PALMYRA TWP. — Right after John Bailey signed the lease on the go-kart track that was then known as Hilltop Speedway, his wife, Renee, said, “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

It didn’t help that it started raining right about then, and Bailey hoped that wasn’t a bad sign. But then the rain stopped and a huge rainbow appeared right over the property, and since that day in 2016, Bailey’s dreams for what’s now known as Palmyra Speedway at 3449 East U.S. 223 just outside of Adrian have grown steadily.

Bailey, who did dirt-car racing in Wauseon for some 20 years, had known about the speedway since he was a boy in the 1960s, and in fact wanted to buy it in the ’90s but that deal never happened.

Then his grandson Chase wanted to race go-karts and Bailey brought him to the track, where he discovered that the couple who ran it at the time weren’t going to renew their lease. 

“And I thought, I might like to do this,” he said.

After a whole series of twists and turns, that rainy day came when Bailey signed the lease. And at first, he might have wondered about that good-omen rainbow because business wasn’t great at the asphalt-paved track.

But that all changed in 2017 when he added a dirt track. “For some reason, go-kart racing on dirt is more popular than racing on asphalt,” he said. Since then, “it’s been growing every year.”

Success has allowed Bailey, who bought the speedway outright in 2019, to carry out a whole series of improvements to the track itself and to the property overall. 

“I’m doing this like the restoration of an old car,” he said. “I’ve done the bodywork and now I’m doing the fine details.”

The speedway is definitely a family affair. John handles just about everything related to the racing itself, from holding the drivers’ meetings to watering down the track surface as needed. Renee runs the check-in and carries out a wide range of other duties. A daughter and granddaughter operate the food concession. The couple’s oldest daughter will become the track nurse when she finishes nursing school soon.

And as much as it’s a family-run business, Palmyra Speedway is also family-oriented when it comes to the racers from all over the region who bring their go-karts there on Friday nights.

Those competitors include Chad Miller and his dad, John, who make up Miller Racing of Temperance. Chad’s the racer now, but he caught the bug from John, who in his day ran things like late models and dragsters.

Open-class go-karts like Chad’s run on alcohol, not gasoline, and are “very loud and very fast,” he said.

How fast? “Last year another guy and I got clocked at 75 miles an hour on the back stretch.”

Whereas Chad and his father are on the same team, when it comes to racing that’s not always the case.

Karen van Pelt of Clayton, who got interested in go-karts when she came to the speedway years ago to watch her son race and lays claim to having been the first woman to race there, now competes against her brother, Don Gehring.

“Out there, we’re not brother and sister,” she said.

“I’m not going to let her beat me if I can help it,” Gehring countered.

Van Pelt has also competed against her kids and even had one of them hit her during a race. “I tried to go back after him,” she said.

For her, racing is all about “the rush, the adrenaline,” and the chance to show what she can do against the men and against racers who are generally quite a bit younger than she is.

“I’m 50 years old and I’m up against all these young people,” she said. And she’s been successful at it. Although it took her eight years of trying, she became track champion in her class.

Not far where van Pelt was prepping her go-kart, another set of sibling competitors, Paige and Zoe Herzig of Temperance, aged 13 and 14 respectively, were getting ready for their own laps on the track.

As is the case for many of the track’s racers, go-karts are a generational thing for the Herzig sisters. The two are following in the footsteps of their grandfather and father.

The thrill of competition is what draws both of the teens to the sport. “I just really like driving,” Zoe said.

And, like van Pelt and her brother, the Herzig sisters leave family ties behind when they’re racing. “We like banging up against each other,” Paige said.

So who wins more often? “Zoe,” Paige admitted.

The Herzigs are just two of the many youngsters who are Speedway regulars.

Maaze Keene, 13, of Lambertville is already in his fourth season of go-karting. He got into the sport because of his interest in NASCAR — and his go-kart even sports the number and the black color of a certain motorsports racing legend: Dale Earnhardt.

Keene, who won the track championship in his class last year, competes in a class of go-karts that uses a restrictor plate to limit the speed, but even so, hits 35 or 40 mph on the track. 

What makes racing fun for him? His answer was simple: “Everything.”

As Keene talked about his racing experiences and the friends he’s made along the way, one of those friends came up to join in the conversation.

Gannon Massengill of Temperance, 9 years old and also a 2024 track champion, has already been racing for three and a half years. And, like his friend, he loves his chosen sport: “Just going out there and competing,” he said.

If Keene and Massengill eventually follow their racing dreams into bigger and better things, track owner Bailey couldn’t be happier to be one of the people who helped give them their start. 

“One of my slogans,” he said, “is ‘I grow racecar drivers here.’”