In recent trips to Whiteland Raceway Park, where Andy O’Gara grew up racing go-karts from the age of 12, he couldn’t help but notice the road course was in disrepair.

This isn’t just any old track, it opened in 1958 south of Indianapolis and is regarded as the oldest of its kind in the nation. It’s where such legends as Tony Stewart and John Andretti raced in their youth. The nine-turn layout with an oval and the only high-banked turn on a karting course in Indiana is where O’Gara and his wife, Sarah Fisher, enjoy bringing their two children.

O’Gara couldn’t stand by and see the track lost in a tax sale, possibly leveled and turned into a parking lot. He convinced Fisher and Wink Hartman, with whom they have partnered on Verizon IndyCar Series teams, to save the place.

“There are a lot more people that loved it than Sarah and me,” O’Gara said.

That was most evident on Saturday night two weeks ago, when the new owners hosted their first races in a grand reopening. Cars flooded the neighboring fields and parking lots.

“We had 165 entries and more than 500 people through the gates,” O’Gara said. “We parked up and down the street. A neighbor who has 300 acres let us use their field. And Kelsay Farms, thank goodness they had just cut their bean fields, so people parked there. There was a county bus garage across the street and we got permission to park there as well. There were people everywhere.

“It was awesome. We had a great night and great racing. It reminded me of growing up all over again.”

O’Gara and Fisher come from devout racing families. They met in 2002 when Sarah drove in the Verizon IndyCar Series for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, Andy worked on the pit crew and Andy’s father, John, was the team manager. Andy and Sarah were married in 2007 and formed Sarah Fisher Racing the following year.

Ed Carpenter won the team’s first race in 2011 at Kentucky Speedway. Hartman joined as a co-owner in 2012 before the team merged with Carpenter’s team to form CFH Racing in 2015, when rising star Josef Newgarden won two races.

Following that season, O’Gara and Fisher exited team ownership to focus on what was then the new Speedway Indoor Karting (SIK) facility and restaurant they built and maintain within earshot of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Now, they’re turning attention as well to resurrecting Whiteland Raceway Park to the lofty status it once held.

O’Gara and Fisher commended family and friends for their hard work on the “11th-hour deal” to take over at Whiteland. Although this means more work for the couple, they are convinced it’s worth it.

“It’s more about the karting community, and more selfishly, about my own kids,” said Fisher, one of the most popular Indy car drivers when she raced and now a pace car driver at Verizon IndyCar Series events. Fisher and O'Gara's daughter Zoey is shown at left karting at the track in the familiar No. 67 that her mother used to drive.

“We went there to take our kids. We need to have this place around because there aren’t that many go-kart tracks around to diversify your different driving styles. And it’s close to home.”

Their first race was an opportunity to solicit feedback from fellow enthusiasts on how to improve the venue. As it turned out, O’Gara and Fisher received more than just input.

“It was a little overwhelming to see so many people so excited about it,” Fisher said. “So many people were thankful and made it a point to come up and say thank you. We want it to be a family establishment. We’re a racing family ourselves and we want to keep that. It was meaningful to us that we were fair to everyone.”

O’Gara plans to add back some of the original track, not currently in use, while upgrading the racing surface with paving projects. Other offseason improvements include building about 20 garages. A new fleet of go-karts from Italy is being shipped and will be launched in the spring, he said.

“It’s been a ton of work, but getting through (opening) night was just a huge accomplishment,” he said. “I felt like a million bucks when the checkered flag dropped on the final race. I think we pleased 90 percent of the crowd. I hope it was more than that. I know we didn’t get everything right, but we’re trying to get it all right.

“We knew we could make the (track) rental business go similar to SIK. The passion side of it is what Sarah and I grew up with in the competition side. That’s where we wanted to make an impact. Seeing all the faces of the kids and the parents and even some of the seniors looking for some weekend fun, that’s how we grew up and had fun with our families. We wanted to make an impact with them and I think we pulled it off.”

Fisher said go-kart racers need diverse tracks to develop their skills. She acknowledged the value of being in the same region as New Castle Motorsports Park, the facility an hour east of Indianapolis founded by former Indy car driver Mark Dismore.

“It’s important to have more than one track to go to,” she said. “It’s going to be fun and it’s great to see a lot of people having fun with it.”

Following a pair of weekend karting events to kick off the new ownership, an endurance race is scheduled for Nov. 3 (check out racewrp.com for more information on the facility). O’Gara is eager to see the track’s popularity and use continue to grow.

“Everybody has been awesome and positive,” O’Gara said. “When they’ve had ideas or constructive ideas, they’ve called or emailed us and reached out. Everybody sees the grand vision and they want to make it a safe and competitive area to race in. It’s got so much history. I think everybody has got a story.”