Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

I was on Google Earth looking for Williams Grove and ran across a dirt track north of Mechanicsburg, but all the street views were of a new shopping area called Silver Spring Square. I'm assuming the satellite imagery is old and this track is now the site of the shops. My question, what was the name of this track?

It's actually in OHIO!

TSA...It's not a GROPE...it's a Freedom Pat!

that my friend would have been silver spring speedway. used to run super sportsman, late models and other divisions throughout its years. it also used to be a weekly stop during pa speedweek for 410 sprint cars.. 3/8ths of a mile semi banked, great racing! too bad it is a shopping center now. i grew up in mechanicsburg all my life, and it sucks to have a track taken away like that! its location and now is home to a wegmans, target best buy and other shopping stuff! its been gone for a couple years now! i only went there a hand full of times but it was a cool track! the place lives on though, here is a link check out the history of the place!

http://www.silverspringspeedway.com/history.htm

Great track with great fans. Just in the wrong place with all the development that went on all around it.

I wondered about that. Thought I could remember reading about a Silver Springs Speedway, but wasn't sure.

That's always a shame to lose a good track. I know Kansas City lost the original Lakeside Speedway to the Woodlands, a horse and dog racing complex which has all but faded away. They went west into a more rural area (which is now just a few miles north of Kansas Speedway) and rebuilt, but it's not near as racy of a track as the old Lakeside. At least they did rebuild. The track I grew up attending, Sportsmans/Saline County Speedway in Marshall, Mo, closed in the early 80's and is still just farmground. Sad sad sad.

If you want to see Silver Springs, go to Google Earth. It still shows it.

Heck, I even went and set-up there for a Fall Flea Market racing show and sold a whole bunch of photos to my adoring Posse fans. Had a great day and met some nice peeps. Never did get to see a race there but the Sportsman Division had a different winner there almost every week from what I remember, real racy joint. How I miss PA, lol. Take It Easy....

Silver Spring was an amazing place. The track drew 50-60 open cockpit Super Sportsman cars every week, and typically had 18-20 different winners in a season. No track running full-sized cars in PA, New Jersey, New York, etc. charged a lower admission price. IIRC, admission was only $8-9 when the land was finally sold four or five years ago. The running joke among fans at Silver Spring was that the racing was so good it would even be worth paying the admission price at any of the local 410 Sprint Car tracks to see it.

The Silver Spring Super Sportsman did produce some PA Sprint Car drivers. Mark Smith was a dominant Super Sportsman driver before going Sprint Car racing. PA 358 driver Pat Cannon, who was National 410 Sprint Car Rookie of the Year last year, came out of the Silver Spring Sportsman class. The Silver Spring classes that lost their track when the Spring closed now run at Williams Grove on Saturday nights.

In addition, past PA 410 Sprint Car drivers Joey Kuhn, Howie Locke, Dave Calaman and Shawn Keen all cut their teeth at Silver Spring.

After Smokey Snellbaker stopped getting 410 Sprint Car ride offers, he fashioned an entire second career by running the Silver Spring Super Sportsman.

There will NEVER be another place like it!!! Spent a lot of years there.

For those of us far away from PA- could you describe what a *super sportsman* is?

-Thanks

358 Carbureted, Non-Power Steering cars similar to sprints. The frames are all tubing except for the bottom two rails, which are 2x4. They weigh more then a sprint and don't run a front wing. Top wing consists of 15 sq ft.