OSWEGO – On Wednesday, the City of Oswego kicked off its Super DIRT Week celebration with a myriad of race cars that paraded through the city. The parade marked the 49th DIRT Week, which has been hosted by the Oswego Speedway since 2016.
Super DIRT Week has been coined as “racing’s biggest party,” as a five-day festival of dirt car racing. Guests will enjoy seven races across three tracks around the Oswego area, in addition to several practice runs and timed trials per day.
While the Oswego Speedway is the main host, the Weedsport Speedway hosted an event on Wednesday while Brewerton Speedway will hold the Hurricane Harvey 75 for DIRTcar 358 modifieds and DIRTcar Sportsman at 7 p.m. In addition to the races, there will be live music and DJs every single day starting as early as 7 p.m. and ending at 2 a.m.
While Oswego is a huge racing town, the event will provide enjoyment for more than just those living in the county. According to Mayor Billy Barlow, Super DIRT Week brings in roughly 40,000 people to the county itself with a major economic boost.
“It injects about $12 million in any given year, right here in the city and county of Oswego,” Barlow said. “Hopefully we give the fans a good racing show on the weekend but an overall good experience here in the Oswego Community.”
That multi-million dollar influx of activity will really help a community still struggling to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic, one that had to cancel another major event earlier in the year in Harborfest.
“I think the positive impact Super DIRT Week will have is more than years past given the fact that some major events like Harborfest still aren’t happening, the Fourth of July parade still couldn’t happen because of COVID,” Barlow said. “We still aren’t 100% back from where we were pre-COVID, so to have this event come together … it just makes it that much more important for the small businesses, the hotels, the restaurants and the race track itself.”
Beyond the finances, Barlow is just excited to have Super DIRT Week back in Oswego, given the love this community has for racing.
“Oswego is very much a racing town because of the Oswego Speedway,” Barlow said. “It is very rich in history, it has been around a very long time. Particularly a couple decades ago, everybody was at the speedway on Saturday nights.”
While Barlow is happy to have the event back, preparation for it is a year-round process. The city must plan months in advance for the massive influx of people and focus on creating a celebration beyond just racing, which includes live music and the flags that line Bridge Street.
On Wednesday, Barlow also announced that the Oswego Speedway would host a major milestone in dirt car racing, the 50th anniversary of Super DIRT Week, in 2022.
The city plans on working towards the 2022 event as soon as this week is over to make it “bigger and better than ever before.” The 50th running of Super DIRT Week will be just as crucial as any other, if not more, for the city, as it is the last of a “short contract” the Oswego Speedway has with those that run it, the World Racing Group and DIRT Week officials.
“The most important thing is that we continue to host Super DIRT Week. We are in the middle of a bunch of short deals. The first time they came was a one-year trial, then we did a 2-3 year deal, and now we’re coming up on the backend of that deal,” Barlow said. “It’s a huge benefit to the community … World Racing Group and the DIRT officials are awesome partners, very sensitive and inclusive to the community. It has been a great synergy we’ve developed over the last several years.”
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