A racetrack that has hosted drivers since 1951, including a young A.J. Foyt before he became a four-time Indianapolis 500 champion, is headed for the auction block. Darana Raceway, the Greene County facility long known as Kil-Kare Speedway and drag strip, is scheduled for a sealed-bid auction set to close at 6 p.m. on Nov. 17, with its current owner exiting the racing business entirely.
The property at 1166 Dayton-Xenia Road in Xenia Township is being offered by Darana Motorsports Holdings, LLC, according to Signal News Dayton. Auctioneer Tranzon has invited sealed bids for the site and says it welcomes pre-auction offers, with listings noting the property is subject to sale prior to the auction without notice, according to Hagerty Media. As the Springfield News-Sun reports, the sale marks the latest chapter in the track’s 75-year local history, with Darana Raceway offered in as-is condition and including a three-eighths-mile oval track along with a quarter-mile concrete drag strip, pit and parking areas, track lighting, a control tower and RV hookups.
A Track Rebuilt Again and Again Since 1951
Kil-Kare’s roots go back to 1951, when it opened as a one-fifth-mile dirt oval; the facility was paved in 1952 and rebuilt into a three-eighths-mile, D-shaped oval in 1955, according to the Dayton Daily News’s account of the track’s history as reported by Dayton Daily News. The dragstrip followed in 1959, and it was rebuilt with concrete in 2013. Over the decades the dragway hosted quarter midgets, drifting and some of drag racing’s most prominent figures, with Don Garlits, Shirley Muldowney, Tommy Ivo and Bob Glidden all making passes down the Kil-Kare strip.
Foyt’s connection to the track dates to 1957, when he won a midget race there years before his Indianapolis 500 titles made him a household name in motorsports. The oval has not run continuously, either — it closed in October 2014 and sat idle for more than two years before racing returned in 2017, per the same Dayton Daily News reporting. Kil-Kare was sold again in 2025, setting the stage for the current auction under its new name, Darana Raceway.
Part of a Larger Sell-Off of Former IHRA Tracks
Darana Raceway is not going to auction alone. The sale is part of a broader sell-off of a dozen motorsports properties, after Cuttell announced in March 2025 that he was acquiring seven racing facilities — including Kil-Kare, National Trail, Milan, Dragway 42, Galot, Maryland International Raceway and Darlington Dragway — before the larger group of a dozen tracks ultimately went up for sale, according to Drag Illustrated. That outlet’s reporting on the auction terms described a 10 percent buyer’s premium on the winning bid, a 10 percent deposit in guaranteed funds, a 30-day closing window, and a sale strictly as-is, where-is with no contingencies…