A month ago, Park Jefferson International Speedway owner Wayne Becker made drastic changes with hopes of turning his season around. He shrunk the track size of his Jefferson, South Dakota, speedway from a big 3/8-mile to a banked ¼-mile oval.
It resulted in drawing 177 cars among six divisions for the track’s September 27-28 show. Park Jefferson followed it up with 178 entries among five divisions for its October 19 event.
“We went from losing our ass to thriving, all by changing the size of the track,” Becker said. “We never had so many cars, and our fan attendance doubled from what it was early in the year.”
Becker drew inspiration from Shelby County Speedway in Harlan, Iowa.
“That track downsized to a 1/4-mile oval,” said Becker. “I watched as the car count went up and the fan base grew.”
Becker decreased the inside radius of the track from 200 feet to 85, the outside radius from 260 feet to 160. The infield dropped from 400-feet wide to 170 feet. Becker increased the racing surface width to 75 feet and added banking.
“We mapped out Boone Speedway [in Iowa],” Becker said. “Their infield is 160-feet wide. We went with 170 feet and then matched their track with just a little more banking on the inside. We asked ourselves, ‘If we had Boone Speedway, what would we do differently?’ It was just that little difference we came up with.”
Becker said the fans and drivers have responded positively. One of those drivers included Jordan Grabouski, who won the stock car feature of the Charlie Clark Memorial last Saturday. He hauled three hours from Beatrice, Nebraska, to compete at Park Jefferson.
“I raced in the Clark Memorial at Park Jefferson last year, when it was a big track,” said Grabouski. “This year, the track is so much more racy than it was. It is night and day better. Wayne Becker did a great job. He really cares about his track and has the energy to make changes to make things better for the racers.”
Becker also noticed less carnage with the new track configuration.
“Drivers could stay off each other,” Grabouski said. “There were five grooves in all the classes, all night. I would say the width and the banking of the track were the biggest improvements. I ran the outside for the feature because I could get consistent laps there. It was an adrenaline rush to see those drivers racing under me.”
Grabouski also liked the smaller size of the oval.
“For what everything costs, smaller racetracks will get more drivers,” said Grabouski. “The smaller tracks save on motors, and if you wreck, you’d rather wreck at 70 mph than 110 mph.”
Drivers and fans alike will have another chance to see racing at the recently reconfigured track. The Turkey Chase takes place on Saturday, November 2, with IMCA modifieds, sport mods, stock cars, hobby stocks, sport compacts on the docket.
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
