Super Dirt Week is a

modified racing Modified stock car racing, also known as modified racing and modified, is a type of auto racing that involves purpose-built cars simultaneously racing against each other on Oval track racing, oval tracks. First established in the United States aft ...

event held annually on

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. He went ashore at ...

weekend in

Central New York The central region of New York state includes: * Auburn in Cayuga County * Cortland in Cortland County * Oneida in Madison County * Syracuse, the largest city of Central New York, in Onondaga County * Fulton and Oswego in Oswego County ...

state.

History

The first event was scheduled over three days, from September 29, through October 1, 1972 at the New York State Fairgrounds. Inspection and qualifying races were conducted on Friday and Saturday, and the Championship race was held on Sunday. In 1976 a fourth day was added to the schedule, and a 100 mile race the USAC Champ Cars was held on Saturday October 2. The date of the event was eventually changed to Columbus Day weekend, and expanded to 6 days and championships for 5 car classes. The

Syracuse Mile The Syracuse Mile was a dirt oval raceway located at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, New York. Originally built for harness racing in 1826, the first auto race was run in 1903, making it the second-oldest auto racing facility in Un ...

remained the featured race track until 2015, and companion races were added over the week at the nearby racetracks Rolling Wheels Raceway in Elbridge,

Weedsport Speedway Weedsport Speedway, formerly known as Cayuga County Fair Speedway, is a 3/8 mile oval dirt racetrack located on the Cayuga County Fairgrounds in Weedsport, New York. Auto racing In the early 1950s Stanley Dudzinski carved a one-third mile oval i ...

, and Brewerton Speedway. After the 2015 event the grandstands at the Syracuse Mile were torn down and the track was eliminated.

Oswego Speedway The Oswego Speedway is a 5/8 mile race track in Oswego, New York. It was built in 1951 and was paved with asphalt since the 1952. The track has held dates on several national tours - the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, ASA National Tour, and USAC ...

began hosting the primary races the following year.

Oswego era

Oswego Speedway is a five-eighths-mile asphalt track that runs weekly supermodified races. Each year following the Budweiser Classic Weekend, the oval coverts into a dirt track. That process requires placement of over 200 jersey barriers around the inside hub rail, and then 10-wheel dump trucks that bring in between four and five hundred loads are spread around the racing surface. Super Dirt Week is now the largest economic event for

Oswego, New York Oswego () is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Oswego County, New York, United States. The population was 16,921 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Oswego is situated at the mouth of the Oswego River (New York), Osw ...

as more than 30,000 fans attend. Racing rules may be adjusted as necessary, and in 2023 new pit stop strategies were introduced allowing teams to remain on the track while others pit to improve their cars.

Media coverage

The event was first televised live on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

in 1980. During the next 35 years, broadcast rights went to TNN, the Empire Sports Net,

SPEED In kinematics, the speed (commonly referred to as ''v'') of an object is the magnitude of the change of its position over time or the magnitude of the change of its position per unit of time; it is thus a non-negative scalar quantity. Intro ...

, to

CBS Sports Network CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...

, and more recently to

MAVTV Racer Network (formerly known as MAVTV) is an American cable and satellite television channel owned by the motorsports media company Racer, which mainly airs programming focused around motorsports and programming for automotive enthusiasts. C ...

. Presently, streaming services are produced by the World Racing Group and are available on all DIRTVisions OTT platforms from iOS to Android, to Samsung, to ROKU.

List of winners

References

{{reflist

External links

Super Dirt Week
Motorsport competitions in New York (state) 1972 establishments in New York (state) Dirt track racing in the United States Recurring sporting events established in 1972 Annual sporting events in the United States Stock car racing