The Woods Are Taking Over this Legendary Racetrack
An Indy 500 winner got his start at the Jackson Motor Speedway, which remains as a ghost track just north of the city
Jackson — As the birthplace of the automobile, it’s fitting that Michigan has one giant racetrack—Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn—and a whole bunch of smaller ones.
Some of the smaller ones are still going strong (there’s nothing better than a Saturday night at the Owosso Speedway), while many others have closed down.
Hidden in the woods north of Jackson is one of the shuttered ones. The Jackson Motor Speedway opened in 1948 and had a grand and glorious 25-year run before a series of ownership changes and declining attendance forced it to close in 1973. The local Corvette club used it for a couple more years after that.
But then… nothing.
It wasn’t repurposed, it wasn’t sold, it wasn’t turned into a housing development. It just sat there in the woods and nature took over. The asphalt is still there, the high banks are still there, and the ghosts of a zillion great races are still there, hidden in the woods and frozen in time. But everything else is gone.
There are no “for sale” signs or “no trespassing” signs anywhere on the property, so old-time fans and drivers occasionally make the trek through the woods to revisit the Jackson Motor Speedway. Michigan Enjoyer wanted to see the historic old girl, too, so we recently made the pilgrimage.
The Jackson Motor Speedway sits about two miles north of downtown Jackson, just west of U.S. 127, and after about 20 minutes of walking through the forest, we found her. It’s a beautiful asphalt oval, just three-eighths of a mile, and it’s been totally taken over by nature. The pit area, the grandstands and the parking lot have all been replaced by trees and bushes. All that remains are the track and the memories.
They call these “ghost tracks.” Like ghost towns, they’re abandoned facilities that were never turned into something else. Michigan has a few other ghost tracks (the Standish Speedway closed 20 years ago and is still standing), but none of them are quite as cool as the Jackson Motor Speedway.
For a number of reasons, the Jackson Motor Speedway ranks as one of the most legendary racetracks we’ve ever had. Some of the greatest drivers in Michigan history raced there, most notably Gordon Johncock of Hastings, the best auto racer this state has ever produced. He won the Indy 500 twice (in 1973 and 1982), but he got his start as the track champion at the Jackson Motor Speedway in 1963.
Jackson also ranks as the deadliest racetrack in Michigan history. There were seven fatalities in its 25-year history, including a photographer who was hit and killed by a car that flew off the track. Indeed, there are some real ghosts at this ghost track.
Built in 1948 as a high-banked dirt track, the speedway was owned by Ralph Stull Sr. and his family. The track was a hit right from the start. There were 1,500 people on hand when Carl Scarborough won the first race on Oct. 3, 1948, beating the 15 other cars in the field.
The crowds continued to pack the track in the years that followed, even as disaster struck in the early 1950s. From 1951 to 1953, there were four fatalities here.
Clarence Harvey, a driver from Illinois, was killed during a race in 1951. William Showronski of Detroit and Ted Kennell of Jackson both died in 1953 after crashing their cars. And James Ryan, a photographer from Vandercook Lake, was killed in 1951 when a car driven by Charles Kaminski flew off the track after his front tire blew out, smashing into Ryan.
Ryan’s death was front-page news in the Jackson Citizen-Patriot, which noted that his funeral included a somewhat gruesome procession.
“His body will be driven once around the track at the Jackson Motor Speedway track in a funeral coach which will follow a stock racing car carrying his battered camera,” it said.
In 1958, the Stulls retired and sold the track to R.G. Atwood of Lansing, and he made the controversial decision to pave the track. It was reported that most of the drivers hated the change, because it was a lot easier to control their cars on dirt.
No matter, the races continued on the asphalt track, and the crowds continued to come. The Jackson Motor Speedway was also producing a number of local legends, including drivers like Mickey Katlin of Howell, Wild Bill Naida of Carleton, and Ralph Donaldson of Jackson, who won 56 feature races there.
“The car owners and competitors loved everything about the track,” Donaldson told the Citizen-Patriot in 2011, when he was 81. “It was the thing to do and the place to be on a Saturday night. It was a wonderful experience for this old man.”
The track changed hands a couple more times after Atwood bought it, and according to the historians, that led to its downfall.
“They tried racing on Friday nights and on Sunday afternoons, but the crowds weren’t there and they couldn’t draw the big-name drivers because of it,” historian Marty Blume told the Citizen-Patriot. “Poor management ended up causing the track’s demise. When you remember what it used to be like, it’s sad. But it’s still a very special place for the drivers who raced there.”
True. And there are plenty of those drivers still around, including Gordon Johncock himself, who’s still going strong at 89. He lives in South Branch, near Tawas City, where he runs his own lumber company, Johncock Forestry Services.
Drivers like him are probably happy that the old track is still around, hidden in these woods, even though it’s overgrown and covered by brush and trees.
For them, and for the fans who came here, the memories of the checkered flag will linger on.
