Cedar Lake Speedway |
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Wikipedia: Cedar Lake Speedway
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Cedar Lake Speedway page on 26 June 2018, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Cedar Lake Speedway is a 3/8 mile dirt clay oval race track located near New Richmond, Wisconsin. Named after the nearby Cedar Lake. It hosts a weekly NASCAR racing program consisting of Late Models, Modifieds, Super Stocks,and Midwest Modifieds It also hosts multi day events such as "The Masters"," "The USA Nationals," "The Legendary 100," and the "Triple Crown." There is an Indoor Motocross facility and 1/5 mile dirt oval, Cedar Lake Arena, located directly behind the track.
Elmer Cook, his wife Lorraine and their family owned a 160-acre (0.65 km2) farm located near New Richmond, Wisconsin. Elmer had tried several professions before starting the speedway. He was a farmer, tavern keeper, truck driver, and then he decided to go into the bulldozing and construction business.
In August 1956 Elmer had a crew but work was not fast. He decided to build a new driveway across the swamp on his farm property to get out to County Road CC which was called Swede Road then. Although it was not known at the time construction began, the driveway would later become the main entrance to the racetrack. With the driveway completed, Elmer and his oldest son Bob were resting on the lawn after lunch admiring how the back slope was built up so high. Elmer remarked how the natural bowl around the swamp would make a perfect racetrack. Soon Elmer and Bob began talking about auto racing. Elmer had actually only been to a couple races in his life, but his family did enjoy the sport of auto racing. Then Elmer asked Bob what he thought about the idea of building a racetrack in the swamp. Bob jumped at the idea and plans were quickly underway. Bob asked when he could start building the track. Elmer figured they did not have a lot of work for the Caterpillar bulldozer right at the moment, so he told Bob, who was only 14 at the time that he could start tomorrow morning. At 6:00 am the next morning, after a restless night Bob was on the cat and the first construction of a dirt race track begin. The outline of the track quickly took shape, and it was roughed out in approximately three weeks.
In 2001, three Kaufman brothers and two other businessmen joined the ownership group of the track to compliment the Cook family.
Cedar Lake Speedway signed with NASCAR as a NASCAR Home Track in 2008.
| Date | Article | Author/Source |
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| 23 April 2004 | New Richmond, Wisconsin Speedway Goes Big Time | Montage Creative, Inc. |