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I am using a current day address that is close to the old lot.
Source: Danny Swan
I grew up in Pontiac Mi. I remember as a boy about 12 yrs old maybe exploring at Lake Angelus. I came across the track (prev abandoned and all grown up with weeds) but there were still wrecked cars with numbers on them. It must have been about 1969 and to me these cars were really old timey ones. In later years I learned that my parents had both raced and my mom drove a car with Donald Duck painted on the trunk lid.
In 2011 my cousin Joe McDonald said he ran across a lady who worked at a rite-aid (or something) pharmacy near lk orion or oxford who remembered my mom, saying she was a tough racer. Mom later had become the 9th woman in the world registered to drive as a truck driver for Allied Van Lines, along with my father.
Summary of Oakland County Speedways from the Webmaster:
There has been some confusion on my part regarding the motor speedways in Oakland County, and Pontiac in particular. I believe I have figured out which speedway was where and what names they operated under.
First off, I had listed “Lake Angelus Speedway” and “Chief Pontiac Speedway” as 2 different places. Based on the old newspaper ads, they were one in the same. The speedway sat on a lot just South of where Great Lakes Crossing sits today. Both are described as being on Lake Angelus Rd and Baldwin Rd.
Secondly, I had “Pontiac Speedway” and “M-59 Speedway” as 2 different places. They were also one in the same although oddly described slightly differently during the same time period in different newspapers. The locations were given as “8 miles west of Telegraph on Highland Rd” and “13 miles East of US-23 on M-59”, or "3 miles West of the airport". Those all take you to the same place.
Dave Lyall mentioned there was a speedway at M-59 and Elizabeth Lake Rd. Technically, those 2 roads cross twice. The crossing to the West fits his description better and again that lines up with Pontiac/M-59 Speedway or very close right up the street.
Then we have the oddball entries like “New Pontiac Speedway” and simply “Pontiac”. Re-reading the one and only article on “New Pontiac Speedway” it is described as being 4 miles North of Pontiac which coincidentally is where Chief Pontiac Speedway sits. The article indicated it would be known as the “Gay Day”. Yes, you read that right.
The odd part is the date on that article is 1955 but Chief Pontiac/Lake Angelus was already operating. I see no other references to “Gay Day Speedway” beyond that so I will assume the idea never came to fruition or the article was referring to Chief Pontiac Speedway.
The “Pontiac” entry referred to a one-off race on the streets of Pontiac itself. I don’t consider that an official Speedway, so I deleted that entry completely. It was more like a special event.
A submitter named Gary Norman indicated there was a short-lived dirt track near Collier Rd in Pontiac. Sure enough, the historical aerial from 1973 shows it. It was next to what was then an old auto salvage yard. So, that will be a new entry which I will probably call Collier Road Speedway even though that probably wasn’t the name. If I get the official name, I will update the entry.
As an aside, Joy Fair won tons of races at these Pontiac race tracks as he was a great driver and came out of Pontiac originally.
I have decided to place this information on all 3 entries for these Speedways so anyone unsure of what they were searching for will see the same information with the complete story. All 3 are backed up with historical aerial photography so I feel pretty good about the accuracy here.
Lastly, while searching for info on these I came across an article indicating a planned additional drag strip for Oakland County in White Lake Township was prevented by the Michigan Supreme Court. The owners of Pontiac Speedway were evidently involved in the effort. A shame. It would have been cool to have a drag strip in White Lake.