CINCINNATI

Have you been to Kentucky Speedway - the race car track in northern Kentucky?  It was a huge deal when it was built but now, not so much.  NASCAR racing has taken a dip in popularity.

Stock car and open-wheel racing have been around almost as long as automobiles.  On Memorial Day weekend, the Indianapolis 500 will be run for the 103rd time beginning in 1911.

Wait a minute!  1911 to 2019 should be 108 times not 103.  Evidently, we didn't have an Indy 500 every year.  One of those years when the race was not run was 1917 because World War I was raging on.  They were using the track as an airplane repair facility.  Those long straightaways are like runways.  So what did the race people do?  They added a race in Cincinnati on May 30 that year!

What?!  Cincinnati?!  Yes, at the Cincinnati Motor Speedway located in Sharonville.  No, I'm not pulling your leg.  We had a Super Speedway right here in Cincinnati; well, in the northern suburb of Sharonville.  It was built in 1916 and was located in the area just west of rt 42 and east of the railroad tracks at Sharon road.  It was opened on September 4 with a 300-mile race called the International Sweepstakes Race.

It was a 2-mile banked oval with track made of wood decking...that's right, wood.  It was built with 6 degree banked straightaways and 17 degree banked turns.   There was some benched seating and lots of standing room.  The estimated crowd for that May 30, 1917 race was 65,000.

That Memorial Day race in 1917 was won by Louis Chevrolet.  He's the car designer who sold his design to General Motors along with the Chevrolet name plate.  He averaged 102 mph and took home $12,500 for his effort.

The Cincinnati Speedway closed after a 48-hour endurance race was held there in 1919.  The wooden decking just wouldn't hold up to the weather and the traffic.