RPW Exclusive: Battle Of The Grove’s: Competition For Friday Attention On Select Dates In ’25

Column By: DERICK KRINER / RPW – GRANTVILLE, PA – Many race fans who live in Central Pennsylvania have been curious to see what the fate of the historic Selinsgrove Speedway was going to be after trouble hit the previous management team.

The continuation of racing at the ½ mile seemed in doubt. Much to the surprise of some fans, the speedway quickly found a new management team with SCD Management Group.

What then came into question were schedule plans for the new team. Over the past 10 years, there has been little consideration to who runs in the area and what divisions were competing. Friday nights always featured 410 sprint cars at the Williams Grove Speedway and a few other select tracks running late model, modified, or 305 sprint car programs. Nothing really competing on a regular basis against each other.

Select 410 shows happen at other facilities such as Big Diamond and Clinton County, but only when other tracks are closed for some teams and fans to go to big events like the Kings Royal and Knoxville Nationals.

That took a turn when the Selinsgrove Speedway team released a schedule in late November that showed the Snyder Country oval, competing on Friday and Saturday nights and even some Sunday’s. The preliminary 20+ race schedule featured the 410 sprint cars in action on Friday nights throughout the year, as well as other Saturday and Sunday shows.

While there are only a handful of shows that truly compete against the Mechanicsburg ½ mile of Williams Grove, it is interesting to see a track try to dip into the Friday night market that the Grove has held for so long.

Williams Grove has since released their schedule and payout information for their weekly programs. At the moment the tracks are set to compete for cars and fans on April 11th, May 16th, June 6th, and August 15th. While only a few shows doesn’t seem like a huge deal, the events at both tracks on these particular nights are different in the payouts and if they will include time trials or not, which may be a deciding factor for some teams.

In past years, what concerned the Selinsgrove Speedway was never fan turnout, but that of the teams and drivers. A lot of 410 sprint car shows saw low car counts and sometimes a struggle to reach 20 cars. This problem also hits Williams Grove from time to time on regular weekly shows, but never for bigger races.

Another concern for the Selinsgrove team was the deletion of the PA Speedweek show from their planned schedule of 410 shows. This came as a surprise to many, as the track has always been a part of the grueling Speedweek group. Speculations have flown about as to what the root cause of this was, but many could assume the tensions might have stemmed from the schedule.

The hope, for Selinsgrove, is that they can build up enough of a reputation with the first few shows to get more cars to the speedway. Car counts dwindled under the last management group because of that lack of trust. The fans always seem to come out and support the Selinsgrove Speedway for weekly and big shows, which is an area they have a slight advantage on Williams Grove.

Now weather and time of year have some effect on this, but as long as the fans show up, Selinsgrove is in a good position to continue to build a competitive 410 schedule in seasons to come.

While Friday night supremacy is still in Williams Grove’s favor for the foreseeable future, Selinsgrove Speedway and its new promotional team can hope to attract a part of the market and build on the success of weekly shows, to get back in a relevant state, when it comes to 410 sprint car competition.

At the moment, indications would point to Williams Grove winning the car count battle on most of these shows, due simply to purse size. The real sign of progress for Selinsgrove will be all of the other 410 shows they have scheduled that are not on Friday’s. Can they get a car count that would make it feasible to continue to pay bigger amounts of money?

In any case, best of luck to both tracks and if you can, get out and support both facilities throughout the 2025 season, as both have great schedules with something for everyone.