YORK HAVEN, Pa. — History rewrites itself at BAPS Motor Speedway in York Haven. The spot has been a weekly racing attraction since 1963.
Wednesday night, the spotlight was on a track, bringing a professional series back.
For the first time in 31 years, BAPS hosted a World of Outlaws Sprint Car event.
There’s a lot of excitement to bring a heated rivalry between the World of Outlaws and Pennsylvania Posse back to BAPS Motor Speedway for the first time in over three decades.
“Obviously, this is a historic location and we just felt like it was time to come back up here. We talked about it for a few years and said let’s try it. Let’s see what happens,” said Carlton Reimers, World of Outlaws sprint car series director.
This area is special with so many tracks, but the Outlaws are selective to keep the curb appeal for the series and give teams the proper rest between races.
It has been since August 2, 1992, this series made a pitstop at this track. Eight of the current 14 full-time Outlaw drivers, weren’t even alive yet to witness the last race.
The work started in 2015 when new ownership took over and started to make improvements from the ground up.
“Over the years, we rebuilt the bathrooms, the concession stands, a lot of focus on safety. We rebuilt a lot of guardrails and in the last couple of weeks, we replaced out flag stand but not just our flag stand. We replaced the safety fence,” said Scott Gobrecht, BAPS Motor Speedway owner.
This 4/10-of-a-mile semi-banked oval is special to some, like Hanover’s Jacob Allen, who picked up his first career 410 win in 2016. While many Outlaw drivers test the waters for the very first time.
While it may have been weeknight action, there was no problem packing the stands.
Gobrecht said, “It’s easy for us to say, 'Hey, let’s put on an Outlaw race, in the middle of July, on a Wednesday' but you can’t do it without the fans of Central Pa. and can’t do it without the local race teams.”
This is just the beginning of the excitement with the World of Outlaws invading Central Pa. With a late evening storm, Wednesday night's race is postponed until Thursday. So, they’ll racing three nights in a row starting with baps, then Williams Grove Friday and Saturday for the Summer Nationals.