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Eldora Founder
Earl Baltes Passes Away
April 27, 1921 –
March 23, 2015
ROSSBURG, Ohio (March 23, 2015) – Earl Baltes, the founder and longtime
promoter of Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, passed away this morning
at Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. He was 93.
He is survived by Berneice, his wife of 67 years; daughter, Starr, and
her husband, Joe Schmitmeyer; son, Terry, and his wife, Dee; beloved
sister, Susie Barga, and six grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
Baltes built Eldora in 1954, first as a quarter-mile before shaping the
track into its popular high-banked, half-mile oval configuration in
1958. Since then, it has become the premier dirt track in the United
States. Under Baltes, the facility began hosting the highly successful
Famous World 100 for Dirt Late Models, now the largest dirt race in the
world, and the Dirt Late Model Dream, the richest dirt late model race
in the world. A fan of sprint car racing, Baltes took great pride in
his fabled Kings Royal Weekend for World of Outlaws Sprint Cars and
many United States Auto Club (USAC) events, including the Four Crown
Nationals.
Races at Eldora were shown on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” with Keith
Jackson and Al Michaels as broadcasters. ESPN, CBS and TNN also
televised events that helped put Eldora on the map. Despite the track’s
growing popularity, Baltes kept ticket prices affordable and
concessions costs low, which continued to attract fans from around the
world.
Baltes built the track, nestled in rural west-central Ohio off Route
118, into a showplace for dirt motorsports, increasing the seating
capacity to more than 20,000. Baltes was beloved by many fans and
seemed to know all by name. He also was a great storyteller who always
had a joke to tell. And he always had wild ideas that made them wonder:
“What will Earl do next?” He hosted three sprint car races in the 1960s
that featured 33 cars and were 500 laps. He ran a season-long promotion
featuring a series of skits with a family of randomly appearing apes
eventually married in a ceremony presided over by legendary driver
Duane “Pancho” Carter.
In 2001, Baltes posted a remarkable $1 million payout to the winner of
the “Eldora Million” Dirt Late Model race and followed that with the
“Mopar Million” in 2003, which had a purse of $1 million and paid
$200,000 to the winner of a non-winged sprint car race.
The pioneering promoter developed a relationship with the late Bill
France Sr., assisting the founder of NASCAR with recruiting cars for
the inaugural event at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway. Baltes and
Eldora also maintained close ties with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
IndyCar legends, whose barnstorming schedules at fearsome tracks like
Eldora earned them their shot at the Brickyard, and Tony George, former
Speedway president and CEO, were frequent visitors during Baltes’
tenure.
Fond of saying, “If we could sell just one more hot dog, we’d break
even,” Baltes worked on all measures of Eldora during his time. He also
promoted other speedways in Ohio, including those in Dayton, New
Bremen, Limaland, Millstream, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and Powell,
while also promoting one in Salem, Indiana. He also promoted World of
Outlaws events in Florida and founded Ohio Sprint Speedweek for the All
Star Circuit of Champions.
He was inducted into many Halls of Fame, including National Sprint Car,
National Dirt Late Model, USAC, Dayton Auto Racing Fans and Hoosier
Auto Racing Fans, and was named USAC Race Organizer of the Year in 1984
and 1997. He was named Auto Racing Promoter of the Year in 1993, and
fellow iconic promoter H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler recognized him with the
Charlotte Motor Speedway Promoter of the Year Award in 2001. The state
of Ohio named Route 118 “Earl Baltes Highway” from Ansonia to the south
to St. Henry to the north.
In 2004, Baltes began to think about selling Eldora. Despite several
suitors, he reached out to a driver whose style he had always admired,
three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion and former Eldora driver Tony
Stewart. The sale was completed in the fall of 2004.
Baltes continued attending Eldora’s events with Berneice, often
receiving the loudest ovation of the evening when introduced to the
crowd. Thanks to Stewart, there is a life-size statue of the two
founders at the entrance of the facility.
Baltes was much more than a race promoter. He was born in Versailles,
Ohio, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. Before he
started in racing, he was big into the music business. Before WWII, he
formed and led the Melody Makers, a 16-piece band that rose to regional
prominence. And then in the later 1940s, he built Crystal Ballroom near
Versailles while continuing to perform.
The purchase of Ma Shoe’s by Baltes in the early 1940s got Eldora
started. He bought the dance hall before he even saw an auto race. One
day he caught a race at New Bremen and, without any knowledge of the
sport, decided he was going to build a track in the natural
amphitheatre that separated the dance hall and the Wabash River. The
now named Eldora Ballroom is still there, while the racetrack has grown
into national treasure.
Baltes and author Dave Argabright documented his memoirs in the book
“Earl!” published in 2004.
Tony Stewart, Owner, Eldora Speedway:
“Earl was the yardstick other track promoters measured themselves by.
He constantly raised the bar, and he did it by creating events everyone
else was afraid to promote. He did them himself, too. Not as a fair
board, or a public company, or with major sponsors or millions of
dollars in TV money. He put it all on the line with the support of his
family. He and his wife, Berneice, created a happening at Eldora. They
turned Eldora into more than just a racetrack. They made it a place to
be. They were integral to the evolution of dirt-track racing and the
sport as a whole. Earl will be missed, but he won’t ever be forgotten
because of his devotion to auto racing.”
For Baltes' obituary, including service times, click here
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