Quaker City Motorsports Park

History

Dick and Vivian Mossey founded this track. In his Drag News column of July 26, 1958, Bill Holz called it Ohio’s newest strip and said it probably had the tallest timing stand in the country, built on top of a barn silo with a view of the whole operation. He described two 20-foot lanes split by a 10-foot strip of crushed stone or slag, with 2,500 feet paved and 500 feet of rolled stone and slag, which made for poor stopping where it mattered most, something he expected would be fixed. The strip was NASCAR sanctioned, and Holz objected that stock cars could run without mufflers, air cleaners or fan belts, which he thought dangerous and out of step with other associations.

Jet dragsters appeared now and then in 1963, with Arfons on July 12 and Lee Pendleton on October 6. In the early 1990s it became Quaker City Raceway. The 160-acre property was offered at sealed-bid and public auction in 2003, 2007 and 2010, and Norm Fox apparently bought and refurbished it. It’s at 10225 South Range Road in Salem, now IHRA sanctioned and called Quaker City Motorsports Park. It has also been sanctioned by NASCAR and NHRA.