DAYTON SPEEDWAY TRACK HISTORY...
Here I will post information concerning the Dayton Speedway's history, in no particular order. As details continue to emerge, I'll edit the information here into some reasonable order. Your help and contributions are welcome. Contact me here.
TRACK CONFIGURATION AND FEATURES:
Over the life of the speedway, it's shape and size changed often. Here's what we think were the those changes over time, as researched by Jerry Wahl. Rick Patterson has come up with some additional information that will help us date photos(though some of it doesn't exactly match Jerry's research) from his own memory, the information provided with some of the photos that appear on this site, and from the article "The Hills, Going, Going..." that appeared in the October, 1986 issue of Stock Car Racing magazine. For the time being, Jerry's information will be shown in black, and Rick's information will be shown in this shade of green.
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The track opened as a 5/8 mile flat square dirt oval 6/03/34.
In 1937 the track was purchased by Frank Funk (who probably also built the grandstands).
The track remained a flat 5/8 mile square dirt oval until 7/17/38 - Frank Funk changed it from a square to the high banks as we knew it.
In 1939 Funk converted the speedway to a high-banked 1/2 mile dirt oval.
Dayton Speedway was a 1/2 mile high banked dirt oval 6/04/39 to 7/26/42.
Funk also raised the banking, twice. He may have buried old Dayton trolley cars to help build up the banking. Funk also added an "oil substance" that "made the track as hard as pavement." (On hot days the stuff would get soapy and rain over the cars and drivers.)
The covered grandstands were built in the late 1930's and were in place until sometime in the 1970's.
Billboards began appearing on the backstretch in the 1940's.
The track was closed 1943 & 1944 due to war.
Reopened 9/09/45. Not sure of the exact date when it was changed from dirt to pavement. (Note: soonersman55@aol.com reports that his mom remembers that the speedway was paved in the fall of 1946, and the smaller track inside was built in the spring of 1947.)
The 1/4 mile paved oval within the 1/2 mile track opened 6/20/47.
The track was sold in 1949.
The first Dayton 500 was held in 1953.
The 1/4 mile paved oval was leveled (removed) in 1954.
The track was bounded by a single white guardrail from 1949 to 1958.
In 1950 the track had a single "strap" guardrail (as evidenced by the photo of the 1950 sprint car start on this site's home page.)
In 1951 or 1952 the guardrail was converted to the extruded rounded style guardrail.
On August 7, 1954, the track hosted a concert by The Drifters.
The 1955 Jim Romine photo on this site shows the pedestrian bridge still in place over the 4th corner. The bridge was possibly removed after the 1955 season. (Note: Attention FODS! Can anyone out there help with the date the pedestrian bridge was built and the date that it was torn down?)
The track used a wooden scoring/announcer's stand from approximately 1949 to approximately 1954.
A 3/8ths mile flat dirt oval built inside the 1/2 mile track opened 7/12/59 and apparently only operated that year. The infield 3/8 mile existed in 1955. (Note: We need help to sort out exactly when the 3/8 mile track was built and when it was torn down.)
The 1960's were the Harlan Fengler Era. (Fengler was the Chief Starter of the Indy 500.) Fengler cut 6 feet off the banking at Dayton Speedway.
For three years in the 1960's, Earl Baltes ran the track.
By 1969, the track was circled by two high guardrails painted with black and white stripes. The infield scoring stand by 1969 was the new concrete stand that was used until the track finally closed (as evidenced by the Benny Parsons photo on this site).
The grandstand was still covered as of 1970 and the guardrail was still painted with black and white stripes.
The 1/2 mile track ran until 1970 then sat idle until it reopened 8/17/75.
In 1975 the track reopened under new ownership and the roof over the grandstands was removed. The guardrail was painted in black and yellow stripes.
The track was again closed from 1976 through 1978, although it was used infrequently for testing.
1979 ushered in the Don Thompson Era. The guardrails were painted red, white, and blue. "Greater Dayton Speedway" was painted on the scoring/announcer's stand. The racing surface was repaved twice.
A Figure 8 track was built in the infield sometime in the late 1970's.
The last Dayton 500 was held September 25 - 26, 1981. (Information provided by Bill Ashworth.)
In 1982, the front of the concession stand near turn one nearly collapsed between races one Sunday. The guardrails and the restrooms were a mess.
The track closed permanetly in 1982. Gerry Terry was the promoter that last year and it was a sad day when we had to send the fans and drivers home without seeing a race due to the lack of insurance to cover the day's events.
By 1984 the track was still for sale. The guardrails needed replaced, the grandstands needed repair, and there was one groove left in turns 1 and 2. There were huge potholes in turns 3 and 4. The straights were in amazingly good condition.
In 1986, the track was still for sale. The floor of the flagman's stand was rusted out. The top section of the infield scoring/announcer's stand was gone, as were the scales that were originally in front of the stand.