Eldora Speedway

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"King's Royal" redirects here. For other uses, see King's Royal (disambiguation).

Panorama during the 2006 Prelude to the World

Eldora Speedway during the 2007 Kings Royal

Eldora Speedway from overhead

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," "Chevrolet American Revolution Weekend," and "The World 100." The World 100 annually attracts over 200 dirt late-model racers, while the Chevrolet American Revolution Weekend originally featured four races in one night -- midget, non-winged sprint, Silver Crown, and dirt modified, with drivers earning a special bonus should one driver win all four races. Owner Tony Stewart split the dirt modified race to the previous night in order to match that race with a winged sprint car race where both races were sanctioned by the same organisation.

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.

1 Sprint Prelude to the Dream
2 USAC 4-Crown Nationals
3 Additional reading
4 External links

[edit] Sprint Prelude to the Dream

starting field for the 2006 Prelude to the World (the 2006 Prelude was rained out; when it was reschedule, it took a new name because of it being associated with a different race)

They also added "Prelude to the Dream", a new late-model Sprint-sponsored race with visiting Sprint 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. The race was cancelled because of rain in 2006, and Tony Stewart won the makeup race, the "Prelude to the World" (a reference to the World 100 in September, when the makeup race was scheduled) 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, returned to the Dirt Late Model Dream feature in June, featured both a live audience and pay-per-view coverage, with all proceeds from the coverage being donated to Victory Junction, and the NASCAR on FOX crew of Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip, Dick Berggren, Matt Yocum, and producer Pam Miller on staff. 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.

In 2008, NASCAR stars returned to Eldora Speedway after having helped raise $800,000 at the 2007 "Prelude to the Dream" event. Once again, the NASCAR on Fox crew of Mike Joy, Darrell waltrip, Dick Berggren, Matt Yocum, and producer Pam Miller returned to the track to call the event for HBO Pay-per-view. 23,000 fans attended the race this year as they watched track owner Tony Stewart win the 4th annual charity race. At the end of the race, the Tony Stewart Foundation donated $1,000,000 to the Victory Junction Gang Camps.

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, IROC went on hiatus for the 2007 season due to lack of sponsorship. IROC is selling their equipment and it appears to have suspended operations, although this happened once in the early 1980's for three years before reappearing in 1984.

[edit] USAC 4-Crown Nationals

Since 1981, the 4-Crown Nationals have been a historic part of the track's September race card, with four different races on one night:

USAC Midgets
USAC Sprint Cars
USAC Silver Crown
UMP Dirt Modified

In 2007, Tony Stewart changed the format to a two-night format renamed Chevrolet American Revolution Weekend. The three USAC classes race on Saturday night, and the UMP Dirt Modified race is now run on Friday night with the World of Outlaws Sprint Series, as both UMP and WoO are owned by World Racing Group, so Stewart had the two World Racing Group sanctioned races on one night, and the United States Auto Club races on Saturday night.