The track was built in 1916 as part of the first wave of American board-track speedways, a short-lived format that promised higher sustained speeds than dirt ovals by eliminating ruts and surface irregularities. The Uniontown circuit measured 1.1 miles per lap, with steeply banked corners of 34 degrees supporting the timber planking that formed its racing surface. Contemporary reports placed it among the faster facilities of its era, although the banking and construction standards of board tracks generally contributed to the category's high accident rate.
The opening race at Uniontown took place on 2 December 1916 and was designated the Universal Trophy, named in honour of Carl Laemmle, president of Universal Films, who provided a solid silver trophy valued at approximately $3,000. Laemmle's company filmed the event for distribution to local theatres. The inaugural meeting was catastrophic in terms of casualties: two deaths occurred during practice alone, when a driver and his riding mechanic were killed. During the race itself, five further people died — two of them spectators and three participants — making the opening day one of the deadliest single events in American racing history to that point.
Louis Chevrolet, driving a Frontenac, won the inaugural race. Chevrolet was already a celebrated figure in American racing from his earlier career and was then developing the Frontenac engine program. Track president Charlie Johnson was later reported to have absconded with the event's proceeds and fled to Cuba, a claim that became part of the circuit's contested legacy.
Uniontown hosted three AAA National Championship races during its operational life, all of which were won by Duesenberg-powered entries.
The 1921 season produced two championship races at the track. Roscoe Sarles won the first on 18 June 1921 driving a Duesenberg. The second, held on 5 September 1921, was won by I. P. Fetterman, also in a Duesenberg, at an average speed of 99.8 mph.
The final championship race at Uniontown took place on 17 June 1922, when Jimmy Murphy drove a Duesenberg-Miller to victory. This was among the last events held at the facility; the track closed the same month, in June 1922.
The original Uniontown Speedway was demolished after its brief operational life. A second Uniontown Speedway was established in 1946 on a site adjacent to the original, this time as a half-mile dirt oval rather than a board track. In its opening season this second facility staged a National Championship sprint car race on 25 August 1946, won by Ted Horn driving a Horn-Offy.
The original Uniontown board track belongs to a cluster of facilities from the mid-1910s that combined genuine speed potential with significant structural danger. The death toll at the December 1916 inaugural race set a grim precedent for the board-track era, which had effectively run its course by the mid-1920s as the format's combination of high maintenance costs, fire hazard, and accident rate made it unsustainable. The survival of the AAA championship record for its three National Championship races ensures the circuit retains a documented place in pre-war American open-wheel racing history.