By Jim Balentine (Cortland,Ohio)
The monster 5/8 mile expo speedway located at the Trumbull County fairgrounds near Cortland, Ohio, celebrating the 55th year of existence in 2025 is in early planning stages to make a return to racing at the track labeled as “track of the champions”. A meeting put on by the Trumbull County fair board is scheduled for Wednesday night, January 29 2025 at the banquet hall near gate C to have an open forum on the possibility of having auto racing back at the speedway. This meeting will only show if any racing is possible at the fairgrounds with no dates or racing announced.
The fairgrounds which were built in 1969 and completed in 1970 held its first fair that summer..the track itself enormous in size measuring at 5/8 of a mile on the inside of the track was built for horse racing and auto racing with the first auto race being an ARCA race won by hall of famer Iggy Katona and the 2nd was put on by local Sharon, Pa businessman and auto racing enthusiast Bud Miller in the summer of 1970 being a USAC sprint show. Clate Husted won the first regular late model feature on Sept 7 1970.
Beginning in 1971 auto racing was held weekly at the speedway featuring the late models and super 270 cubic inch six-cylinder division running continuously through the middle of 1976. During that time The best of the best of local auto racing legends and future Hall of Famers battled week in and week out. Hall of Fame drivers such as Jim Bickerstaff, Phil Wertz, Tom Jarrett, John Buzzard and Bill Larson among many others etched their name in Expo Speedway history as all won many features in that timeframe. After the 1976 season, the track sat dormant until the summer of 1979 when it reopened again with Billy Teegarden picking up a 50 lap invitational.
In 1980 local racer, Butch Buccella held weekly racing at the speedway on Sunday nights packing the 5000 seat grandstand nightly and averaging over 20 cars each in a three division show. Hall of Famer’s like Bob wearing, Glenn Gault, Lou Blaney, Ted Wise, Brian Muehlman, Lou Gentile and Bill Gabrielson would win many features at that time.
The All Star Late Models with their wedge bodies would compete in two big events in ‘82 and ‘83 called the JW Hunt world of dirt Ohio nationals bringing in national dirt late model Hall of Fame drivers such as Charlie Swartz ,Ray Godsey, Freddie Smith, and a young up-and-coming star named Donnie Moran, who went on to win the only million dollar late model race at Eldora later on.
The All-Star circuit of champions sprint cars also appeared at the speedway four times with famous names such as Fred Linder, Steve Smith Sr., and Dave Blaney picking up wins along with Brad Doty, Rick Ungar, and Randy Wolfe who was victorious in the first ever Ohio sprint speedweek at Expo.
Multiple rainouts, late evenings, and other circumstances would lead to no promoter being found after the 1983 season was complete.
The King family from Bristolville, Ohio would run four major events in 1995 bringing in national sanctioned late model and sprint car racing to the speedway along with the E mods and pure stocks with near sellout crowds each night and a large car count in all classes. Todd Andrews, Bart Hartman, Joey Saldana, Kenny Jacobs, Alan Dellinger, Rick Prosser among others would add their names to the historic Expo win list.
The racing would again be halted until 2006 when the Fairboard decided to bring back racing during the annual fair.
The BRP Modified Tour would be a constant staple during the fair races from 2006 until 2023 with Rex King and his sons Russell and Rex Jr scoring many wins and New York stand out Erick Rudolph would win a record five straight feature events before the racing operation was stopped.
The introduction of the crate late models and crate modifieds came to expo as well with several different winners in both divisions, including some who won their first ever feature. RUSH modified Chelsie Kreigisch would score an emotional first win at expo becoming the first female driver to win a competitive event and the tracks illustrious history. Will Thomas, who grew up at expo as his dad owned Lou Blaney‘s modified in the 80s also scored an emotional victory in the RUSH late models.
The racing was halted again after the 2023 season as the fair board went in a different direction, but there is interest in the track coming back to life for a few events per year With the meeting on January 29 being the start of the possibility of racing coming back to expo. The meeting is open to the public and will take place at the banquet hall, which is near gate C at the fairgrounds property. If you wish to attend, the meeting will begin at 6 PM. The fairgrounds is located at 899 Everett Hull Rd, Cortland, OH 44410. For more information call Fairboard Member Debbie Polk at (330) 272-7512 or email Jim Balentine at jbalentine2@roadrunner.com.
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