Toronto Speedway

A half-mile horse track was built at Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition site in 1904 which was used from time-to-time for motorcycle races. A flat 0.333-mile cinders dirt track opened on 22 April 1952 which hosted crowds of up to 20,000 to watch late model stock cars. It was paved for the 12 September meeting that year. Toronto Speedway, or Canadian National Exhibition Speedway, held one NASCAR Grand National (now Cup) race in 1958. Lee Petty won on the day that his son Richard crashed out of his NASCAR debut. A new stadium was built as home ground of the Toronto Argonauts Canadian Football League team for the 1959 which reduced the circuit length to 0.25 miles which was only 28ft wide and restricted it to Saturday afternoon local meetings. It closed to motor racing in 1966 when a rubber surface was laid for track and field events, although it briefly reopened in the 1990s. Television actor Lorne Greene (Bonanza, Battlestar Galactica) was the track announcer during the 1950s.