Cromwell township, Orbisonia borough, Rockhill borough

Saturday Nights at Hill Valley Speedway

Hill Valley Speedway was a dirt oval just outside Orbisonia, reached from Route 994 in Rockhill Furnace by way of Valley Street and McClure Road. Today's maps place McClure Road in Cromwell Township.

The records disagree on when it began. The Auto Racing Records database gives May 10, 1986, while the Speedway and Road Race History site says it opened in 1985.

An undated racing directory called it a "1/4 mile Clay High Banked Oval Track," and the speedway's own website spoke of "the 1/4 mile oval." Auto Racing Records lists it at .215 of a mile.

Auto Racing Records lists three classes for 1987: four-cylinder pure stocks, micro sprints and mini stocks. For 1988 it adds vintage flathead and overhead stock cars. Its race listing for September 8, 1990, shows 250cc micro sprints, four-cylinder pure stocks, four-cylinder sprints and mini street mods. The directory lists Saturday racing with four-cycle sprints, mini stocks, micro sprints, and V8 and four-cycle bombers.

When the speedway's website told the story in 2003, it remembered the track as "a hotbed for Micro Sprints and 4 Cylinder races on Saturday nights until financial woes forced the closure of the track in mid 90s." Auto Racing Records shows racing as late as 1998, and a June 2003 notice on the website asked for patience while the track was rebuilt "from 5 years of neglect."

The same website says a new promoter reopened the speedway in 2003. That June it advertised a July 5 program of 270cc and 600cc micro sprints, vintage cars and strictly stocks, with gates opening at 4:00, $7 admission and $15 pit admission.

Auto Racing Records lists racing from 2003 to 2010 and again in 2013, and marks the track defunct. The Speedway and Road Race History site says it closed in 2013.

Checked against the record. We read the speedway's own website as the Internet Archive saved it in June 2003, the Auto Racing Records and Speedway and Road Race History entries, and an undated racing directory. These are racing records and the track's own words, not newspaper reports. We could not read the Huntingdon Daily News for those years, so the 1985 or 1986 question stays open, and we give both dates and say whose each is. The website dates the closing to the mid 1990s, and Auto Racing Records shows racing through 1998, so we give both. Still open: who built the track, how large its crowds were, and whether cars ran in 2011 and 2012, years Auto Racing Records skips. The Cromwell Township placement rests on the website's directions and on present-day map and Census Bureau lookups of McClure Road, not on a deed. We have left out the names of drivers, owners and the promoter, some of whom may be living.

Sources

Checked 2026-11-01 · Primary sources and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Archive

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