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  *Comments on Columbus Driving Park:*
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  1.   Chriswo posted:
  05.08.2018 - 9:46 pm
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No real info about this track


  2.   Noah posted:
  07.16.2019 - 4:15 pm
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1 mile dirt oval in Driving Park


  3.   Matthew posted:
  07.18.2020 - 7:48 pm
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What a history this track has!

The Columbus Driving Park opened in the late 1890s as a horse racing
track, and later started hosting automobile races on the side. In 1905,
the Columbus Motor Derby was held, featuring 12 events over the course
of a week, and although it wasn't sanctioned by the AAA, many AAA
drivers showed up, including Barney Oldfield and his Peerless "Green
Dragon".

The main event of the Derby would be the world's first 24-hour race! Of
the 4 cars entered, 3 would actually compete, as the fourth car's
driver, Roy Repp, went in for emergency surgery the day before the race.
What it was for, nobody knows for sure. The rules called for one driver
and one mechanic who would switch roles whenever it was needed. The
track was also lined with arc lamps for the occasion, making some of the
support races the first American racing events run "under the lights".

In the end, George & Charles Soules, running the Pope-Toledo
steam-powered car, would be crowned the winner, completing 828 laps, an
average of 34.5 miles per hour; and that was after an accident in the
early hours which saw them practically rebuild the entire car in just
under an hour! 2nd place, however, was much more impressive of a feat.
Although Lee Frayer, driver of the locally owned Frayer-Miller car,
would finish 100 laps down, completing 728 laps, he had made up quite a
deficit; at one point he had been 250 laps down after another early
accident! At the same time, he became the first, and one of the only
drivers ever, to complete the entire 24-hour event as the sole driver of
the racecar! 3rd came the Peerless, which was not powered by Oldfield,
but rather 2 other individuals, a Mr. Ballenger, and a Mr. Feasel.
(Interestingly, although both were from Columbus, their first names were
not given in the newspaper article. Oldfield, however, did run the car
for about an hour during the night.)

Other things the track would become notable for would be the Franklin
County Fair, held twice at the park in 1910 & 1917. The former edition
of the fair would see the track also be used as a landing strip for the
Wright Brothers' Model B airplane. The track would eventually shut down
in 1926, with the land subdivided into residential areas. Today,
however, most of the homes are vacant or boarded up, but some of Driving
Park still survives as a well-maintained neighborhood park. But it's
amazing to think that we came from only completing 828 miles in a 24
hour span, to 500 mile races in just under 4 hours today.

Source: Motorsport, covering a 1979 article from the Columbus Sunday
Dispatch, Columbus' local newspaper.


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