name of newspaper: Scottsbluff Daily Star-Herald location: 1405 Broadway, Scottsbluff NE, 69361 phone number: +1-308-632-9000 website: https://starherald.com date of article: Friday, July 20, 2018 about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-Herald about: https://www.loc.gov/item/sn95069574/ about: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn99058152/ source: https://starherald.com/sports/article_edac9f54-8ca5-11e8-9659-eb0c7d031e0b.html Hi-Way 92 Raceway Park celebrating 50th birthday By MARK REIN Star-Herald Hi-Way 92 Raceway Park turns 50 this year. The venue has hosted racing for 50 years and second-year track owner John Ulander is going to have a birthday party to celebrate the milestone on Saturday. “Saturday night is going to special,” Ulander said. “Not too many tracks last that long. Today there is are lot of distractions for families, so for a track to be around for 50 years is special.” Today’s racing will include a 75-lap super stock race with the winner receiving a check for $2,500. Ulander said he expects plenty of super stock cars here for the race from a number of states, including Colorado. Besides the big super stock race, other races on tap include the Farm Trucks, the Vintage cars, as well as the Modified Coupes. The Modified Coupes run in the Colorado Automobile Racing Club and they run with and without wings. Ulander said there will be a big fireworks show to celebrate the track’s 50th birthday after the races along with a dance. Qualifying begins at 5 p.m. and racing should start around 6:30 p.m. The track was originally built by Clarence Smith after the race track at the Scottsbluff airport closed. It took three years to build the track, but in July of 1968 it opened. The track has undergone several owners and names in the past 50 years. After Clarence Smith, the track was owned by Larry Steinbrecker, George Leis, Willard Stricker, and Orville Spidel until 1976 when it was renamed Oregon Trail Speedway. In 1977 Mike Warren bought shares owned by Spidel, and Warren and Leis operated the track until the 1981 season and renamed the track Oregon Trail Raceway. John Curtis of Cheyenne followed as the owner of the track in 1984 and renamed it Oregon Trail Speedway. Curtis’ time as owner was short as the track closed in 1986 and remained closed until 1990 when Dallas and Lucille Whiting revitalized it. They ran the track trough the 2003 season when Lee and Carol Schwartzkopf bought the track in 2004 and operated it through the 2016 season before the Ulanders purchased the track. The track underwent a lot of facelifts under the Schwartzkopfs from cement work, new pits, lookout stands, new restrooms, and a figure 8 track. In the 50-year life of the track, the track had just one resurfacing and that was done by Whiting in the 1990s. Original owner Clarence Smith still has family in the area that race. Rick Smith and his son Derek are involved in the racing business. Rick Smith said that he raced his first race at the race track in 1979 while he was still a student at Gering High School. He became involved full-time in racing in 1982. Smith added that he would often go to the track and just drive his go kart around the track. Smith went on to drive for MW Motorsports under Mike Warren’s sponsorship. Smith stopped racing full-time in 2015 temporarily because he said, it wasn’t fun racing Mike Warren’s cars without him being in the pit. But, Smith said, he is planning on a comeback. His son, Derek and Gering resident Chad Cowan, are second and third in the point standings at Colorado National Speedway. Rick said Derek has never driven at the local track and someday he wants to get him out there. Derek is the fourth generation of the Smith family to be involved in racing. Smith said they wanted to come back for the super stock big race on Saturday, but the timing of the classes between HiWay 92 and Colorado National Speedway didn’t work out. The biggest thing that Smith remembers is when his dad, Dick Smith, passed away last year, they repainted the modified that he recently bought to look like his dad’s original car Through the years, there have been a lot of great drivers that have come through the speedway. One of the bigger ones that a lot of people remember was Bill Girton. Girton was from Scottsbluff and raced for Mike Warren and the two traveled to a lot of big races. Other well-known drivers that current drivers remember driving at the race track include John Metcalf, Doug Greer, Chad Cowan, Rick Smith, Dick Smith, Rod Graves, Geoff Watkins, Jeff and Jared Whiting, Larry Collins. Loren Urwin, Mike Valentine, Bill and Billie Rask, Bill Curtis, Donny Wilson and his Jolly Rancher car, George Leis, Louie Wells, Rich Rohrbouck, Rod Graves, Brian Kililthau, Dale Mahanke, Mel Abel, Dick Heidingsfelder, Harry Gardner, the Blanton, Dan and John Miller, and Harvey Mueller, to name a few. Many of the names came from a post on the Oregon Trail Speedway Facebook page asking people top drivers and individuals for a racing Hall of Fame. The track has had a number of classes as well from the Mini Class where the cars were the older VW Bugs, the Cruiser class, where two people were in the car with one controlling the gas and the other the brake, pure stock, super stock, bumble bee class, and many others. There were plenty of events, too, like the High Plains shootout held in October, and an Enduro race that was held in the winter time that was either 200 laps or two hours of driving. Since Whitings purchased the race track, racing has been a consistent summertime activity in the Scottsbluff-Gering area. [ https://hiway92raceway.com ]