ZZZ Southern Oregon Speedway
Medford, OR
Track Information
Southern Oregon Speedway: A Field Of Dreams For The Racers For Over 20 Years
The Medford area has a long and storied history of racing going back many years to the famed Medford Speedway. When the last track closed, the search was on for a new location. It was found at the Jackson County Sports Park in neighboring White City. John Skinner built the 3/10th mile banked clay oval track and opened it in April of 1996.
The divisions featured that first season included the Dirt Modifieds, Pro Stocks, Mini Stocks and Winged Sprint Cars. The track also hosted visits from the Late Models, SODCA Dwarf Cars and other groups. Through the years, big Late Model and Sprint Car events have taken place at the speedway, and two of the biggest events at the track are the Dwarf Car Nationals and the R. Charles Snyder Salute.
Southern Oregon Speedway from 1998 through 2016 would host opening night of the 360 Speedweek that has been run in the Pacific Northwest every year since 1997. In 2005 during the opening night of Speedweek they would have 59 360 Sprint cars on hand and to this day is the record for most cars at any sprint car event....for a number of years they would host the Golden State Sprint Series on their way up to Washington for the Jim Raper Dirt Cup....the Golden State Series was a 410 series that ran all of their counting races in California.
The Sprint Cars have had at least a race at Southern Oregon Speedway each season since the track opened. The track has hosted some big Sprint Car events through the years, including visits from the the World of Outlaws, the King Of The West Series and races during Northwest Speedweek.
There were 13 years point seasons for the division as of 2010, but the class fell to visitor status for the past five seasons that followed. Veren Wheeler Jr. was point leader when the class was dropped in 2011, and Kyler Barraza won back to back Coos Bay/Southern Oregon Speedway combined championships in 2013-2014.
Notable championship winning drivers of the past include four time track champion Dan Menne and two time champions Randy Rodgers and Bill Nutter. The division was brought back for championship points in 2016, and the next two championships were won by Jake Wheeler (2016) and Kyler Barraza (2017).
Sprint Car Champions
1996 Dan Menne
1997 Bill Nutter
1998 Dan Menne
2001 Chad Bauer
2002 Todd Zeitler
2003 Dan Menne
2004 T.J. Winningham
2005 Dan Menne
2006 Bill Nutter
2007 Randy Rodgers
2008 Randy Rodgers
2009 Charlie Thompson
2010 Chadd Noland
2011 Vern Wheeler Jr. *
2013 Kyler Barraza **
2014 Kyler Barraza **
2016 Jake Wheeler
2017 Kyler Barraza
- Point leader, never officially crowned
- Southern Oregon Sprint Tour
The All-time 360 Win List is Lead by....
- Dan Menne 30
- Roger Crockett 13
- Billy "The Kid" Nutter 11
- Dave Hibbard 7
- Jeff Swindell 6
- Brent Kaeding 6
- Chadd Noland 6
Starting in 2016 Southern Oregon brought back the weekly Sprint Car program as a Limited Sprint Championship....