Speedway Photos

Speedway came from Speedway 79, the brand for the Aurora Oil Company of Detriot in use since the 1930s. After being acquired in 1959 by Marathon (then known as the Ohio Oil Company), the Speedway 79 brand was phased out around 1962. Later in the 1970s, the name was revived simply as Speedway as the brand for Marathon's company-owned self-serve gas stations.

I found the above interesting Speedway sign at a Speedway in Vandalia (Dayton), Ohio. According to Marvin Pratt, that would have been a Bonded sign that Speedway reused. It is on US 40 just west of I-75. Taken May 27, 2005 by John Cirillo.

Two shots of a smaller Speedway at 1901 Elmwood, Lafayette, Indiana. Taken April 17, 2004 by John Cirillo. Late in 2004 it was rebranded to Rich, a new secondary brand created for lower-volume Speedway sites. Then in 2006 or thereabouts, the entire station was torn down and rebuilt as a larger Speedway station. This station began in 1964 as a Wake-Up station and remained until Marathon bought out Wake-Up. It switched to Speedway around 1995, and was a Speedway until the change to Rich in 2004, after which it was rebuilt in 2006 and became Speedway again.

Here's an odd SpeedWay in Texarkana, AR at US 71 and I-30. My guess is it's not related to Marathon's Speedway chain. Taken July 11, 2004 by David Backlin. Update: As of 2006, this is now a Mobil station.

A shot of the odd SpeedWay station above. There you can see it is Powell's SpeedWay, probably a one-off station. Taken July 11, 2004 by David Backlin.

This Meineke car repair shop on US 29 near Centreville, Virginia, also sells Speedway gasoline. The stripes on the pumps indicate that they once dispensed the Citgo brand. There are no conventional Speedway or other Marathon-Ashland family stations in the area, but Speedway tanker trucks are occasionally seen hereabouts and so there may be a Marathon-Ashland jobber in the region. Photo taken September 2003. Photo and text from Mike Jones.