Back in the dark ages... when that particular parking place was called Mercury Mall, we used to run there. The club that put the events on was called Penninsula Sports Car Club. I think we probably ran 1-2 events there each month from sometime in the '60's up to somewhere around 1980. Back then the malls and stores were all closed on Sundays.

Malls are great for public exposure. They required extra effort from everyone to keep the events safe, because people were always ducking under the ropes and walking across the course. Workers had to be on their toes. Getting sponsors was easier, because there was always a pretty big crowd of spectators.

The mall or shopping center that will usually let you use their lot as an autocross site is typically one where their business is falling off (look for big empty parking lots on Sundays), they are locally owned (don't have to call the legal offices in NYC to get approval), and have an interest. For years we could use Military Circle because the manager was a guy that had a Porsche and a Mustang GT. It was also locally owned. It eventually got sold out and we went along with the local owners.

We can be seen as someting that brings in customers to a sagging Sunday afternoon business in the right situation. The place I would like to see us run again is the Va. Beach Pavillion. Exposure there was great. We used to run there on a weeknight after work, under the lights. It was cool.