SOUTH GATE SPEEDROME

A HISTORY OF SOUTH GATE SPEEDROME

by Track Owner

Dave Balloch

The South Gate Speedrome(SGS)was built in the fall of 1987 by track owner Dave Balloch and the late Jim Wloczewski. Named after the nearest landmark, the southgate of the Charles Evans Cemetery, just half a block away, and modeled after the famed Indianapolis Speedrome, the 3/4" plywood surface was painted gray and double-coated with polyurethane before adding copper tape to the six grooves. The track originally was designed as an 8' x 12' facility, however, 14" were cut out of the straight section in order to fit it into the northwest corner of the basement. Years later, the track would be moved to the southwest corner and the 14" section rejoined. Sometime after it was decided to run only rotation races, guardrail was placed into the inside lane to make it five lanes. Built as a flat-track, shims were eventually used to give the turns a few degrees of banking.

South Gate opened November 3,1987 hosting MARA (Miniature Auto Racing Association) CRA sprint cars and RSCA(Reading Slot Car Association)modified stockcars. MARA would sanction 23 open wheel races at South Gate until January 16,1990. Months later MARA would be disbanded. The RSCA added the sprint, midget and dirt champ divisions to its modified, old timers, and NASCAR repertoire. When scheduling the midget division was cut back, the Speedrome Racing Club was formed to provide additional races for the midgets at South Gate. The SRC ran 12 events over two seasons from December18,1990 to March 31,1992 sometimes co-sanctioning races with the RSCA. Brion Hassler won both SRC championships. Due to the popularity of its stock car divisions and its large track in Antiedam, the RSCA dropped the sprint and midget divisions and South Gate from its schedule (later,the RSCA would also drop the dirt champs). The last RSCA event at the Speedrome was May 3,1994. The RSCA sanctioned 71 features at SGS.

In order to continue the area's open wheel tradition, SCORE (SCale Open-wheel Racing Enthusiasts) was formed. Though SCORE sanctioned events at other tracks ,its first event at South Gate was on November 22,1995.Due to domestic issues, the track was closed after the March 31,1999 race until it re-opened April 24,2002.Since then,SGS has been the mainstay of the SCORE organization.As of June 2007,SCORE has run 122 features at South Gate.

For a list of winners at South Gate Speedrome, go to the Win List .