LAS  VEGAS  PARK  SPEEDWAY   -   LAS  VEGAS  NV

The track was built to be a major horse racing facility on the south side of Las Vegas.  Joseph 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," lawyer Hank Greenspun later said in his biography.  Smoot and two others were charged with felony embezzlement after he could not provide receipts for missing $500,000.  On September 4, 1953 the track was opened; named the Las Vegas Jockey Club.  Ticket booths and tote boards did not work properly and customers had to wait one hour in traffic to park and some went home without attending. 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.  In 1954, an American Automobile Association (AAA) Champ Car event was held at the track.  It was 100 laps around the one mile track, and saw Jimmy Bryan lead all 100 laps to get the win and the $2,500 first place money.  In 1955, the Cup cars would race here.  27 cars took the green flag for the 200 lap event.  There must have been a lot of carnage.  The results show that nine cars crashed out; and that the race was called after 111 laps because of darkness.  West Coast ace Lloyd Dane led the first five laps but then fell out.  Norm Nelson led the next 106 laps to get the win.  It would be his only Cup win.  Although the race only covered 111 laps; the second place running car was already two laps down.  In the USAC Stock car race; Fred Lorenzen would win that event in November of 1959.  Mike Klapak and Harold Smith rounded out the top three finishers.  The race was scheduled for 250 laps; but was also called after 147 laps because of darkness.  After that the board decided to destroy the track.  It divided the land into four parcels and it is occupied by the Westgate Las Vegas, Las Vegas Convention Center, and part of the Las Vegas Country Club.

 

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