Sandusky Speedway is a half-mile automobile race track located south of the city of Sandusky in Perkins Township, Ohio. The track features low banking in the turns and long straightaways. It has a layout similar to Martinsville Speedway.
Plans for a half-mile dirt track in Sandusky were first drawn up in 1948 by Tommy Warren. In 1950 the Lake Erie Stock Coupe Racing Association (LESCRA) purchased the land and the first race was held on May 14 of that year. Richard Brickly of Willard, Ohio won the race in a 1932 Ford coupe and received $103 in prizemoney.
The track was paved over in 1955 and a steel grandstand (replacing the old wooden stands) was added on the front straightaway, increasing the seating capacity from 3,500 to 5,000. The track was resurfaced in 2003.
Sandusky Speedway closed at the end of the 1969 season when the Decker family, then the current owners, elected to shut down the facility. It lay dormant for all of 1970 until a lease agreement was reached allowing the facility to re-open the following year. It has operated continuously since.
The speedway has enjoyed two brief affiliations with NASCAR in its history. Some NASCAR-sanctioned races were held at the track in 1952 and from 1987 to 1994, Sandusky Speedway ran events in what is now known as the Whelen All-American Series.
In 2008, the track hosted the ARCA Lincoln Welders Truck Series for the first time.
Sandusky Speedway hosted weekly competition in Spectator Stock (an entry level division with four- and six-cylinder passenger cars with automatic transmissions), Street Stock, Sportsman, Modified and Sprint Car classes until the 2012 season when the Spectator Stock division and Sportman division were removed from the weekly racing schedule. In 2012 the speed plant went to a 3 division line up which included the Modified Division, Street Stock division and either the Buckeye Super Sprints, Ohio Late Models, Main Event Racing Series or the Supermodifieds rotating on the schedule.
It serves as an important hub for Supermodified racing, hosting an annual round of the International Supermodified Association (ISMA) Nationals as well as three rounds each year of the Midwest Supermodified Association (MSA) championship. The importance of this series is such that Oswego Speedway in New York - considered the home of Supermodified racing - is closed when the MSA races come to Sandusky. In turn, Sandusky Speedway closes on the weekend of the annual Oswego Classic.
Read more about Sandusky Speedway: Notable Alumni, Track Champions
Famous quotes containing the word speedway:
“The improved American highway system ... isolated the American-in-transit. On his speedway ... he had no contact with the towns which he by-passed. If he stopped for food or gas, he was served no local fare or local fuel, but had one of Howard Johnson’s nationally branded ice cream flavors, and so many gallons of Exxon. This vast ocean of superhighways was nearly as free of culture as the sea traversed by the Mayflower Pilgrims.”
—Daniel J. Boorstin (b. 1914)