Louie Caltagarone Sr Runs The Hummingbird Speedway As A Family Affair

By Justin Felgar jfelgar@thecourierexpress.com

REYNOLDSVILLE — Louie Caltagarone Sr. enjoys the rush of the race with his family as the owner of Hummingbird Speedway in Reynoldsville.

Caltagarone said he comes from a racing family and has had experience racing personally. He said his racing experience was the catalyst that lead him to open the race track the first time in 1964. The track closed in 1976 because he needed to help his brothers in the coal mining business, he said. The track was reopened in 2000.

“I had ten brothers. I came from a family of race car drivers and I drove a car when I was younger,” Caltagarone said.

Hummingbird Speedway earned its named from the number of hummingbirds that used to frequent the hill that overlooks the track. He said his daughter mistook them for bees.

“There were scores of them. My daughter told me about all the bees on the hill and they turned out to be hummingbirds. That’s how Hummingbird hill and Hummingbird Speedway earned their names,” Caltagarone said.

He said the track schedules 22 races per year but is sometimes unable to hold all of the races becaue of inclement weather. The track holds races featuring super late model, limited late model, street stock, pure stock and front wheel drive cars and attracts drivers from as far as Erie, Pittsburgh and Ohio. He said special races are staged on holidays like the Fourth of July and Memorial Day.

Caltagarone said he has a great relationship with his drivers and fans which he attributed to the family friendly atmosphere of the track. He said he loves running the business with his family.

“This is a family track, there are no two ways about it. Our fans bring their families to watch the races. We run the place as a family. My daughters, sons-in-law, my nieces, my grandchildren, we all work here. I get to get together with my family and friends here. That is the enjoyable part of it. I love seeing our fans enjoying the races. I communicate with them and they give me input. The fans really praise me for what we do,” Caltagarone said.

Caltagarone said Hummingbird Speedway improves every year. He said the track uses a computer system that tracks the laps and knows a driver’s exact position in the race no matter where they are physically on the track.

“We can tell that one car is in seventh place even if he looks like he is in second,” Caltagarone said.

The first race of 2019 at the Hummingbird Speedway is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday with the gates to the track opening at 4 p.m.