If you ever traveled on route 31 in Flemington, NJ, you’ll come upon several businesses with Costco, Longhorns Steakhouse, and Lowe’s Home Improvement store.
If you take a closer look at the Lowe’s location, you will see some resemblance to what was once a racetrack called Flemington Speedway.
Flemington Speedway opened in 1915 and was a 5/8 mile track that started out as a dirt track. In the early years, horse racing was popular at the track. Then, motorsports slowly made its way to Flemington Speedway.
Stock car racing was popular and began to be held every Saturday night. The track underwent changes when lights were installed in 1955. Then, the track was reconfigured into a semi-banked rectangle in 1966-67, earning the nickname “The Square.”
The track remained a dirt track and continued to host weekly races, including monster trucks. Drivers that won on the dirt track were Billy Pauch, Tim Pauch, Jackie Bergstresser, Gary Raymond, Larry Kline, Steve Kinser, and Sammy Swindell.
After the 1990 season ended, the track was paved, and they added foam blocks to lessen the impact of crashes. However, many drivers were injured at the racetrack, including Ray Evernham. The racing increased at Flemington Raceway. Later, NASCAR came to the racetrack with the Craftsman SuperTruck Series, NASCAR Busch North Series, Modified Tour Racing, and the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series.
Some big-name drivers won a race at Flemington Speedway. In the Truck Series, Chevrolet won all four races from 1995-98. They were Ron Hornaday twice (95,97), Mike Skinner (96), and Terry Cook (98).
In the Busch North Series, Ricky Craven won the only visit there in 1991. Frank Kimmel won in the ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series in 1999. For the Modifieds, George Kent Jr. (91), Doug Hoffman (92), Jan Leaty (96), Mike Stefanik twice in 1997, and Ed Flemke Jr. (98) have all won at Flemington Speedway.
Like many tracks, Flemington Speedway lost money after it was paved in the later years. As a result, annual races ceased after the 1999 season, and the track officially closed in 2002. The land was sold to developers, who demolished the track in 2005, which is now called the Raritan Town Center.
Today, an organization called the Flemington Speedway Historical Society hosts events to relive all the classic races with the drivers that ran on the track.
Flemington Speedway may be long gone, but its sounds will live forever in the hearts of fans. Gone but not forgotten.
