There Was An Atlantic City Speedway Almost 100 Years Ago

A few decades ago, there was a lot of chatter about bringing a speedway to the Atlantic City Race Course.

A race car giant named Bruton Smith wanted to build the race track and housing units.

It never happened.

Smith is a Class of 2016 NASCAR Hall of Fame Inductee. Smith died on June 22, 2022 at age 95.

DEEM Enterprises currently wants to develop Atlantic City New Jersey’s Bader Field and wants to develop a car race track as a component of their mixed use plan.

If may never come to fruition, however, did you know that there was an actual Atlantic City Speedway almost 100 years ago.

Its official name was "Amatol Speedway,” more commonly known as The Atlantic City Speedway.

It was a magnificent facility, where races were held from Held 1926-1928.

The Atlantic City Speedway was torn down in 1933

Look at this Google Earth image. In the upper right hand corner, you can still see the race track oval almost 100 years later.

I became reacquainted with the Atlantic City Speedway through the great work of Joseph Laden, along with an awesome website being maintained by Robert Benner, who said:

I can't imagine the undertaking of such a project... build a huge speedway out of wood.. in the middle of the woods somewhere between Philadelphia and Atlantic City... But then again, I live in an era where you can't build a dog house without a few hundred dollars worth of permits, and a complete environmental impact study... From the looks of the stands, it appears to have been a very popular event, with what could only be described as true daredevils tempting fate at over 120mph in an open wheel car... with out so much as a roll bar. I can't help staring at these photos and thinking about how amazing this really is... World War II was still over 10 years away... Calvin Coolidge was our President, and the pneumatic air hammer was still over a half a century away from being invented!

You can see some amazing photos of the Atlantic City Speedway at:

http://3widespicturevault.com

Amatol_Homepage_Info_.htm

Is it back to the future?

The more things change … the more they stay the same.