BIRMINGHAM INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY - BIRMINGHAM AL
The original one-mile clay oval was built as a horse track. On October 7, 1906 the track hosted its first motorcycle race, followed by an automobile race three days later. The 1906 Alabama-Auburn Game was played before the grandstand in November. These events continued regularly through 1917. The track was closed in 1921, but reopened with a new 8,000-seat grandstand in 1925. The new facility featured horse racing on weekdays and auto races on Saturdays. In 1932 the oval was reduced to a half-mile circuit. The smaller configuration was used until July 4, 1942, when it closed for World War II. After the War, the track was reopened on October 1, 1946 "Childrens Day" at the Alabama State Fair, featuring the "Auto Daredevils". That year the track began hosting weekly Sunday afternoon auto-racing events. A quarter-mile dirt oval was added in 1958 and was the first track to be paved, with the
first events held on the new surface on July 15, 1960. After one season of racing on the quarter-mile track the present five-eighths-mile course was constructed. The new course featured a longer straightaway closer to the grandstand. The first race on the reconfigured track, newly dubbed the "Birmingham International Raceway" was held on June 28, 1962. In the early '60's, Bobby Allison had moved to Hueytown from Miami, Florida and convinced his brother Donnie and fellow racer Red Farmer to join him in founding a new race shop. The so-called "Alabama Gang" dominated the weekly races at the Fairgrounds track. Between 1958 and 1968 a total of eight NASCAR races were run at the Fairgrounds Raceway. Fireball Roberts won the first Cup race held there. The next race came in 1961 and saw Ned Jarrett best the field by two laps. 1963 there were two Cup races at the facility. Jim Paschal won the first while Richard Petty would claim the win in the second race. 1964 and 1965 saw Ned Jarret back in the winners circle. 1965 was also the first race that Bobby Allison had tried his hand in a Cup race at the speedway. He finished seventh. 1966 Allison showed the boys how to get around the track as he would beat out Paschal and Petty to grab the top prize. The final Cup race held at the famous old speedway saw Petty claim the checkers. The track was last paved in 1972. Bobby Allison bought the contract to operate the track in 1976 and 1977. The track's final event, was a World 200 late-model race held on October 30, 2008, and then the track was shut down. Demolition began in January of 2009, and finished two months later.
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