TRACK HISTORY

It was August 1948 when the Whittemore Fire Department, Fire Chief Basil Goupil, and the fathers scheduled a carnival for the homecoming only to find out, with short notice, the carnival would be unable to come. This caused the Fire Chief and the business men to make some speedy decisions for entertainment to fill the void. They hired a man from Bay City to come with his refrigerated truck to give away ice cream. They got some young pigs greased for the children to catch, and greased a flag pole with a $10.00 bill on top for the kids to climb. Then they got some old jalopies from "McArdle and Grahams" and from "Whittemore Sales", the local car dealers. They knocked out the windows, used some old tires to mark the edge of the track, and plowed some furrows across the track so the cars couldn't go too fast. Because of the dust, you could hardly see the action, you'd see a racing car coming out of a cloud of dust. Interest grew from the first race and for the first two years races were run on a third mile track.

The following October, at a meeting in the Fire Hall, the Racing Club was formed by men from the community. They pledged themselves, and from their gifts, bought the land that had belonged to Henry and Rhoda Snyder. In the spring of 1949 a contractor was hired to bull doze the present racing site. Thus began a new interest in racing at Whittemore. Drivers came from all around the neighboring towns for a fine year of racing.

In 1950 the track was again improved and a new grandstand that would seat 700 people was constructed on the south side of the track. Lights were installed and we began races at Whittemore on Saturday nights.

In 1951 a contractor, Glen Nortan of Twining, was hired with his machinery to cut down and bank the track to the present quarter-mile size. We held another successful Minstrel Show during the winter to raise funds towards the construction of additional grandstands to now seat almost 1500 people.

The club had 23 members when it was organized, now there are ??? members. Since the beginning the Racing Club has operated as a non-profit, civic organization, with profits and donations helping to support community programs.

For many years Eugene Burnside ran the popcorn stand, and later concession stands were added for the Whittemore High School Band Boosters to run. Also, the Little League Ball Club helped to run a stand until the amount of people became overwhelming and the Womens Auxiliary took over for both.

Minstrel Shows were held for about 15 years until the idea of "black face" became taboo. The Whittemore High School Band participated and shared in the profits. Local talent came from the surrounding areas and a great time was had by everyone envolved.

The speedway has kept in step and steadily progressed, making improvements each year as needed. Several members went to Ida Dorcey, a math teacher, and and asked her to help lay out the length of the straightaways and the curves as you see them today. The mortgage was burned for asphalting the track on September 14, 1994. New bleachers were constructed in 1996, and a new septic and drain field were in place before the 1998 season.

The race club has a scholarship program, donating three $1000 scholarships to students in area schools each year.

We regret that the track has had one fatality, in June of 1973. Ronald Troxell will always be rememberd by those who knew him. May he rest in peace.