Beltsville Speedway

Beltsville Speedway
Baltimore-Washington Speedway
LocationBeltsville, Maryland, USA
Coordinates39°02′47″N 76°51′05″W / 39.046319°N 76.851296°W / 39.046319; -76.851296
Capacity~7,000
Broke ground1964
Opened1965
Closed1978
Major eventsNone (demolished)
Pavement oval track
Length0.500 mi (0.805 km)

The Beltsville Speedway, formerly the Baltimore-Washington Speedway was an asphalt oval track in Prince George's County, Maryland; it spanned 0.500 miles (0.805 km).

Near Beltsville, it was on land now occupied by Capitol Technology University,[1] in the South Laurel census-designated place.[2][3]

Summary

The track was specially designed with banked turns for stock car racing. Originally known as the "Baltimore-Washington Speedway", the track received its final name in its 19th month of operation.[4] The track hosted modified stock car racing vehicles alongside the other NASCAR series.[4] Wednesday nights were the original night for racing but the schedule eventually added Friday night racing.[4] Ten Grand National races were raced there including the popular Beltsville 300 series of races.[5] Strict noise restrictions were given out in its final year of operation and the county (Prince George's County) started monitoring the events.[4] Eventually, a sound wall was built surrounding the speedways. Cars had to begin running mufflers in order to stifle the noise from the increasing RPMs from the vehicles themselves.[4] The track was eventually shut down, demolished, and replaced with a local university.[4]

Famous race car drivers like Richard Petty, Tiny Lund, and David Pearson participated in legendary races there.[5] The 1968 Beltsville 300 was an example of some of the classic NASCAR Grand National races that were run on the track.[5]

References

  1. ^ "Capitol History." Capitol Technology University. Retrieved on August 26, 2018. "In 1980 the college found its home in Laurel, Maryland. Within three years, Capitol purchased the 52-acre former site of the Beltsville Speedway, [...]"
  2. ^ Campus map. Capitol Technology University. Retrieved on August 26, 2018. "Capitol Technology University 11301 Springfield Road Laurel, MD 20708"
  3. ^ "2010 CENSUS - CENSUS BLOCK MAP (INDEX): South Laurel CDP, MD." U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved on August 26, 2018. Pages: 1, 2, and 3. Note that the census-designated place was previously smaller: 2000 Index Map and pages 1 and 2. In the 1990 map of Prince George's County (see index), South Laurel is on pages 2 and 5.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Complete history of the Beltsville Speedway Archived 2010-02-07 at the Wayback Machine at The Vintage Racer
  5. ^ a b c Beltsville Speedway event history Archived 2010-07-28 at the Wayback Machine at Everything Stock Car

This page was last updated at 2019-11-08 07:57 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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