Tacoma Speedway
Barney Oldfield sits behind the wheel of the pace car at Tacoma Speedway, July 4, 1922
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| Location | Tacoma, Washington, United States |
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| Capacity | 35,000+ |
| Opened | 1915 |
| Closed | 1922 |
| Irregular Oval | |
| Surface | Wood |
| Length | ~2.00 mi (~3.22 km) |
| Turns | 4 |
| Lap record | <1:10; >103 mph (165.7 km/h) (Tommy Milton, Duesenberg/Miller, 1922) |
Coordinates: 47°10′30″N 122°29′49″W / 47.175°N 122.497°W
Tacoma Speedway (sometimes called Pacific Speedway or Tacoma-Pacific Speedway) was a 2-mile (3.2 km) (approximate) wooden board track for automobile racing that operated from 1914 to 1922 near Tacoma, Washington. In its time, the track was renowned nationwide and was considered by some to be second only to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Notable competitors such as Barney Oldfield, Eddie Rickenbacker, Ralph DePalma, and both Louis and Gaston Chevrolet, were drawn to race for purses of up to $25,000 (approximately $573,000 in 2012 dollars). Before long, the track acquired a reputation for being dangerous. After an arson fire destroyed the wooden grandstands in 1920, the facility was rebuilt but failed financially and racing ended two years later. The site later became an airport and then a naval supply depot during World War II, and today is occupied by the campus of Clover Park Technical College and neighboring commercial sites in Lakewood, Washington.
In 1912, a group of businessmen formed the Tacoma Carnival Association and created a 5-mile (8.0 km) dirt race course roughly bounded by today's Lakeview Avenue, Steilacoom Boulevard, Gravelly Lake Drive and S.W. 112th Street. This course was reduced in size for each of the next two years and became the final 2-mile (3.2 km) layout in 1914. On July 4 of that year, over 35,000 spectators came out to see racing, Vaudeville acts and fireworks. In 1915, the dirt track was upgraded to a wood track with turns banked up 18 feet (5.5 m), using 2 million board feet (4,720 m3) of lumber and 15 tons (14,000 kg) of nails. At the time of construction, it was one of just eleven wood tracks in the United States. Promoters claimed it would be one of the fastest race tracks, if not the fastest, in the nation.
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