Salem Speedway Reborn

The following is reprinted from the January 1988 edition of Dick Berggren’s Stock Car Racing magazine. Written by Bill Holder, the story retells when Salem Speedway reopened in October 1987 – to great fanfare – after a six-year dormancy following several lackluster seasons with thin crowds and, finally, a devastating tornado that destroyed much of the speedway property.

Salem Speedway was, and in many respects still is, one of the most treacherous and at times dangerous racetracks in the country. The ultra high banks create high speeds and the groove being next to the outside wall leaves little room for error.

As you will read in the story, tragedy struck at Salem on the opening lap of the very first heat race on the day the track first opened back in 1947. Others have perished at the track since then, notably including USAC Sprint Car champion Rich Vogler just three years after the speedway reopened. Thankfully there have been many notable safety upgrades at the track and inside the racecars since then.

Don Gettlefinger, who purchased the speedway and reopened it in 1987, sold the track to Don and Beverly Thompson in the mid-1990s. He passed away on March 12, 1999, just a few weeks before ARCA’s annual spring visit to the track.

Since the track reopened in 1987, it has hosted 54 ARCA Menards Series events. The Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200 will be the 105th ARCA race at the legendary half-mile.

Salem Speedway Reborn

A startled golfer on the links behind the old Salem Speedway jerked his head when the air was suddenly punctuated by the sound of twenty-seven racing engines the first weekend in October. He obviously didn’t know that racing had finally come back to those grand old Hoosier high banks.

He was definitely in the minority, though, as Salem Speedway reopening was an event of magnanimous proportions. It was as though the little Indiana town had been given back its most famous landmark. Everybody was overwhelmed that one of the nation’s most famous tracks was back in action.
“Welcome race fans” was painted on every billboard and sign in town.

Six and one-half long years have passed since the last racing lap had been turned at Salem. Then it sat shuddered, and Mother Nature moved back in to bring her down for good. She almost succeeded, and no chance for a return was given by anybody.

Then, early in 1987, enter one Don Gettlefinger of nearby Palmyra, Indiana – a former racer at Salem – who had an impossible dream of a rebirth at the track. He bought the place, but with his eyes open. He said, “I didn’t think there was any way we’d ever be running here until 1988, and maybe even later. It was the ultimate challenge.”

Trees were sprouting everywhere and were even growing in the track. “There was just one passable lane down the backstretch when we started on this in June,” explained Gettlefinger. “Then too, small trees that had grown up through the grandstands which were thirty feet high.”

Don’s not an easy guy to put down, though, and went after the job seven days a week. “We used eight-hundred 12-foot panels for the new wall, 47,000 pounds of six-by-six posts, three thousand feet of half inch cable and a thousand gallons of paint among other things,” he confided. Don said that many people told him the track looked better today than it ever did before.

The reopening occurred almost exactly forty years from the day when the track first opened in 1947. Tragedy struck on the first lap of the first race at the then-oiled dirt track as Clay Corbett was killed. In all, nine drivers and two fans have died at the old track including 1955 Indy 500 winner Bob Sweikert who was killed in 1966.

The track has seen the great and the super-great in both open wheel and stock cars. Most of the Champ car set in the 1960s and 1970s toured the Salem banks including Eddie Sachs, AJ Foyt, Parnelli Jones, Bobby Unser, Mario Andretti and many others.

Sprint cars were also a popular attraction at Salem during the golden years of USAC. Pancho Carter, who incidentally drove the pace car for the reopening weekend, was practically untouchable at Salem.

In stock cars, the track belonged to ARCA driver Jack Bowsher during the early 1960s. Jack, who now lives in Harmony, Ohio near Dayton, said, “I remember the banks real well and how hard we ran at that track. Butch Hartman, Charlie Glotzbach and Iggy Katona were all tough at Salem. There were also a lot of tough racers that came up from Louisville which was real close to Salem.”

During one stretch in 1963 and 1964, Jack won four straight 200 lappers and the other pair were 100 laps. “It was one neat track that I loved to race on,” Jack recalled.

Those same thoughts were echoed by Benny Parsons who took over ARCA domination at Salem in the late 1960s. “I loved those high banks,” Benny said. “I just loved running right up against the wall. Another thing that I remember about the track was that it was really smooth.” Parsons remembers blowing a tire while in the lead on the white flag lap. Qualifying was Benny’s strong suit where he set fast time seven straight times in 1968 and 1969. Two of those efforts resulted in new track records.

It was appropriate that ARCA should be the first sanctioning body to re-grace the high banks. The club had been a regular visitor to Salem in the 1960s and 70s.

Salem was one of the three famous tracks called “Hills” which included the now-gone Dayton Speedway and Winchester Speedway. Quite by chance, the ASA Winchester 400 was being held the same day Salem re-opened.

ARCA’s last race at Salem took place in 1979. Interestingly, a number of participants in the last race were also on hand for the rebirth race. Among them was previous track record holder Marvin Smith (18.468 seconds set in 1979). He set the new standard with a 17.829 clocking. Smith looked for a victory as he led much of the early portion of the two hundred lap feature. He ended up finishing fourth.

“I am just happy to be back,” Smith said. “The old place is in great shape, just like I remembered it before. I think the half-second that I picked up in qualifying shows how far that the stock car technology has come in the last eight years.”

The rebirth weekend started with an open-class stock car race on Saturday night (the first night race ever held at Salem) and then the ARCA race on Sunday. Jeep Pflum of Cincinnati took the opening night affair against a great field of cars.

The two hundred lap ARCA race produced a beautiful duel between five or six cars all with a chance at winning. Bob Keselowski came home with the victory edging out then-ARCA point leader Bill Venturini. Bob Schacht was a close third.

The magic was back at Salem, hopefully for many years to come. Many though, recalled the late 1970s when things just fell apart at Salem. Crowds were down and the number of races continued to decrease. In 1981, the trck went up for sale with an asking price of $600,000. On July 20^th of that year, the value of the track dropped tremendously when a tornado roared through it, ripping off the grandstand roof and demolishing a number of other buildings. The track remained silent until the spring of this year when Gettlefinger stepped forward and bought it.

“This was an entire community project,” he says of the rebuild. “The whole town of Salem was behind me. They all wanted to have the track back as bad as I did. Forty merchants gave me everything that I wanted. Plumbing, metal work, you name it and they helped me do it. Heck, the golf course next door even provided me with the golf carts for the pits. These people are something else. They really wanted to have their track back.”

The future?? It’s unlimited as far as the enthusiastic Gettlefinger is concerned. “Down the road, if all goes well, I’d like to see the seating increase from its present five thousand to about twenty thousand. Then, I’d just love to be able to get a NASCAR short track race in here. Now, wouldn’t that be something?”

Don Gettlefinger says that owning and restoring Salem Speedway was like being on vacation every day. In an era when tracks are closing at an alarming rate, the rebirth of Salem Speedway is pleasing.