Penrose Park velodrome is a St. Louis City park open 7 days a week, dawn to dusk, year round with sanctioned races Thursday nights and some weekends.
One of only 27 velodromes in the U.S., Penrose Park was built on land donated by the City of St. Louis in 1962 after the Forest Park Velodrome was dismantled to make room for Highway 40/64 on the south end of Forest Park. Designed by Olympic Cyclist and Schwinn Bicycle Designer, Frank Burlando, Penrose Park is an all outdoor track measuring 1/5 mile and featuring a 28 degree bank. Immediately after opening in 1962 in its current location, Penrose Park hosted the prestigious U.S. National Track Cycling Championships. In the 1970’s, a sewer collapsed under one of the banked turns on the track. Multiple repair efforts were made with a more complete resurfacing finished in 1984 and again in 2005. The surface of the Penrose Park velodrome still retains some of blacktop bumps and undulations from its many years of use and repair, thus earning it the nickname Mr. Bumpy Face. The most recent resurrection of the track in 2005 was due to the organizational work of Bill Howard and the financial support of THF Realty. There are current efforts by track supporters, participants and the City of St. Louis to rebuild the track at its existing location as an all outdoor, concrete track to be completed by 2014-15.
