“It’s been called the little track in the woods and this track is in a beautiful, forested setting,” he said. “There’s shade and the whole deal which makes it a unique place.”
One way that Ozark Raceway Park is similar to other IHRA-member tracks is the commitment to the racers. New track owners Spaniak Racing, 417 Motorsports and Craven Moore called on Schoenwetter, who had been retired since 2018, to run the 1/4-mile dragway, which uses the 1/8-mile for IHRA events.
They knew Schoenwetter had experience in the IHRA Summit SuperSeries, the most prestigious national championship in bracket racing. It’s one of the IHRA programs which work well with a track that promotes grassroots, Sportsman racing.
“We’ve been IHRA for a long time,” Schoenwetter said. “We always followed the program, went to the (IHRA Summit) Team Finals, did the Ironman Classic and all that. We’ve always based our points off the IHRA Summit SuperSeries.”
In 2022, Wayne Trammel (Box), Steve Carlock (No Box), Carl Eggley (Sportsman) and Gracie Chunn (Junior Dragster) qualified for the IHRA Summit SuperSeries World Finals through the Ozark Raceway Park track standings.
While it is off by itself, the track features a nice three-story tower with operations on the top floor. There’s a deck off each side of the tower with concessions underneath. It was one of the first tracks in the country with an Accutime system and there are concrete barriers 800 feet down the track.
A variety of Extreme Fuel and Oil products are now offered at the track. There’s also a large shutdown area and plenty of paved parking spots which leads to a wide variety of events.
“We do everything with the brackets, shootout races heads-up, Pro Mod and Pro Street, and No Prep events,” Schoenwetter said. “I run my series, a Titans 10.5, there too.”
They are looking at an even larger schedule of events for the future. There is still a tractor pulling track which was previously a fan favorite. But, the focus is on the drag strip and with the new ownership, Ozark Raceway Park looks to remain a favorite destination for years to come.
For more about this picturesque venue, click here to visit the Ozark Raceway Park Facebook page.
