Beaver Dam Raceway closed out the season with The Grand Finale. Will it be the last race ever at the Wisconsin dirt track? It depends.
Both its track owner, Scott Boyd, and general manager, Carolyn Mueller, plan to retire. Boyd listed the 130-acre property for $3.25 million, with no option to lease it.
“Someone could buy the property and still keep the racetrack operating — we just don’t know,” said Mueller. “I’ve worked here 6 days a week as general manager since 2007, and worked part time as an accountant and scorer for many years before 2007. It’s my home away from home, my second family. I’ll definitely miss my job and all the friends I made. However, I’m old and past my retirement age. With Scott retiring, it was time for me to retire.”
Built 70 years ago, Beaver Dam Raceway went dormant for a short period before reopening in 1993. In 2023 and 2024, it switched to racing Tuesday nights under IMCA sanctioning. This year the track ran an abbreviated schedule, running mostly on Saturday and Friday nights.
The well-kept racing facility includes seating for 5,000 in the main grand stand, 2,500 in the pit grandstand, and additional seating in a grassy area and on a deck overlooking the track.
Beaver Dam Raceway is located less than an hour away from Madison. It has direct frontage on Wisconsin State Route 151, a four-lane highway. The parcel has commercial, industrial, and agricultural zoning. The listing says it’s “ideal for developers with creative ideas.”
Brandon Schmitt won The Grand Finale’s modified feature. He calls Beaver Dam Raceway home, competing there since 2007.
“It was a bittersweet feeling — I won what could be the last BDR modified feature,” Schmitt, of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, said. “I just don’t want to believe this could have been the last time I raced at BDR.
“We are all hoping that someone buy the property and keeps the track running. There are all kinds of rumors, but I don’t know what to believe is true until the place is actually sold.”
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.
