Cimarron Raceway History
Cimarron Raceway ran it's first race on Labor Day weekend of 1991. There was a long delay in the opening of the track due to the legal battles that the track had already found itself in the middle of. There was actually a pending lawsuit on the night of the first race. They even had picketer's on the first practice night, which was something they were expecting that first show but it never transpired. On opening night this track just outside of Cleveland held more than 200 fans and 60 cars. It was a 1/4 mile dirt oval promoted by Vickie Lisle. There were 7 races total ran at this track which sets on 40 acres. In October of 1991 the area land owners, complaining of nose and dust, sued the track for a temporary injunction. I was able to find a quote from the Keystone Peninsula Property Owners Association stating, "They raced the weekend after the court hearing. It was horrendous, louder than we've ever heard it." A lot of hard work and dreams went into the building of this track. There were a lot of big shows planned for the upcoming season. There was also another track for moto-cross and BMX races to be held on in the works.
There is currently a structure of some type being built right as you come though what would've been the drive into the track.
You can still see this track vaguely as you pass down Peninsula Drive off of the Keystone Expressway. The lights, part of the PA system, tractor tires and orange press box still remain. The brand new Pepsi lighted scoreboard and some other equipment was missing when the promoter came back up to the track shortly after the court hearings. This is a very touchy subject with many of the residence in this area so I am unsure if I'll ever get photos of this track if I do I will be sure to post them.
As of 2007 the current land owners refuse to let anyone onto the land to take photos...if you have any photos of this track please let me know.
I would like to thank Vicki Lisle for all the information and Earl Kern for the photos.
A little feedback and quite an interesting story from a driver who raced at Cimarron for the short time that it was open.
Hi, I'm David Vinson the driver of the #78 car in the Cimarron Speedway pictures. Both of those pictures were taken on my 16th birthday. I had raced all season at Thunderbird Speedway in Muskogee and went to Cimarron twice. The one photo where I was crashed into the wall was out of turn four. My bumper was pinned between the guard rail and it took about 45 minutes to get the car loose. Because of rain the week before it was double feature night and that crash was in the first feature. I ran the second feature without a right front fender, I moved up to second passing a local car late in the race and they black flagged me because I was missing a fender??? --- I started the race without the fender??? Oh well we had fun that night anyway. I'm still racing and this year I won the track championship in the pure stock class at Outlaw Motor Speedway in
Wainwright.
Wainwright.
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