With the February bond vote passing with a significant majority, the city of Sioux Center, Iowa, and the Sioux Center Community School district will be utilizing the land on which the half-mile Sioux Speedway resides to construct a new high school.

It is bittersweet as we do see the benefit of a new educational facility for the future of the Sioux Center community and wish all the best as it will provide a great venue to educate the next generation.

With dirt work scheduled for this spring, there will be no racing events in 2019 and beyond. This means the 2018 Sioux County Youth Fair event was indeed the last at the track holding origins back to 1972.

With this comes the announcement that the Sioux Speedway website will cease operation April 1 while this Sioux Speedway Facebook page will continue for the sake of history.

We must thank those that have made auto racing possible in Sioux Center for parts of a nearly 50-year span. This includes the former Sioux Center Jaycees who worked to build the first figure-8 and oval configurations of the speedway in the 1970s, and the Sioux County Fair Board for promoting racing over the last decade-and-a-half while welcoming high-horsepower action back to the facility in 1998.

Thanks to the fair board members and their families putting in several hours of their time to get ready for events, serving food, selling tickets and handling more things than can be listed. Thank you to Leon Mulder for bringing racing back to Sioux Speedway in 1998. Mulder got his start racing cars on the original Sioux Speedway circuit as a driver himself and put in an extensive amount of work to get the track in racing shape and get drivers interested in coming to Sioux Center to race a few times every summer.

No one who was a part of the capacity crowd on Tuesday, July 21, 1998, will forget that first event back at the track.

After Mulder stepped away from promoting a few years later, the fair board hired Denny Moore and Harlan Van Otterloo to handle events in the mid-2000s. Thanks to them for continuing the tradition. Darlo and Laura Mulder took over in 2008 and have worked tirelessly year-in and year-out to put on the racing events while bringing in a variety of racing series including winged sprint cars, super late models and the Arnold Motor Supply Iron Man Challenge featuring American Racer USRA Stock Cars and Out-Pace USRA B-Mods. Their passion for the sport and supporting their home community has provided us all with an opportunity to be a part of the half-mile tradition.

Thanks to all of the officials and workers who have helped at the speedway and thanks to those that have lent equipment and their own time to prepare the race track and the grounds. Thanks to all the racers near and far that took time to compete at Sioux Speedway. Thanks to all the fans, family members and fair-goers who have come out to cheer on the racers. Thanks again to the Sioux County Youth Fair board. We wish the best for the future to the Sioux County Youth Fair and to all the dedicated 4H members.

On behalf of Sioux Speedway, thank you.

If you have any photos or stories from any past events at the track, please feel free to post them on the Sioux Speedway Facebook page at facebook.com/sioux.speedway.