May 25, 2012 1 min read

Marci Lynn McGuinness looked out over a field in Hopwood where cars raced around a wooden track at the Uniontown Speedway nearly 100 years ago.

“Fifty thousand people were right here,” she said. “It was 1916 when they started.”

McGuinness of Chalk Hill is a local historian and author who recently released her latest book, “Speedway Kings of Southwestern Pennsylvania & Region: 100 Years of Racing History.”

Sitting at a table at nearby Rick’s Cafe, which has its own photographs of the Uniontown Speedway hanging on the wall, McGuinness unrolled a large historic photograph taken the day of the last race at the Uniontown Speedway June 17, 1922. She pointed out such figures as renowned race car driver Louis Chevrolet, who won the first race in 1916; the Dusenberg brothers, who were prominent race car makers; driver Jimmy Murphy, who won the last race; and Charlie Johnson, the promoter who is said to have run off with the speedway money.

“It’s an amazing story,” she said, “and it needs to be preserved.”

Read more about it in the feature section Sunday of HeraldStandard.com.