The track was paved before hosting its last two Grand National races in 1971.
While Columbia Speedway was shut down to cars in 1979, noise complaints, it reopened as a velodrome in 2001.
Race report
Two hundred laps were done on a dirt track spanning 0.500 miles (0.805 km).[2][3] The race took an hour and thirty-one minutes to decide that David Pearson defeated Paul Goldsmith by a margin of one car length (less than one lap[2]).[3] Eleven thousand people attended this race which had eight cautions for 19 laps.[3]
All 24 competitors were born in the United States of America and were male.[3]Buck Baker and Tiny Lund failed to collect any winnings from this race.[3] This race was dominated by Chevrolet and Ford entries.[3] Speeds for the racing weekend reached 72.202 miles per hour (116.198 km/h) in qualifying (achieved by Tom Pistone) and 65.747 miles per hour (105.810 km/h) during the actual race.[3] The speeds were equalized by the dirt surface; which slowed down the stock cars during the 1950s and 1960s but brought exciting racing for those who were not quite ready for the blistering fast pace of asphalt racing.
The transition to purpose-built racecars began in the early 1960s and occurred gradually over that decade. Changes made to the sport by the late 1960s brought an end to the "strictly stock" vehicles of the 1950s.
