Portsmouth Raceway Park

Description

Portsmouth Raceway Park is a three-eights mile dirt track located approximately 1 mile west of Portsmouth, Ohio. The track was built in 1990 by Owner/Operator Boone Coleman. The track hosts weekly racing events throughout the summer months, including the classes, Late Model, Modified, Limited Late Model, and Bomber. In 2009 the track hosted its first televised event, The "Big Red Book" River Days Rumble, featuring the Lucas Oil Late Model Series. The series made two appearances at the track in 2010, featuring one televised event, the two day "Pepsi 75 – River Days Rumble" paying $20,000 to the winner. In 2012 the 'crown jewel' racing event, The Dirt Track World Championship, was hosted at the speedway. The race, the thirty-second annual running of the event, paid $50,000 to the winner and was televised on the SPEED Network and sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Series. The announcement was made during the D.T.W.C. weekend that the thirty-third annual hosting of the event would also take place at the speedway under Lucas Oil series sanction.Track historyThe track is built on a site that once housed a Shawnee Indian campground, but the Shawnee were run off the land by white settlers. On June 3, 1799 the town of Alexandria was founded on the site. The town would eventually be moved to what is currently known as Portsmouth, Ohio in 1813 because of multiple floods. As time went on the site was converted into farmland. Current owner Boone Coleman purchased the land in the 1970s.In the summer of 1990 Coleman began excavation on the site, when asked about his intentions he replied "My son Tim has a racecar and no place to practice!" Boone later decided to try to recover some of the money he spent building the track, and installed grandstands and the first season kicked off in late 1990, only two races were held that year. The first full season of racing was held at PRP in 1991. In 1992 the grandstands and concession areas at the track were destroyed when vandals took one of the tracks dozers on a rampage. The track crew was able to rebuild the track and was ready to race again within two weeks.