BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — It's been nearly 40 years since cars have driven around the track at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds, but starting next spring, midget and sprint car races are scheduled to be a staple once again.
"It's going to be something different. Everybody's asked. 'What's new at the fair?' So we're going to have something new at the fair this year," said Cheri Bissinger, treasurer at the Bloomsburg Fair.
Bissinger says adapting the current 3/8th mile track to a race track will be a major project.
"The fencing has to be changed; the banking on the track has to be changed. The track itself has to be changed to clay because it's going to be a dirt track race."
Car racing at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds dates back to the 1920s and ended in the early 1980s.
"We've had people say, 'Why don't we bring racing back to the fair?' It's been years. I think I was a child the last time there was a race here on the fair track."
Fair officials plan to hold around a dozen races, which are scheduled to start next spring. They plan to hold a sprint or midget car race during fair week.
According to fair officials, the stage will come down to make room for the new track, but they will bring in a portable stage during fair week.
Bissinger says the Bloomsburg fair Has been looking for ways to make the grandstand more profitable as the cost of entertainment has gone up over the years.
"A lot of the big-name entertainment moves west after Labor Day. It will give us another venue to offer something to our people that are coming to the fair."
The project will cost the fair organization around $1 million. Work is scheduled to start this month and wrap up next spring.