June 10, 2018
This is an installment in the Gazette’s summer series “On The Road.”
Just a few miles above Louisville, the Sportsdrome Speedway has been thrilling race fans since 1947. The Speedway is a magnet for gearheads and thrill seekers alike, who come to watch, or take part in, the Saturday night ritual.
The Sportsdrome features a figure 8 shaped track, a design that suggests that a lot of collisions will occur on it. Here’s the premise: race cars start off in a tight pack and then begin to string out over the first few laps. At this point, the cars in the lead are very close to clipping the laggards as they traverse the central intersection. As the lap count increases so does the length of the pack, until a t-bone collision is all but inevitable.
Number 7 darts through the pack.
One race was comprised of recognizable makes you’d see racing informally on almost any edge of town strip in America. These guys mixed it up aggressively, blasting across the x and clearing by inches…most of the time. The crashes did come, but were surprisingly matter of fact and at times the crash cars resumed racing almost immediately. A couple of them were hit hard enough to require a tow and the other racers continued at yellow flag half speed until the wreck was cleared. Then it was on again.
Smokin’ at the Speedway.
If a maniac ever cut you off on the Deegan, making your heart leap into your mouth, you already know what it feels like to watch figure 8 racing. Some of the calls are so close you can hardly believe they didn’t crash and the thing is you can see it coming. A second race featured much fancier race cars with huge fins called sideboards which sported ads and may have had an effect on handling the tight turns. The Gazette was unable to interview any drivers or mechanics to confirm that point as security was extremely tight in the pit area and only those with a special wristband were allowed in.
