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From Track Website
Onaway Speedway was built in 1983 by Harry Moran in Northern Michigan. The track is an 1/4 mile oval asphalt.
H&D was the company who originally paved Onaway Speedway. Since then Jim and Krista had Freeburn Track Grinding out of Indiana Carbide grind the corners of the track in 2012. In 2011 all of the lighting and sound was upgraded By Jim and Krista DuBois.
Current Owner, Mike Sturgill, who is an avid racer and fan, decided to purchase the track in April of 2017. Sturgill is the sole owner and wanted to keep the sport of racing alive in the local area. Onaway Speedway is the only track in the Midwest to run Semi’s on the Oval Track as a regular class on their racing schedule each year.
The first year was extremely good, the track had an excellent car count and sellout crowds. Near the end of the 2017 racing season Mike sprang into action and had an uphill 1/8- mile asphalt drag track built to the North of the oval track. This made the Onaway Speedway home to the first uphill semi-truck drag racing venue in the United States. This creating The Great Lakes Big Rig Challenge, first held in May of 2018. Over the course of the 2018 oval track racing season Mike was trying to figure how best to make his facility more multi-faceted. September 2018, he added a sled pulling track and the first truck and tractor pulls were held on September 22,23, 2018.
The schedule for our oval track is every other weekend on Saturday night. Practice starts at 12:00pm, qualifying begins at 5:00pm and racing begins at 7:00pm. On any given weekend of racing the track has 80 plus cars qualifying and a minimum of 25 mini wedge karts. The mini wedge karts are driven by children 6-14 years old. This is prepping them to be our future oval track racers. On race nights we have 7 classes competing on the oval track. The very fast super late models and open wheel modifieds. The street stock division is divided into 3 classes: A class, B class and C class. The separation is based on qualifying times. A four-cylinder class of up and coming drivers. The final class on the oval track is the bobtail semi-trucks. These semis are retired and compete on all race nights, they always provided great entertainment. The mini wedge classes have their own track within the front stretch of the full oval track. The mini wedges run two separate classes based on age. The 6-9-year old’s run a restricted class and the 10-14-year old’s run an unrestricted class. The track offers a buy up program to oval track competitors to always ensure the best racing is happening at the track.
The new sled pulling track will offer another avenue for horsepower lovers to get their fix. The track intends to run trucks in three classes, stock, modified and open. Tractors in the lite limited class and super farm class and will entertain the idea of running other classes. Semi-trucks will also run on the sled pulling track.
Racing has been Mike Sturgill’s biggest passion his whole life, he owns 8 Outlaw Super Late Models and offers a buy up program to competitors to always ensure the best racing is happening on his track!