ELDORA SPEEDWAY

'Eldora Speedway', also known as 'The Big E' and 'Auto Racing's Showcase since 1954', is located near Rossburg, Ohio. Eldora is a half-mile clay oval with an estimated seating capacity of nearly 20,000. It hosts such races as "The King's Royal," "The Dirt Late Model Dream," "Four-Crown Nationals," and "The World 100." The World 100 annually attracts over 200 dirt late-model racers, while the Four-Crown Nationals features four races in one night -- midget, sprint, Silver Crown, and dirt late model, with drivers earning a special bonus should one driver win all four races.
NASCAR driver Tony Stewart purchased the speedway in late 2004 from Earl Baltes, who built the speedway from the ground up in 1954. Stewart hired promoter Larry Kemp to head the day-to-day operations at the circuit.
A new Daktronics LED scoreboard and billboards were added off Turn Two, to be more visible against the setting sun. Additional catchfencing and a new caution light systems were added for safety. Stewart said he hoped to add a large-screen video board instead of the standard scoreboard.

Contents

Prelude to the Dream

Additional reading

External link

Prelude to the Dream

They also added "Prelude to the Dream", a new late-model Nextel-sponsored race with visiting Nextel Cup stars. In 2005, Kenny Wallace won the first "Prelude to the Dream" and a total of $50,000 dollars was donated to Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Gang Camp. Tony Stewart won the second annual "Prelude to the Dream" and celebrated his win by climbing Eldora's new catch fence and jumping into the crowd of fans. Both "Prelude" events combined have attracted more than 40,000 spectators to Eldora Speedway, and the 2007 race featured both a live audience and pay-per-view coverage, with all proceeds from the coverage being donated to Victory Junction. Carl Edwards held off Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon to win the 2007 event and celebrated by doing his trademark backflip off of his car onto the dirt. The 36th annual World 100 was held on September 9, 2006. The race has been said to be one of the greatest dirt late model races ever held, as in the last 25 laps the top 5 cars raced feverishly for the lead. The race was won by Jacksonville, Florida's Earl Pearson, Jr. as a total of 195 cars tried to make the 28 car starting field.
Stewart hoped for an International Race of Champions event to be held at Eldora in 2007, even refusing to take the $1 million prize that came with his winning the 2006 season title, in exchange for an event to be held at his track. However, as IROC went on hiatus for the 2007 season due to lack of sponsorship, any possible race at Eldora would not happen until 2008.

Additional reading

★ "Racing on Eldora's dirt path special for big-time drivers" at NASCAR.com, Retrieved June 6 2007

External link

★ Eldora Speedway website