Glenn Donnelly​

Glenn Donnelly is best known as the founder and longtime president of DIRT Motorsports.

Donnelly’s racing career began In 1970 when bought 3/8 mile Weedsport Speedway, located 26 miles from Syracuse, NY and began promoting the track. In 1972, Donnelly created the Super Dirt Series. The series came from the idea of bringing rules uniformity and increased sponsorship to modified stock car racing at a trio of Upstate New York dirt tracks. 
In 1976, Donnelly joined forces with Bob and Donnie Petrocci, co-promoters of nearby Rolling Wheels Raceway, to form Drivers Independent Race Tracks (DIRT). The fledgling organization sanctioned, organized and promoted modified races at Weedsport, Rolling Wheels and the New York State Fairgrounds.

Under Donnelly’s direction since day one, DIRT Motorsports has sanctioned more than 12,200 feature races at 66 tracks from Canada to Texas. Its exotic big-block Modifieds, state-of-the-art distant cousins of the same modified Coupes which formed the early foundation of NASCAR, are familiar to race fans across the nation. In forming DIRT, Donnelly built one of the most successful sanctioning bodies in the motorsports industry. 

In 1992, Donnelly opened the DIRT Hall of Fame and Classic car museum in Weedsport. In 2004 Donnelly sells his interest in DIRT Motorsports and retired.