Chaos alert: 25,000 show up for unpermitted car show concert at popular NJ venue

🚨25,000+ overwhelm South Jersey track, forcing early shutdown of event

🚨Drivers park 'anywhere'

🚨Emergency alert hits phones across 3 states

LOGAN — A car show and concert at the Bridgeport Motorsport Park on Sunday led to an ominous alert sent to people in three states.

The Import Expo drew a large over-capacity crowd of 25,000 to the park off Route 44 in the Repaupo section of the Gloucester County township, less than 25 miles southwest of Cherry Hill, causing traffic delays on the highway.

Crowds arrived before the noon start time, with some racing their own cars with passengers riding outside the vehicles.

Flood Gate Road, which leads from Route 44 to the track, was closed to traffic by police. This led many of those attending the event to park "wherever they chose, exited their vehicles, and began walking to the venue," according to police. There were also reports of public intoxication, public urination, lewdness, disorderly conduct, littering and numerous fights.

As the crowd continued to grow an exit on Route 295 was closed and lanes were blocked on Route 44.

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Traffic gridlock, fights and disorder reported

A track spokesperson told New Jersey 101.5 that the track decided to shut down the event completely around 3 p.m., and it was over by 4:10 p.m. The crowd was slow to leave and township police sent an alert around 5 p.m. to disperse "immediately," and that non-compliance could lead to "enforcement action" that could include "citations or arrest."

One person was charged with disorderly conduct and released pending a court date. Their identity was not disclosed.

The alert was received by phones in Delaware and Pennsylvania, whose users were confused because of the lack of detail in the message.

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Second troubling weekend at 'Kingdom of Speed'

The track issued an apology and said the event, which was put on by a third party that rented the park, was not what they expected.

"I do not want to make excuses. This post is to APOLOGIZE and promise we will be better at what we do because of this. I want to thank everyone at Logan Township for their help with this matter. They were great to work with as they always are and very helpful in helping us resolve the already bad situation without making it any worse," the park said in a statement.

The park also said that pictures posted to social media exaggerated the crowd and said they only took up one acre of their 83-acre facility.

The "kingdom of speed" was in the news for the second weekend in a row. Racer George Schweigart, of Woodhull, New York, was involved in a violent crash on March 21 that knocked him unconscious. His mother, Cathy Schweigart, said he suffered two broken ribs, a fracture under one eye, two fractures in his neck and another in his lower back. On Saturday, his mother said he had been moved out of the ICU and was continuing to improve.

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