West Virginia Motor Speedway

West Virginia Motor Speedway is a formerly closed dirt oval racetrack near Parkersburg, West Virginia.







The West Virginia Motor Speedway, with a 5/8-mile clay oval, terraced hillside seating, concrete bleachers, and camping, 4 opened with the All-Star Circuit of Champions Late Model Series on May 19, 1985. 5

The fate of the Speedway was undecided after the 2001 season after the leaser of the Speedway, KC Spurlock, failed to make payments to a half dozen drivers. 3 Renegade Dirt Car Racing Series, which sanctioned the event, paid the drivers but the track staff and advertisers went unpaid. After the fiasco, Pat Minnite assumed the role of promoter after reaching agreements to operate the speedway. 2

The racetrack closed after the 2011 racing season because of waning attendance. 1 After the track was shortened to a 4/10-mile oval in August 2012, the Speedway was once again the host of several events until it closed again in 2013. The owner of the idled racetrack sought to lease the property but the efforts were halted after one of the main roads to the site closed in April 2015 after a culvert collapsed during a heavy rainstorm. 1

In 2020, the West Virginia Motor Speedway was rebuilt and reopened as part of a “four turn” plan that involved track rebuilding, the modernization of the campground, and the addition of a restaurant an IRacing complex. 6


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Sources

  1. “West Virginia Motor Speedway may be leased, sold after project.” Parkersburg News and Sentinel 21 Jul. 2016: n.p. Web.
  2. Felten, Matt, editor. “RACING RETURNS TO WEST VIRGINIA MOTOR SPEEDWAY.” West Virginia Motor Speedway, 3 June 2002, article.
  3. Lehman, Doc. “PAT MINNITE: THE RETURN OF WVMS.” West Virginia Motor Speedway, 2002, article.
  4. “West Virginia Motor Speedway.” Third Turn, n.d., article.
  5. Lewellen, Russ. “Visitors score at local speedways.” Post-Gazette [Pittsburgh] 17 Apr. 1985: 17. Print.
  6. The Future.” West Virginia Motor Speedway, 2020.

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