GEDDES, NY — It has been nearly a decade since the last race at the New York State Fairgrounds. The area that many remember as a race track no longer exists.
Fair visitors say that the fairground simply looks different than they remember it; since the race track is no longer there, it is no longer the same.
While some wish it still existed, others are happy that they can camp and go horseback riding there.
The first car race on the exhibition grounds took place in 1903. More than a hundred years later, there are no more races.
Kurt Sherman of Marcellus enjoyed the concerts, demolition derbies, horse racing and car racing at the track and is frustrated by the loss of the race track.
“The old fairground area was fine. I don’t know why this change had to be made. I liked the old grandstand and the race track. I liked the horses as well as the race cars.”
Vendors like Basilios, who have been in business for over sixty years, have experienced the effects before and after the racetrack’s absence.
“When they took that away, I think they also took away some vendors. Without the race track, I think that impacts the racing fans,” said John Tornatore of Basilios.
But some neighbors, like Jay Osborne, who has been attending the fair for 67 years, are happy about the new features, such as camping and more activities for children.
You meet great people, have great neighbors, meet new people, get rides, and see the same faces over and over again. It’s fulfilling.
However, racing fans in central New York State were promised a new race park in Hastings that would house the future of Super DIRT Week.
But that plan failed, and now Sherman and other racing fans are left without the race track they wanted.
They were left in the dust, making promises that no one ever kept. It’s unfortunate that politics got in the way of all this.
However, Osborne says there are other racetracks in Central New York where fans can watch races.
“Oswego Speedway and Weedsport – there are still dirt tracks here. It’s not like it’s out of state or anything.”
The land on which the new race track was to be built was recently auctioned, and for racing fans who had wanted this replacement race track, this seemed to be the final nail in the coffin.
