Cumberland Speedway

[BTExpress]

After a several year battle with the city of Cumberland MD, it looks like Cumberland Speedway will reopen in 2017. A new promotor has secured approval to run 17 races on Saturday nights next year. Super Late Models will headline the program and the track will run the same rules as Bedford Speedway (Friday nights) located 30 miles north of Cumberland. Not sure where the cars will come from as they will be competing with Hagerstown & Winchester for those Saturday night racers. However, it is always good news to see tracks reborn.

[jlacey]

Nice! Living in Maryland i always wanted to go there but never had the chance to. I think its around a 5-6 hour drive for me, closest ive been was passing by on the way to Pennsboro back in the day

[W2Racing09]

Nice! Living in Maryland i always wanted to go there but never had the chance to. I think its around a 5-6 hour drive for me, closest ive been was passing by on the way to Pennsboro back in the day

It's not quite that far -- I would say it is about 1.5 hours past Hagerstown which is about 1.5 hours or so. It's a really boring drive though IMO. I've never been to a race there, but I'll probably check it out. Not getting my hopes up though, the fair board has stood in the way of anything more exciting than the grass growing at that track.

Thanks,
Jeff.

[BTExpress]

Well, these are some familiar words that have been said and heard over the last couple of years: the Cumberland Raceway plans to be hosting auto racing again in 2017.

It was made in an announcement last week that the members of the Allegany County Commission have once again approved a contract with a promoter to reopen the speedway located at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, Maryland, just a couple of months after the commission deemed the race track was not “economically feasible.”

We’ve heard this song and dance before. It was announced in late 2014 that there’d be racing in 2015, and it never materialized. It was also announced in late 2015 by yours truly that there’d be racing in 2016, and it also failed to materialize.

I just hope that this song doesn’t repeat and that it changes the tune to the sound of roaring engines.

The best part of this new deal is that it saves the Fairgo half-mile oval built in 1924 from a possible demolition that was recommended by an outside engineering consultant firm based out of Missouri. The recommendation claimed that auto racing was no longer a viable form of entertainment for the community.

A study that was completely opposite of one conducted in 2007 sought out to improve and expand the uses of motorsports at the fairground facility.

When the news of the latest engineering study came about, that set forth a motion of events in a grassroots movement to convince the county government that fans and racers didn’t want to see their hometown race track disappear forever.

Now, the “Save the Cumberland Raceway” campaign that began through Facebook has successfully become the home of The Greater Cumberland Raceway, as the track was known many years ago previously, before various promoters over the years had changed the name of the track.

The non-profit promotional group is led by promoter Todd Brode, who plans to hold 16 races from April through October, all on Saturday nights. Proceeds earned on race nights will go back into funding track maintenance and toward season-ending awards.

Members of the group have been working hard behind the scenes with fundraising activities and group work days at the track in preparation of a 2017 racing season.

For now, it appears as if the group has its act together, and it seems as if the county commission is being supportive of this effort. I just know what Craig Knippenberg, Calvin Davis and yours truly went through to get things going in previous efforts.

[ironboss]

Good news but not sure how that will work with Roaring Knob running right up the road on the same nights. Would love to see The Rock go back to Sunday night racing!

[dmr37]

Roaring Knob sounds like a STD you pick up after being with a low budget meth head

[hex8320]

If Cumberland does get up and running and does a good job. I believe they will take most of the cars from Roaring Knob

[PennDirt]

BTE, thanks for the concise write-up. Optimism abound, I hope the residents surrounding your sacred grounds haven't fallen in love the extended period of quietness like Ebensburg did.

Usually, it seems, areas full of long racing history end up getting their way to keep tradition alive. Now we just need the MACS back at The Rock and we're all set.

Good luck in '17.

[pa_dirt]

I wish we could get a series back in this area similar to the MACS Sereis ..we have a lot of regional talent in this area

[RacerRose]

Penn Dirt: BTExpress actually cut and paste used my article from The Journal-News. The "yours truly" referred isn't him, it's me.

It's from my Finish Line column published each Tuesday. You can read the full article from my Finish Line by Brett Rose Facebook page, or under the sports link at thejournal-news.net

Thank you for liking my concise write-up.

Anyways, I hope Cumberland gets support to have a good season.

[BTExpress]

RacerRose that is correct, I enjoy reading your articles.....no one would have a better insight on this whole debacle than you. If I remember correctly you had a schedule all laid out last year, including some sprint car races planned? A question, was the new guard rail ever delivered and installed and how much work still needs to be done before racing can actually take place?

[RacerRose]

Thanks, BTE.

You are correct.

The guardrail debacle seems to be squared away. The new group was looking into purchasing Jersey barriers that were left over from the closing and recent equipment sale of Thunder Valley Raceway. The group has a lot of volunteers and they've been hard at work tilling, disking, and picking out the rocks through scheduled work days. They've been very dedicated to get this going.

So I really do think they will be ready come April 2017. If you go to The Greater Cumberland Raceway page on Facebook, that's the best place for updates.

[jlacey]

It's not quite that far -- I would say it is about 1.5 hours past Hagerstown which is about 1.5 hours or so. It's a really boring drive though IMO. I've never been to a race there, but I'll probably check it out. Not getting my hopes up though, the fair board has stood in the way of anything more exciting than the grass growing at that track.

Thanks,
Jeff.

It may not have been that far but your right, it is a boring ride that seems like it takes forever. I was 15,16 and 17 the years we went and was always a passenger. I just remember it seemed to take forever just to get out of Maryland, and once we drove through the mountain in Cumberland we were almost in WV.

[PennDirt]

Penn Dirt: BTExpress actually cut and paste used my article from The Journal-News. The "yours truly" referred isn't him, it's me.

It's from my Finish Line column published each Tuesday. You can read the full article from my Finish Line by Brett Rose Facebook page, or under the sports link at thejournal-news.net

Thank you for liking my concise write-up.

Anyways, I hope Cumberland gets support to have a good season.

Thanks for clarifying the source. BTE is a decent poster here. No harm, no foul, I hope. At least he expanded the awareness of your words, collective effort and progress. Too often here in Pa. with the oncoming of winter it includes the ritual of closed tracks possibly reopening the following year which seems to carry such a low success rate that I'm nearly impervious the announcements. He got my attention.

Your last sentence resonates the loudest. I wish you all the best.

[RacerRose]

Thanks for clarifying the source. BTE is a decent poster here. No harm, no foul, I hope. At least he expanded the awareness of your words, collective effort and progress. Too often here in Pa. with the oncoming of winter it includes the ritual of closed tracks possibly reopening the following year which seems to carry such a low success rate that I'm nearly impervious the announcements. He got my attention.

Your last sentence resonates the loudest. I wish you all the best.

Yes, BTE is a good guy. He and are cool. Just a word of caution to EVERYONE that not every person from the media handles thing like I do. Other message boards, social media, etc. have some people that get bent out of shape to the point of filed lawsuits with news articles and photos. I really responded to clarify the source and not to belittle him. Just trying to save a possible future headache.

Back to the subject- The Greater Cumberland Raceway group is moving forward, and seems to be under some good leadership. There is a buzz around of excitement that I hope gets fulfilled. I hate seeing tracks close and to many are already doing that this year. It's nice to see one that's been dormant for a while make a comeback.

[RacerRose]

Thanks for clarifying the source. BTE is a decent poster here. No harm, no foul, I hope. At least he expanded the awareness of your words, collective effort and progress. Too often here in Pa. with the oncoming of winter it includes the ritual of closed tracks possibly reopening the following year which seems to carry such a low success rate that I'm nearly impervious the announcements. He got my attention.

Your last sentence resonates the loudest. I wish you all the best.

Yes, BTE is a good guy. He and I are cool. Just a word of caution to EVERYONE that not every person from the media handles thing like I do. Other message boards, social media, etc. have some people that get bent out of shape to the point of filed lawsuits with news articles and photos. I really responded to clarify the source and not to belittle him. Just trying to save a possible future headache.

Back to the subject- The Greater Cumberland Raceway group is moving forward, and seems to be under some good leadership. There is a buzz around of excitement that I hope gets fulfilled. I hate seeing tracks close and to many are already doing that this year. It's nice to see one that's been dormant for a while make a comeback.