for Jones to rule out its participation in this weekend's event. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Formula DRIFT (@formulad) Jones shared photos and videos of the damage on Instagram, and even took over the official Formula D live stream to let fans know he was unharmed ( Warning: the clip above contains some colorful language ). He even jokingly asks if anybody has a spare drift car that he can enter into the event on Saturday. From the up-close pics, it appears that the culprit was a mature but diseased oak tree. It crushed much of the roof over the Z's passenger compartment and blew out the windshield entirely. Enough of it was resting on the car to completely bottom out its suspension. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeff Jones (@jeffjonesracing) The good news is that the entire front clip of the car appears relatively undamaged, so everything under hood should have survived relatively unscathed. Even the driver-side door still opens. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jeff Jones (@jeffjonesracing) According to local weather forecasters have ruled out the likelihood that the damage was caused by a tornado, suggesting instead that it was caused by simple (but no less dangerous) straight-line winds. Local observers reported gusts exceeding 60 mph between 4:00 and 4:30 PM Thursday as the system moved through. Got flora crashing through your drift car's windshield? Let us know at tips@ .article-sidebar]:pt-0>
The Guardian
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Former mob killer leaves crime behind to become New Jersey councilman
John Alite has big plans for Englishtown, New Jersey, a small hamlet best known for potatoes, a drag racing strip, and the Battle of Monmouth during the revolutionary wars. But not everyone is certain they want Alite, 62, having a say over municipal matters in the town of about 2,350 people, where he was appointed a council member earlier this year and comes up for confirmation early next month. The reason is an unusual one: Alite's background – about which he is open – as a former member of the Gambino crime family with a long history of violence, murder and extortion. For Alite once served as a top 'earner' for John 'the Teflon Don' Gotti, and later for his son John Gotti Jr. But after getting picked up in Brazil, where he was held for two years fighting extradition, Alite turned cooperating government witness against the younger Gotti, and pleaded guilty to racketeering charges, including two murders. But in his own telling, Alite is a changed man and plans to spend the next years helping the small New Jersey community and not, as in years past, causing mayhem. On the agenda is steering kids away from a life of crime, prettying up Englishtown with cobblestones and restaurants similar to nearby Princeton, and keeping out fentanyl dealers. Alite's is a compelling story. Albanian by extraction – meaning he could never be a 'made man' in the Italian mob – he was nonetheless nicknamed 'the Calculator' because of his financial acumen in helping to move 8kg of cocaine a month. Former FBI agent Ted Otto said Alite was 'a hybrid gangster … an exception to the rule'. Can his gangster background be applied to managing the economics, permits, zoning and construction codes of smalltown America? He certainly believes so, removing his yellow-tinted sunglasses for effect as he sat for an interview with the Guardian last week. The previous evening he was at a council meeting arguing for independent building contractors to develop a disused township building. 'Some people outside the town have had a lot to say, but the town is very supportive,' he says. Political office, he points out, is a natural for an ex-mobster. 'People ask me why? I tell them I have more experience than all these politicians. 'Plus I'm not a criminal any more – I'm on a mission to do things the right way,' he adds. After Alite was appointed to the council by Englishtown's mayor, Daniel Francisco, following the resignation of a number of council members last year, there was a contentious meeting in which Alite was accused of welfare fraud. But the accuser was shouted down by residents. 'He's started a new life!' one said, while another said: 'We don't want to hear any of this!' The man who brought up the accusation admitted to working for Alite's former boss Gotti Jr, according to USA Today. Opposite the diner where Alite likes to have lunch, a store owner advises a reporter to use Vaseline to block your ears. Alite can talk, and in the gravelly Brooklynese of his native tongue. He can talk so much, in fact, that he hosts a popular podcast, Catch Me on the Run, written several books, and appeared in numerous documentaries, including the recent Netflix series Get Gotti. The history of Gambino members going straight is not, however, entirely promising. Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano appeared to be on the straight and narrow until he was busted for dealing ecstasy. Last year, John Jr's wife and daughter were briefly charged after getting into a brawl at youth basketball game on Long Island, allegedly tearing the wig from the mother of an opposing team player. But that's not Alite's story. 'I live in a community and I want the community to be safe, because I know about that – obviously. I want it to be drug-free as much as possible, because I lost my daughter to fentanyl.' Three years ago, 20-year-old Chelsea Alite unwittingly took a fentanyl-laced disguised Percocet, causing a fatal overdose. But there are four cannabis dispensaries in Englishtown, with licensing for a fifth, twice as many as the number of bars. Must be a high-margin business? 'I wasn't on the council then,' he says, 'but I think two would be sufficient.' Asked if there are any fentanyl dealers in Englishtown, Alite gives a persuasive no. He's a supporter of charging fentanyl dealers involved in fatal overdoses with murder. He points out that when he was a dealer – 'I wish I wasn't' – and was asked for dope, cocaine or mescaline, 'we didn't stick other things in it'. It's a style of logic that permeates Alite's thinking: it wasn't good to do bad things, but at least those things were done honestly, mostly to people who were also out doing bad things. He is also a Republican. He's met Trump on several occasions and, like Trump, sees the federal government as a shakedown operation with a talent for skimming and pocket-lining. 'John Gotti Sr, who I knew as a kid, used to tell me all the time: the government is the mafia. I would laugh, and thought he was nuts, but later on I learned he was absolutely right,' he says. 'But I was just young and naive.' But what will Englishtown look like with Alite elected in it? 'This doesn't look like a beautiful, quaint Jersey town,' he says. 'I want the old-style lights, cobblestone sidewalks, restaurants, a florist, a Dunkin' Donuts. What was the old mayor and council doing all these years?' If he is elected to the council, Englishtown can expect a major upgrade under the guidance of a man who knows both sides. 'People ask me why would you want to be a politician, and I tell them: because most of them are corrupt and now I'm not, so I can see what they're doing and I'll fight what they're doing.'
