ABOVE: Fairmont Raceway Co-Managers Leah and Zach Gerhardt stand outside the racetrack.

FAIRMONT – The 60th year of racing at Fairmont Raceway’s fairgrounds location has had its share of ups and downs.

The track has its roots in the center of town, where the mall sits currently. When the mall was built there, the fairgrounds were moved to the outskirts at 1300 North Bixby Road. Since the mid-60s, this is where Fairmont Raceway has called home.

Fender class cars run the half-mile dirt oval, meaning no sprint cars or late models. The cars raced include United States Racing Association-sanctioned (USRA) modifieds, hobby stocks, stock cars, and b-mods.

While all those have been traditionally run here, a new series is also taking shape. Technically classified as the 4.6 Liter class, the colloquial term is Crown Vic. This is because the cars racing in this series are slightly altered street cars, like Ford Crown Victorias.

“Crown Vic started down south a few years ago,” Raceway Co-Manager Zach Gerhardt said. “They started to play with them a little bit, dabbled in the idea of a new class. The interesting part is they seem to be readily available as old taxi cabs and police cars. When they become decommissioned, they’ve [been turned] into a reliable car that can be raced.”

The idea is this series can make racing even more affordable and accessible for those who want to become racers.

Traveling series, like the Northern Lights and United States Modified Touring Series (USMTS), make individual stops here in August and July, respectively. These series travel across the Midwest and the country and attract drivers from all over.

“Those drivers are competing on a national level,” Gerhardt said. “A little bit higher caliber driver, more money on the line. They’re racing for a higher purse. They’re drivers who have been very successful in local racing and are looking for a little more challenge. They’re on the road accepting challenges of going to new race tracks and checking new things out.”

What Gerhardt prides Fairmont on is being one of the largest and fastest tracks around.

“When USMTS was in Fairmont last year, they averaged 95 mph per lap,” he said. “When they went to their next race, they averaged 68 mph per lap. The cars are moving at a higher rate of speed, which means their reaction time has to be better. Their setup has to be dialed in.”

This means safety has to be top priority. Two of the first three events of the season, the April 4 Frostbuster and May 16 USRA Clash of the Tuners had to be canceled due to inclement weather.

“Drivers can race in a lot of the conditions we give them, but it’s not conditions that we want them to race in,” Gerhardt said. “Too much rain, the race track gets muddy, it gets soft, the infield gets soft. It’s a struggle to get to cars. If there was an accident, the staff has to run through mud, that’s going to slow them down in aiding that driver in need.”

Since becoming the new promoters four years ago, Zach and Leah Gerhardt have had a focus on safety in working on track improvements.

“Prior to the 2023 season, we replaced nine light poles with new LED fixtures,” Zach Gerhardt said. “The fixtures we threw away were 50 years old. They were likely the original fixtures when the race track got lights. The other eight Poles had been updated about 10 years ago, so those are still acceptable.”

The renovation process is not finished either. When the time is right, Zach Gerhardt said the safety lights on the fence surrounding the track are next to be updated.

“Having better safety lights on the track, better communication with safety personnel on the race track is a number one for me,” he said. “That’s a must-have.”

The track’s next event is May 30 starting at 7:15, the B-Mod Battle. It has also taken on a new meaning, as it will be a fundraiser for 20-year-old track employee Jazlyn Geerdes who recently suffered from a bilateral stroke.

“She’s very involved with our family, as far as business goes,” Zach Gerhardt said. “It’s an unfortunate life event that is going to set her back for a little while.”

For more information on the race track, visit https://www.facebook.com/fairmontraceway or https://www.fmtraceway.com/. For Jazlyn Geerdes GoFundMe, visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jazlyns-stroke-recovery-journey.