It is the Yankee Stadium or Soldier Field of Sprint Car Racing. To step into the 82-year-old Williams Grove Speedway is to step back in time. Anyone with any sense of history can feel the ghosts, aura and spirit of its early warriors. And as dirt ovals go, The Grove is as quirky as Fenway
It was Eldora Speedway’s first multi-night Sprint Car festival. It began six years before the Kings Royal and 17 seasons ahead of the Historical Big One. It was the Eldora Nationals and like everything by Earl Baltes, it was a big deal in 1978. Eldora had staged a trial run in 1976 when the first
Cedar Lake Speedway staged the greatest race that I ever saw. It was one manic Monday conclusion to the World of Outlaws visit of 1988. To read headlines, Cedar Lake looked like another case of Steve Kinser stomping everyone in the dust, something he did 27 times that season. But it was so much more.
The World of Outlaws has long served the bold. It needs drivers bold enough to aim at concrete walls without lifting. It requires mechanics willing to sacrifice time with family to barnstorm car washes and truck stops. And promoters bold enough to challenge Mother Nature every weekend. Then there are car owners, the sport’s most
Dave Blaney is 58 years young. He spent his first 35 years as a resident of Hartford, OH and the last 23 in High Point, NC. He’s been married to Lisa for 32 years and the couple are parents to Emma, Erin and Ryan Blaney, who signed a NASCAR contract with Roger Penske at age
They came from South Florida and West Texas. They established Central Pennsylvania as a professional honey pot, raided Ohio often and placed all of America behind the curve on Sprint Car technology. They launched the All Star Circuit of Champions in 1970 then pestered a Wisconsin salesman to start the World of Outlaws in 1978.
The World of Outlaws stamped it as “The World’s Fastest Dirt Track”. The rake was too steep to scale on foot. Water trucks would have toppled so the surface was sprayed from below. Chutes stood longer than a horseman’s half at 0.54 mile to enable heavy boots to carry corner speed greater than any marquee
“Dirt is for racing. Asphalt is for getting there.” A witty slogan to some but religion to others. Scour the Eldora camps and it may be a tattoo. Dirt is the Earth’s first surface obviously. When chariots conducted the original oval race, no gladiator pitted for fresh tires. Science created asphalt as “a thick, sticky,
April Fools’ Day is no holiday. No child is excused from school. No mail carriers hit the golf course. Auto racing does not circle the date as part of a three-day weekend. April Fools’ Day is basically a 24-hour moratorium on lying. The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series has raced nine
Jimmy Horton had a career decision to make. He had been chosen to follow Sammy Swindell into the Nance Speed Equipment that netted 1981-82 championships with the World of Outlaws Sprint Cars. To racers not from New Jersey or New York, Horton had an easy choice. But those guys never won 42 Modified Stock Car
