MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. — For the first time in eight years, drivers will be starting their engines at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells when things get cranked up Sunday night.
Being called “The Return,” Sunday marks a comeback for the ages for a dirt track facility that was multiple laps off the pace and considered a lost racetrack.
The 5/8 mile clay oval track first opened on May 19, 1985 as the ‘World’s Fastest Dirt Track’ and thrived in the 1990s before dwindling attendance forced its closure after the 2011 season and then again in 2013.
Cody Watson, the West Virginia Motor Speedway (WVMS) track owner and promoter and lover of racing, couldn’t stand seeing the facility become an eyesore off Interstate-77 in Wood County and decided to do something about it. He told MetroNews the revitalization efforts began August 1 of last year after putting out feelers on the property last Spring.
“We got in there and started looking at what damage had been done, what needed to be done, and we started cutting back the brush. It was thick with weed, brush and trees,” Watson said.
Read the rest from WV Metro News.