Per the tracks Facebook page Hartford (MI) Motor Speedway under new management

Lets bring the IRA 410 Sprint Cars back to Hartford!

New website URL is coming as well as more detailed information.

I can confirm that Hartford will be staying on Friday nights and racing weekly.

SOD Sprints will be on the schedule twice (for those inquiring).

Hopefully I'll be able to say more once a few little details get locked in.

Hartford Speedway Under New Management
http://www.hartfordspeedway.net

(February 28th, 2014) – Hartford Speedway will be under the helm of local businessman Tim Dibble for the 2014 race season and beyond. With the new management team in place Hartford Speedway will be returning to weekly competition every Friday night starting May 30th. Nightly division racing will consist of the UMP Late Models, UMP Modifieds, Stock Cars, and the introduction of the first ever 6 Cylinder entry level class. SOD Sprints will return to the wicked half mile Friday June 6th and Friday August 29th. Michigan Dirt Cup Modifieds will also be on hand June 20th and August 22nd. A complete 2014 TENTATIVE schedule is available on the “Event Schedule” page of the website.

The track name will be undergoing a change by dropping the “Motor” from Hartford Motor Speedway to be become Hartford Speedway. All social media outlets will be updated to reflect the name change as well as the new logo once it is available.

For the upcoming season spectators will be allowed to once again bring in their own alcohol ensuring Hartford Speedway to be a very fan friendly environment.

2014 looks to be a bright and productive season for area racers and fans. Hartford Speedway looks forward to working not only the spectators and race teams, but also partners such as Allstar Performance and Lane Automotive as they celebrate their 50th Anniversary serving the racing community.

More details such as division rules for the Stock Cars and 6 Cylinders, and payout will be posted in the coming days. Stay tuned….

I hope the best for them. Hopefully they will get their fan base back.

When Mark Hotovy reopened it in the mid-90s, by the time the end of the decade rolled around Hartford was packing them in weekly. They had nice weekly open sprint car counts every Friday when they did not have a touring series rolling through.

But then one thing lead to another, the track changed owners a few times over, gone were the sprints, gone was bringing in food, gone was bringing in beer, gone were high car counts, and what fans were left were subjected to watching multiple heats of kids on various types of quads on a little front stretch oval. As my one friend once told me, the number of cars in the pits will reflect the number of butts in the seat. 12 car A Mains for Late Models won't do it.

But I am keeping an open mind and hoping the best for Mr. Dibble. It will be an uphill battle, but it will be done one step at a time. Baby steps first.

One GOOD thing is they are still running Fridays. No conflicts with Butler or Kalamazoo.

I agree Mike. When I first started going to HMS part of the reason I went was because of running winged sprints every week. The good thing is Tim is not over reaching and has a very pragmatic view of the track and realistic goals (no illusions of grander of being the next Knoxville or Eldora..). If there is enough communication and personal interaction between Tim and the racers of every division, hopefully the half mile stigma will wear off enough to have full fields of everything. I've handed out flyers many times for various tracks and Hartford scares the s&*t out of many of them so much they just hand the flyer right back to me. We will see... like you said, baby steps, crawl - walk - run.

One thing that was part of the down fall was not starting on time. For those of us that travel, we want the show ran in a timely manner. Starting at 830-845will not get it.

Program efficiency is a HUGE priority.

Tentative schedule is up. Three SOD races. 6/6, 7/25, & 8/29. That last date was, in past years, had SOD running at Winston prior to Crystal the next night. Good to see SOD still has a doubleheader going that weekend. The 6/6 date is the same night I-96 Speedway has 360 sprints scheduled, too.

It should be noted that the SOD schedule has not been updated to reflect any of this.

http://hartfordspeedway.net/event-schedule/

This is great news for The Wicked Half-Mile, schedule looks real good