Operating Dirt · Oval
Eldora Speedway
Allen Township · Darke County, Ohio
Postal / event brand: Rossburg · New Weston · 13929 State Route 118
Straights banked ~8° (track facts). Oval · 4 turns. First dirt venue on this record.
How to read this record
- Category — Dirt · Oval. Road courses live under Road Courses; this page is filed under Dirt Courses.
- Status — Operating / Closed / For sale is venue state, not a campaign.
- Three desks — Operator runs race days. Landowner holds the deed. Land-use body is the township that zones the parcel.
- Postal ≠ government — Rossburg / New Weston are place brands. Zoning is Allen Township, Darke County.
- Gifts — Fund the cited record only. Not a land purchase.
- Corrections — Contact (topic: Correction / source).
Why this record matters
Eldora (“the Big E”) is the first dirt oval on SaveTheTracks’ public record — a half-mile high-banked clay track that has hosted dirt’s national showcase events since the Baltes era. Opening a Dirt Courses shelf here is the category move for venues that are not paved road courses. Status as of this writing: operating.
What they built
- 1/2-mile clay oval (track facts / club directory)
- Banking: turns ~24° · straights ~8°
- Opened 1954 as a quarter-mile; enlarged to 3/8-mile (1956), then half-mile (1958) for USAC national-championship length
- Permanent grandstand capacity published in the low–mid 20,000s depending on source year; hillside seating beyond that
- Address on the record: 13929 State Route 118, New Weston, OH 45348
Who
Founder / long-time operator: Earl Baltes built Eldora and promoted it from 1954 until the 2004 sale. Ohio later named a stretch of SR 118 the Earl Baltes Highway.
Owner (2004–present): Tony Stewart purchased Eldora from Baltes (announced Nov 2004). Operator branding: Eldora Speedway, Inc. Public phone on the track facts page: (937) 338-3815 · mail@eldoraspeedway.com — operations desk, not a photo-permission ask.
History
- 1953–54 — Ground broken; opens as a quarter-mile clay oval beside the Eldora Ballroom / Wabash River amphitheatre.
- 1956 / 1958 — Expanded to 3/8, then to the present half-mile high-banked layout.
- World 100 and later Kings Royal / Dirt Late Model Dream put Eldora on the national dirt calendar (confirm event lineages on primary calendars before dating individual editions).
- 18 Nov 2004 — Sale to Tony Stewart announced; Baltes era ends, Stewart ownership begins.
- 2013–2019 — NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Eldora Dirt Derby ran here (secondary histories); treat as closed chapter unless a new sanction returns.
What’s next
Operating. Watch Eldora’s published schedule and Allen Township / Darke County public packets for any land-use filings. No sale watch asserted on this page without a primary listing or deed cite.
The town that hosts it
Allen Township, Darke County, Ohio
Event / postal brands say Rossburg and New Weston. Land-use for the unincorporated SR 118 site is Allen Township (Darke County) — confirm any zoning or variance on township/county packets, not on a “save Eldora” campaign page.
Track mailing address — 13929 State Route 118, New Weston, OH 45348
County — Darke County, Ohio · check county auditor / recorder for parcel facts
Township — Allen Township Trustees (land-use body for the plant). Add meeting URLs when you have the live .gov calendar link in hand.
We publish the public record. We do not lobby the board.
Help keep this record public
A gift does not buy Eldora. What it does: keep the record on the dirt still running and the pavement we already cited.
DonatePhoto sources
- No Commons on-track still cleared for this page yet. Official Eldora galleries and broadcast stills are copyright — do not lift them.
- Add licensed or Commons-cleared files when you have them. Navy / clay stub OK until then.
Sources
- eldoraspeedway.com — Track facts · Contact · Directions
- Wikipedia — Eldora Speedway (secondary; verify dates against primary)
- Motorsport.com / contemporary wires — Stewart purchase Nov 2004
- DirtOnDirt — Earl Baltes timeline (secondary)