New Paris, Indiana Speedway

New Paris, Indiana

May 23, 2022

The New Paris Speedway, remembering the past...Advertising then & now

New Paris, Indiana is a quiet little town just south of one of the largest Indiana communities, Elkhart and Goshen.

You can pass New Paris in the blink of an eye on SR15, just a couple blocks from the center of town and just across the tracks. New Paris has one traffic light in the center of town, which gives you a brief chance to look around.

After passing through the town going east a couple of miles, you find yourself in farm country until you arrive at the New Paris Speedway. The speedway is an Icon of Indiana stock car racing.

In the early 1950's, long before computers and internet, businesses used any way they could to advertise.

My parents opened Cass Taxi, in Cassopolis, Michigan in 1946. One of the ways to advertise was in stock car racing and that is just what they did. They advertised on this stock car, which raced at a half dozen clay and dirt tracks in southern Michigan and northern Indiana to draw business. I remember my father towing that stock car all over the area on the weekend with the taxi cab.

Businesses still advertise on stock cars, but now have a Larger range of High Tech advertising, with Television, Internet, and may forms of computer technology available.

New Paris is still a quiet little town except on the weekend, when the cars still race around the oval track, which is still one of the great past times that Elkhart County, Indiana has to offer. Just a short drive to just about everything, including major highways.