What will it take for Rooks County Speedway to increase car counts and run more often? Its promoter, Chad Sterling, believes that a shorter track is the answer.
Rooks County Speedway billed itself as a 1/2-mile, but in actuality it was a ¾-mile on the outside. Now it will become a 3/8-mile with progressive banking.
“For the past 15 years, there were two races there a year — during the county fair,” Sterling, of Stockton, Kansas, said. “The fair board wanted to see more racing at the track, but didn’t have anyone to promote it. They asked me, ‘What would it take?’ At the fair races, we threw money into the purse, we added classes — nothing worked. We still only got 50 cars, tops. The younger generation of racers showed up once and didn’t like the track — it was tough on their equipment.”
Sterling traveled to various dirt tracks and he found the successful ones had something in common. “Track size is the common denominator for success,” he said.
He modeled the new Rooks County Speedway after two tracks.
“The track is now within a few feet as being the same size as Marshalltown Speedway in Iowa,” said Sterling. “The straightaways are a bit longer than Mohave Valley Raceway in Arizona. Those are two of the best racetracks in the country.”
Sterling said Rooks County Speedway will seek IMCA sanctioning. He’s talking with tours, too, to make stops at the Kansas dirt track.
“We are hoping to race Fridays or Sundays — I’m not afraid of running on either night — along with some weekday specials,” Sterling said. “There are lot of tracks jockeying for nights. The promoters are meeting on the 15th of November to work out next year’s schedule.”
Sterling added that the new configuration will benefit the fan experience, too.
“The grandstand is now centered on the frontstretch,” said Sterling. “There will be no more infield pits with stackers blocking fans’ views. We’ll have a new pit area so fans will be able to see the action all around the track. Times have changed things for racing, and Rooks County Speedway has changed for the better.”
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.
