Birmingham International Raceway
Birmingham International Raceway, or BIR, is a 5/8-mile oval paved racetrack located at the Alabama State Fairgrounds in the Five Points West neighborhood of Birmingham. It is used primarily for late-model automobile racing. The track's office is located at 2321 Bessemer Road.
History
The original 1 mile dirt oval was built as a horse track. On October 7th, 1906, a motorcycle race was held. The first automobile race occured on October 10th, 1906. This continued through 1917. In 1932 a 1/2 mile dirt oval opened, and was used until July 4th, 1942. It was closed during WWII but reopened on October 1st, 1946, and operated until November 5th, 1961. Additionally, a 1/4 mile dirt oval was open from 1958 to 1960. The 1/4 mile track was paved and operated from about July 15th, 1960 through 1961. On June 28th, 1962, the modern 5/8 mile paved oval began operation and is still in use today.
This track has also operated as Fairgrounds Raceway, Birmingham Super Speedway, Birmhagham Super Raceway and Birmingham International Speedway.
NASCAR
A total of eight races were ran at what was then called Fairgrounds Raceway for NASCAR's top curcuit, now known as the Nextel Cup. These occurred in 1958 and from 1961 to 1968. Top names in the sport recorded wins here, including Fireball Roberts, Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and Bobby Allison.
External Links
[www.bir-racing.com/ BIR] website
References
Birmingham International Raceway]. (2005, August 8) NA Motorsports.com. Retrieved 13:20, December 27, 2006
- NASCAR races at Fairgrounds Raceway Racing-Reference.info. Retrieved 13:28, December 27, 2006