Closed Tracks

For whatever reason, I've always had a fascination with closed race tracks.  There's just something about the mystique that draws me in I guess you could say.  Whether I'm reading about it in Allan Brown's History of America's Speedways or whether I'm trying to find an old track on Google maps, the entire mystery surrounding the track simply grabs my attention.


It's hard to say when or how exactly this happened.  Perhaps it's because several of the tracks I grew up attending, such as R&R Speedway (Zanesville, OH), would later close, leaving behind the thoughts of "what could have been".

For other tracks, it's the fact that I read so much about them as a kid but never got to see a race there...places like McCutchenville Speedway (pictured above in 2008) in McCutchenville, OH or Silver Spring Speedway in Mechanicsburg, PA or even Crown Point Speedway in Crown Point, IN.  The fact that racing actually took place on that particular piece of property is almost eerie.


It's also fun.  If you've ever visited the site of a closed track, it's pretty cool to stand there for a minute and imagine what it was like to sit there and watch races at that track.  You can practically hear the announcer blaring over the PA system, smell the concession stand food cooking behind you, and visualize the old cars broadsliding through the turns.


Over the years, I've found that I'm not alone in this closed track fascination.  As a matter of fact, almost all race fans seem to share the same passion for investigating dormant facilities and the stories that go with them.  Why is that?  What are we so infatuated with this phenomenon?


Of course, with every closed race track there's a hundred stories to go along with it. The stories always range from how great the racing was to what led to the closure of the track to the rumors about the track reopening.


And no matter which closed track it is, the racing always seems to "get better" as time goes on.  Much like a person's passing, a track's legacy also grows after it closes.


Maybe that is what's so fascinating about it.  Or maybe we all just love to relive the days gone by.