Legendary Eastern Iowa Race Track Will Be Silent This Summer
It's going to be quiet... too quiet this spring and summer in West Liberty, Iowa. It looks possible that the racing oval won't have weekly auto racing this year for the first time in nearly seven decades.
The West Liberty Raceway, part of the Muscatine County Fairgrounds that's on the National Registry of Historic Places, has hosted auto racing since the track was changed from accommodating horses to cars, in 1960. That's a ton of history and memories. So what happened?
Farley Speedway Promotions, who bought the Farley Speedway last year, also ran the West Liberty and Dubuque Speedway tracks in 2017. KHAK's own Bobby Hansen, a race car driver himself, tells me the word on the street is that car counts and attendance in West Liberty were down. It was hoped that another organization might decide to run the track but since none has come forward, it appears there won't be racing in 2018.
There may be some racing at the track this year, but it will fall well short of the norm. Races are listed during the Muscatine County Fair on Sunday, July 22.
Hearts are heavy for those who have called the track home for a long time. People like Rusty Daufeldt, who poured his heart out on Facebook. Here's hoping the roar returns to West Liberty... without it, something just won't seem right in the small Muscatine County town.