Bring a Paver: Historic Marlboro Motor Raceway For Sale

This racetrack located about 20 miles southeast of Washington D.C. seems to be Marlboro Motor Raceway, a track dating from 1952 and closed 17 years later when the local SCCA moved to Summit Point in West Virginia. Initially a dirt oval, 1954 saw a paved road course added while later additions included an infield karting track. Used for SCCA and NASCAR events among others, the site is notable as the starting point for Roger Penske’s racing career and as the inspiration for Marlboro Maroon Metallic, a Corvette factory color in 1967 and ’70. Find it here on Craigslist in Upper Marlboro, Maryland for $1k to $1,250 per acre and formerly listed for $9.98m outright. Special thanks to BaT reader Nick P. for this submission!

​Also used for Maryland state police training and motorcycle racing, the track is said to have been closed due to safety concerns and unspecified issues between the SCCA and track management. Here’s a map detailing the track in its glory years—it looks quite technical and very fast with a sizable straight and several long sweepers.

Some of the best info and pics can be found here on the BARC Boys site. This Autosport.com thread contains some good historical info on the track, while this Google maps aerial image shows it as-is today—another, cached preview image highlights its former layout through overgrowth, though the larger original seems to have been deleted.

​Above is one of the better preserved sections of track as it remains today, and below is a compilation of some great color racing footage from 1960, with Alfas, 356’s, a Deutsch Bonnet, Daimler SP250’s, Cunninghams, Astons, MG’s, Triumphs, Corvettes and even a Ferrari 250GT California shown competing in close quarters. Open wheel formula cars are also seen—if only there was audio, too.

This final image shows the track even hosted endurance events–pretty cool. While researching we came across several somewhat recent mentions of efforts to reclaim and refurbish the track for use as a driving school, but no hard info could be found.

​Very little if any infrastructure seems to be salvageable, but we’d still love to see it restored—or more accurately rebuilt—as close to its original, expanded form as possible. Modern safety concessions like more and larger sand traps, runoff areas and the like would be important of course, but the area appears to remain largely rural meaning noise restrictions should be workable. Should we start a pool? Here are the rest of the present day pics from the listing: