Las Vegas Park Speedway
| Location | Las Vegas, Nevada |
|---|---|
| Former names | Las Vegas Jockey Club |
| Major events | AAA, NASCAR, USAC |
| Surface | dirt track |
| Length | 1.0 mi (1.6 km) |
The Las Vegas Park Speedway was a horse and automobile racing facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was built to be a horse racing facility and it held single races in NASCAR Grand National (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series), AAA, and USAC Stock cars before it was demolished. It opened as the Las Vegas Jockey Club.
Joseph M. Smoot hitched a ride from lawyer Hank Greenspun to get from New York City in the eastern United States to Las Vegas. He claimed to have helped build tracks in California and Florida which turned out to be untrue. The track was built to be a major horse racing facility on the south side of Las Vegas. Smoot funded the track by convincing 8000 shareholders to give him $2 million. "Old Joe knew a track wouldn't have a chance and he said so when he came here in 1946," Greenspun later said in his biography. After the construction was delayed well past its original opening date, Smoot published an apology in a local newspaper. Smoot and two others were charged with felony embezzlement after he could not provide receipts for missing $500,000. A trustee was appointed by a federal judge to run the track. Smoot remained indicted until he was found dead in a hotel room two years later.
On September 4, 1953 the track was opened named the Las Vegas Jockey Club. Ticket booths and tote boards did not work properly and only one entrance discouraged customers. Customers had to wait one hour in traffic to park and some went home without attending. 8200 customers attended in the first day and the board of directors closed the track for two weeks after the third day to replace the ticket booths. The track was rapidly losing money, so the board closed after operating 13 days. It opened back up in 1954 to host quarter horse racing but closed after seven weeks.
Three major auto racing event were held on the track. In 1954, an American Automobile Association (AAA) Champ Car event was held at the track, followed by a 1955 NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup Series) race. The final race was a United States Auto Club (USAC) Stock Car event in 1959.
...
Wikipedia