Eldora Speedway
Record-setting throng soaks up World 100
By Bryan Ault
Special to DirtonDirt
Fans await World 100 action at Eldora. (Zach Yost)
ROSSBURG, Ohio (Sept. 10) – With 101 drivers signed into Thursday’s preliminary event at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, the 56th annual World 100 will feature a triple-figure car count for the fifth year in a row.
It will undoubtedly feature a five-figure fan count, too. Last season drew a crowd of more than 25,000 people for the finale, a sellout for the first time in the track’s history. During the drivers’ meeting Thursday, track officials said a second sellout is expected Saturday when drivers compete for the globe trophy and $100,000 winner’s check.
The sport’s most prestigious event at one of dirt racing’s most famous track is simply an enormous attraction.
“I'm just a huge Late Model fan and the racing here, this is fantastic,” said Scott Steinberg, a frontstretch-sitting fan who goes to major events at Eldora along with the Sunoco North-South 100 at Florence Speedway in Union, Ky., and the USA Nationals at Cedar Lake Speedway in New Richmond, Wis. “It’s the only place that you can go where you have all the good Outlaw guys and all the good Lucas guys, all the good regional guys. You go to the other races, North-South, Cedar Lake or whatever, and it's a good race, don't get me wrong, but you always spend more time talking about who's not there than who is there.”
The World 100 draws spectators — thousands of them from across the country just like Steinberg — to the half-mile oval carved into a cornfield in western Ohio more than 70 years ago. They’ll camp. They’ll party. And they’ll keep their eyes glued to what happens at Tony Stewart’s half-mile oval.
Steinberg, from Vinton, Iowa, saw the Hawkeye State draw an array of national touring events this season, but for the 54-year-old, nothing compares to The Big E.
While he attends IMCA modified and Crate Late Model races around home, making the eight-hour drive from Iowa has been a tradition he hasn’t missed. Steinberg is all about the cars. He loves the unique Eldora wraps and designs, which first caught his attention during his first trip to the 1998 World 100 won by Billy Moyer of Batesville, Ark.
“They still had the big wall of doors,” said Steinberg, referring to the fan-made attachment of doors that could be seen in the campgrounds when approaching from the south on State Road 118. “I looked at my wife and I said, ‘Uh, this is not anything like we're used to.’ I think they had like 245 Late Models or something. It's just some crazy number like that.”
Lori Johnson sat in Eldora's turn-one bleachers Thursday afternoon, taking in the atmosphere ahead of World 100 preliminary action. The annual crown jewel event is one of several trips that the 66-year-old Johnson has made to the track since she began coming to the oval more than 60 years ago.
Johnson, who lives about an hour south of Eldora in New Paris, Ohio along the Indiana border, has deep family ties to the sport as her late father, Larry “Monk” Johnson, competed in the 1950s and 1960s.
“I came as a child, like 6 years old,“ Johnson said. “I haven't missed a World 100 since 1983. Not a one.”
On Thursday, Johnson sat with her sister, Kitty, waiting with anticipation as drivers fired up their engines for hot laps. Kitty, too, is even more excited than Johnson.
“She's got the (racing) fever,” Johnson said of Kitty. “But she's kind of been out of loop for a while because she was married and she was interested in drag racing and NASCAR. She just got back in dirt. She's got the fever.”
Michele Fatora and her husband, Ken, arrived to their seats underneath the covered grandstands early Thursday. Coming from Indiana, Pa., they frequent similar big tracks in the Keystone State such as Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pa., and Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway, as well as their home track at Marion Center (Pa.) Raceway.
“The atmosphere at Eldora alone, I mean, you can't beat it," Michele Fatora said. “The racing is awesome. I've been a Tony Stewart fan and as long as I can remember. The food, the concessions, the drinks, just the whole racing atmosphere itself.
“My favorite memory here is when my son was about 10 years old and we got here earlier,” Fatora added. “We used to park our motorhome out in the parking lot, and he’s a big Tony Stewart fan. We were in watching them run the track in and Tony was in the pickup and he stopped and he waved at my son.”
Johnson admires the upgrades that Stewart — the Hall of Fame NASCAR Cup champ from Columbus, Ind. who purchased the track in 2004 — has made to the facility, especially to the restrooms. What she appreciates even more is how quickly the action moves throughout the night.
“The restroom upgrade was wonderful,” Johnson said. “When they say something, they mean it, they don't jack around. When they say 10 minutes to go, they go. Also, every year since Tony's had it, you see the upgrades year after year after year after year. I just love it. And there's more and more seating and these races keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and they need it. There's so much more cement and there's more concrete and gravel. It's not a big muddy mess. It gets muddy, but not like it used to be.”
For as much as Johnson loves and appreciates Stewart, her favorite memory at the track involves Eldora’s founder and former owner, Earl Baltes. For many years, the Johnsons camped at the track as they watched their father compete at Eldora. The late Baltes would walk around the grounds and check in with fans, making sure they were having a good time and asking how they were doing.
During the 1998 race won by Moyer, Johnson’s son, Dylan, asked her to go down to the pits to meet the winner. Awaiting Johnson and everyone else making their way down to the winner’s stage was Baltes, shaking hands with every fan. She was shocked when Baltes mentioned her name with a friendly hello.
“He knew who I was,” Johnson said. “I just thought all these years he's just being nice to me, but he knew I was one of those Johnson kids. I had no clue he even knew who I was.”
