Posted by KMS Promotions on 3/6/2006, 11:37 am
Board Administrator

By: KMS Promotions, Inc. Crown Point, IN (March 6, 2006) - After forty-eight seasons of racing, the final checkered flag has fallen on the Crown Point Speedway. The track formerly known as the Broadway and Southlake Speedway has been purchased for land development. The northwest Indiana Speedway was built by the Conner family in 1958 and hosted a variety of racing divisions over the years. Midgets competed on Friday nights and coupes taking center stage on Saturday nights in the fifties. The first track champion was Jerry Brown in 1958. The mid sixties ushered in the late model division at the speedway, with Jerry Glat picking up the first late model crown. 1969 saw former Daytona 500 winner and current NASCAR racing personality Benny Parsons winning the ARCA stock car race. The seventies saw a multitude of track promoters at the speedway with Palmer Boyd winning three track titles. The eighties belonged to drivers Mike Hollifield and Bill Davis collectively winning nine track titles in the decade. Crown Point's own Todd McGarr dominated the racing action in the nineties scoring five of his six track titles. History will show that Bret Sievert was crowned the final late model track champion and Eric Kwasigroh winning the final late model race. Former World 100 winners Billy Moyer, Scott Bloomquist, Donnie Moran and Dan Schlieper have competed at the track over the years. Sadly, the Chicagoland area has lost another short track, but the memories and the legends will live on. KMS Promotions has begun the process to purchase land in Lowell, IN for a new site to take place of CPS. Lowell is just about 12 miles south from Crown Point. Of course, this news is very preliminary, but confirmation to move forward is in the works. Accommodating the racers and fans of Crown Point Speedway is something the O'Connors are striving for by providing a close proximity to the now 'former' CPS. Long-time patrons/drivers of Crown Point Speedway are welcome to come out over the next few days to finalize the end of a new beginning. Also noted, the O'Connors have added the mini stock division to the schedule at the family owned Kokomo Speedway for the 2006 season. "We want to give them guys some place to run until we get things rolling at the new track" commented Chris Naranjo.