Crown Jewels

[Pennsboro32]

There was 2 crown jewels. Eldora, for the world and #2 was and always will be, Pennsboro. They would ever get that place re opened it would be massive.

Need to widen it. Need more land for parking, and camping. Some of the people on the current board for Pennsboro Speedway are clueless.

[Rajflyboy]

It’s a free country. I don’t have to conform to liking a very big go kart race if I don’t want too.

[Pennsboro32]

Flyboy, Nobody said you had to like it, but you're very ignorant. You're reasoning of only 1-3 drivers winning applies to most forms of racing. (Sheppard, Owens, and Overton), have dominated the DLM scene this season.

[dirtcrazy4u]

Yea pennsboro they need to get there heads out from between there legs. They have no clue what that place could be. It is like the field of dreams in the eyes of many that made the trek every year. The cars, the fans, those 2 tracks with there races is where guys wanted to say I won eldora or I won pennsboro. Enough said, those are crown jewels, it's not about the money, it's a place we're every guy knows the best of the best are here and I want to kick all there arshes.

[Rajflyboy]

2 things cool about the chili bowl. 1 = it’s indoors. 2 = it’s in January when not much racing is happening anywhere. I will give you folks that.

[Pennsboro32]

Yea pennsboro they need to get there heads out from between there legs. They have no clue what that place could be. It is like the field of dreams in the eyes of many that made the trek every year. The cars, the fans, those 2 tracks with there races is where guys wanted to say I won eldora or I won pennsboro. Enough said, those are crown jewels, it's not about the money, it's a place we're every guy knows the best of the best are here and I want to kick all there arshes.

My thoughts on Pennsboro are this:

The entire community and surrounding towns voted for the previous Pennsboro "ownership" to be voted out, which was the step in the right direction. The previous group had no intentions of ever using the speedway. Once they were voted out, we voted on a board of 13 members for the speedway and fairgrounds and came up with a group to represent the speedway. Some of those members have since left or resigned there position on the board. From my understanding they started with very little if any money to get started repairing the race track and grounds. I understand that it's hard to get going with no money coming in but it seems as if they've almost quit. They raised enough money to purchase seating from a close high school football facility, which have now been laying in the "holler" for over two years. They did a guard rail fund, and many people contributed to it (myself included). They have built a bathroom in the infield which looks really nice, and built a small go kart track to host kids races. That's the extent of repairs to the old girl.

In my opinion, there's not a lot of motivation on the current board. Some conflicting opinions amongst them about what to do next to raise money, which has landed the speedway stranded at this current moment. Like mentioned above, some of the better members quit because of conflicting goals.

It stinks to drive by it twice a day when you realize there's little chance it ever comes alive, especially now that there are people getting WVMS, Skyline, and other tracks fixed up in tip top shape. There are people out there that would help them if they took the time and had the resources to do so. The speedway needs widened if they ever plan to race full size cars again. They also have used up a lot of infield room with the bathroom, go kart track, etc. The size of the current rigs would cause a parking problem, they did purchase a small piece of property for fan parking but to my knowledge nothing has been done to the property yet. The track would need new dirt, fencing, guardrails, lighting, etc.

I hope I'm wrong and get to see a race there again, because even though the racing used to stink, it was an awesome place to gather and see all of the sports biggest stars.

[Buford.Justice]

Sounds pretty discouraging to say the least. It takes money and a true bunch of dedicated people to get it back open, but even that may be useless with WVMS and the tracks you mentioned maybe stepping up.

[15b24fan]

IMO there can only be one Crown Jewel in any form of racing. For DLM it's the World 100.No different than Daytona 500 for NASCAR, Monaco GP for F1, Knoxville Nationals for sprints, Boone for IMCA Classes, Chili Bowl for Midgets, Indy 500 for IndyCar, or the US Nationals for NHRA. Are other events big? Yes, but there is only one event that defines your sport to those outside your bubble.

I tend to like and side with this response. How many crown jewels can a series really have? When you start getting to 5, 6, 7 or more, it seems to water down the importance of each because there are many others just as highly regarded. Biased factor is going to skew some thoughts to. There is no question the World is the biggest late model race. I haven't had the fortunes to attend the event in person, but my personal favorite is Knoxville. A bucket list of mine is to hit the biggest race in NASCAR, IndyCar, Sprint Car and Late Models. I'm halfway with the Indy 500 and Knoxville Nationals.