Auto City Speedway
|
Still Going Fast After 66 Years!
By Michael Thodoroff, Vice President GCHS Things were booming in Genesee County in the 1950s. Service personnel returning from the Armed Forces were settling back into their homes and jobs, while starting or growing their families. Most were working at the multiple General Motors factories which were working round-the-clock, as GM was carving out a 60% market share. Forms of recreation were certainly not what they are today, but it was very popular to dust off the ‘ol jalopy that was sitting in the back yard, strip it down to the bare essentials – and go racing at the local dirt track! |
One of the oldest tracks was Birch Run’s Dixie Motor Speedway, which opened in 1948 as a 1/3-mile D-shaped dirt oval. Since it was the “only game in town” as far as racetracks went, the promoters were learning along the way, too. After one of the Saturday nights of racing, however, a new “rival” speedway was born. When all the winning racers went to the pay window to collect their winnings one Saturday night, the promoter told the drivers they did not have enough paying spectators that evening and thus had to greatly reduce their winnings. After listening to a lively, shall we say, “backlash” from the agitated racers, the promoter shouted out, “…if you don’t like it, go build your own racetrack!”
|
Well, one racer actually took that assertion to heart. A few years later and just down the road at 10205 N Saginaw Rd (Clio, MI), Auto City Speedway opened its gates in 1955 as a 3/8-mile banked dirt oval with no corners carved out the same - a trait that would make it renowned still to this day. The promoter learned from his experiences, and in addition to adding another separate shorter (1/4 mile) track utilizing two turns of the larger track layout, added different classes of cars to make the races more competitive and eventually expanded to flat track motorcycle races on Friday nights and TT Scrambles (jumps and right/left turns) on Sundays.
|
The popularity of Auto City Speedway rapidly grew to capacity crowds, but soon those crowds “complained” of all the dirt the cars were throwing. In what was considered a bold move at the time, the promoter paved the entire two tracks (while expanding the length of the larger layout) with a high-density asphalt in 1986. Within a few years, the fastest cars in the midwestern states were racing at Auto City Speedway which eventually led to the speedway’s claim as “the fastest ½ mile in Michigan!”
Today’s Auto City Speedway has continually developed the facility over the years to be more than just a car racing track. It has become a perfect venue for corporate outings, concerts, festivals, car shows, revivals, trade shows, family reunions, outdoor movies, sporting events and the like.
Be sure to read the story of yesterday and today’s Auto City Speedway in the upcoming issue of GCHS’s bi-annual “The Historian", out this fall!
Today’s Auto City Speedway has continually developed the facility over the years to be more than just a car racing track. It has become a perfect venue for corporate outings, concerts, festivals, car shows, revivals, trade shows, family reunions, outdoor movies, sporting events and the like.
Be sure to read the story of yesterday and today’s Auto City Speedway in the upcoming issue of GCHS’s bi-annual “The Historian", out this fall!
In the meantime, visit www.http://www.autocityspeedway.com/ to get a schedule of races and other special events.
