Michiana Raceway Park

The Story of Michiana Raceway Park

Michiana Raceway Park sits in Buchanan, Michigan, and it’s one of those tracks with a history that runs deeper than its current name suggests.

The story doesn’t start in 1987. It starts in 1962, at the hands of the late George Christie and his family. Back then the property was known as Christie’s Rolling Green, on Miller Road in Buchanan.

For years the track operated under the Michiana Kart Klub, building a small but steady base of local karters. Then, in 1986, three investors purchased the property from the Kart Klub ownership.

The following year, in 1987, the track was officially established under the name Michiana Raceway Park. That renaming marked the start of a serious growth period for the facility.

A rapid phase of improvements followed in the late ’80s. The new ownership group wanted to expand club participation, and they didn’t waste time doing it.

The numbers back it up. Weekly attendance grew from roughly 20 racers to an average of 115 by 1994. That’s not a small bump — that’s a facility hitting its stride.

It was during this stretch that a phrase started circulating around the pits: “join the karting explosion.” It captured exactly what was happening at MRP at the time.

Two Families, Two Tracks

The early ’90s brought a second thread to this story. Melvin McCallum introduced two of his grandsons to karting at the Michiana property.

That introduction turned into something bigger. McCallum went on to build a brand-new, state-of-the-art kart track from scratch, carved out of an old gravel pit at 61870 Crumstown Highway in North Liberty.

That new facility opened for racing in 1995, running under the name Mel McCallum’s South Bend Raceway Park. For a while, the region had two active tracks tied to the same karting family tree.

By the early 2000s, though, South Bend Raceway Park had cycled through a series of managers, each one looking for a way out of running the place.

That’s when the Lobaugh family stepped in. In early 2003, they took over the property and made a decision that shaped everything that followed.

They renamed the facility Michiana Raceway Park, bringing the name back to its 1987 roots. From there, the Lobaughs began a full rebranding effort and a wave of updates to the track and grounds.

That work built the version of Michiana Raceway Park that racers know today. It’s the same family, still running the show, still investing in the property.

What Racers Find at MRP Today

MRP now operates multiple track configurations on one piece of land. There’s Track A, Track B, a Track B Special layout, and Track C — each offering a different flavor of racing.

For racers who want the long-format challenge, MRP also runs a dedicated Endurance track, built for extended-distance karting events rather than short sprint races.

The facility doesn’t just cater to seasoned racers, either. MRP runs karting schools for people who are brand new to the sport and want to learn the fundamentals the right way.

There’s also a rental fleet on-site. The track encourages newcomers to test the sport before investing in their own equipment, which lowers the barrier to entry considerably.

Beyond competitive racing, Michiana Raceway Park hosts private events, group outings, and corporate entertainment bookings — turning the track into a venue for more than just weekly race nights.

The MRP Championship Series ties it all together, giving regular racers a season-long points battle to chase across the track’s various configurations.

From a 1962 kart track built by the Christie family, to a 1987 rebrand, to a second facility built by the McCallum family in the ’90s, to the Lobaugh family’s 2003 takeover — Michiana Raceway Park’s story is really the story of several Michiana karting families, each one adding a chapter.

More information on Michiana Raceway Park; Click here https://michianaracewaypark.com/

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