Heidelberg Speedway (Scott Township)
Nothing leftNothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains.
- Its 1963 trial season led Ed Witzberger to build PID near Bridgeville
- Winners were signaled by a man at the finish holding up one or two large gloves
- Art Arfons ran his Green Monster jet dragster there on August 13, 1963
- Raced
- 1963
- State
- Pennsylvania
- What's left
- The site was redeveloped and nothing of the strip remains.
- Raced on
- At an oval speedway
- First race
- June 14, 1963
- Last race
- 1963 season
- Surface
- Dirt
- Location
- Six miles southwest of Pittsburgh
- People
- Ed Witzberger, owner (1963)
- Elevation
- 796 ft (242 m)
- Coordinates
- 40.38702, -80.09438
Heidelberg Speedway, a half-mile dirt oval six miles southwest of Pittsburgh, opened in 1948. In 1963 owner Ed Witzberger tried drag racing on the straightaway in front of the grandstand to see whether the area would support a drag strip. The first race on June 14, 1963, drew 73 racers, and 162 entered the second on June 21, when the course was lengthened by 75 feet. Steve Jurick took top stock eliminator. More than 200 cars were expected on Friday, June 28, with trophies in forty classes, and races ran every Tuesday and Friday night that season. Cars started at the fourth turn and finished at the first corner, where a man held up one big glove for a lane 1 win or two for lane 2. Rich Major raced his Corvette, the “Disabled Vette,” there and later ran at PID and published a small newspaper on area drag racing. Art Arfons brought his “Green Monster” jet dragster on Tuesday night, August 13. Heidelberg had drag racing only in 1963, but it drew enough interest that Witzberger went on to build PID near Bridgeville.
Background
Heidelberg Raceway ran weekly shows from 1948 to 1973 and hosted four NASCAR Strictly Stock/Grand National races plus one Convertible Division race. In 1960 it became the first track dropped from NASCAR's schedule. The land is now the Raceway Plaza shopping center.
Video
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