Plattsburgh, New York's Airborne Speedway will be switching from asphalt to dirt for the start of the next racing season. It was primarily a declining interest in asphalt racing that led to this decision. Racetrack leaders say the switch should appeal to a wider range of drivers in this area.

Airborne Speedway has been around since 1954, opening originally with a dirt track.  Since that time it's switched from dirt to asphalt, back to dirt, and back to asphalt again for the last 26 years. 

Throughout the last few months, track leaders have been traveling the northeast, looking for the right mixture of dirt and clay for the transition. The plan is to lay the new cover right over the existing track.

The 602 and 358 car classes will race on the new track next season.

"Right now there's not a lot of asphalt cars out there doing what we do in our particular area. We're primarily dirt country, on this side of New York and over on the western part of New York, so the decision wasn't about the excitement, the decision was about the car counts and how we can work with other tracks," said John Walker, an Owner and Promoter for Airborne Speedway.

Walker says the track change should take about 3 weeks. Walker expects the transition to cost anywhere between $85,000 and $125,000.

He hopes to have it done before the snow hits, or early next spring. He expects the 2017 Airborne Speedway season to open in May.