In April 1891, a new company called Dundee Athletic Grounds Company was set up by public conscription and offered 2,000 shares at ten shillings each.to lease the site with a view to setting up a sports stadium with a bicycle racing track. Two months later, they obtained a lease on the grounds at a rent of £183 15s per annum and they set up a sub-committee who visited Ibrox to inspect the track and prepare plans, modelled on the Glasgow track. A local company Bain & Co. were contracted to build the cycle track, the running track, and to lay out the grounds. By July 1891, the four and a half acre grounds were enclosed, a four laps to the mile cycle track and a 1500 seat grandstand were completed at a cost of £450. There were also facilities for football and East End FC (later to become Dundee FC) made the ground their home in 1891.
The bicycle track was formally opened on 18th July 1891 with a race meeting which attracted over 5,000 spectators. The top event of the meeting was the ten miles Scottish Championship race, which was won by Glasgow ace RA Vogt.** The other bicycle races were two one mile races, one for cushion and the other for solid tyres and for pneumatics and there was also a two miles handicap race for pneumatics.
At the 2nd April 1892 race meeting at Carolina Port. There were ten events including five open bicycle races, a novices one mile, a one mile pneumatics, a two miles safety (pneumatics barred) and a three miles pneumatics. The Dundee rider A Black won all three open races. In a heat of the one mile pneumatics, JC Anderson, the scratch man, was brought down by a stray dog in the heats, he was allowed to ride in the final, but was again brought down, this time by a fellow competitor.
The world champion AA Zimmerman^^ appeared at an evening race meeting on 24th May 1893, he easily won the quarter mile scratch in 39s and the half mile handicap, beating the quarter mile record on the way. He ran out of steam in the one mile handicap, failing to qualify in the heats. 1893 was a very busy year at Carolina Port, with several Scottish track championships being decided there, including the five, ten and fifty miles events. The 10 miles Championship race was held on 7th June 1893, but the race was declared null and void after all the first three finishers were judged to have ridden unfairly.
There were lots more bicycle race meetings at the ground in 1894, including thee SCU 100 guineas Challenge Trophy five miles team race and the Dundee FC annual sports. The Scottish Referee of 25th May 1894 reported on the low attendance at a recent meeting, in spite of Vogt and MacLaren appearing and commented that "Cycle racing has been done to death in Dundee"
In March 1896, after the rent for the ground was raised, the Dundee Athletic Grounds Company was in voluntary liquidation with a deficit of £457. Following this, Dundee Football and Athletics Club agreed to lease the ground on the same terms as previous and to pay off the overdue rent.
1896 and 1897 were busy years at the grounds, with lots of racing. The 16th East of Scotland meet was held on 17th July 1897 with the 5 miles Scottish Championship race, a 5 miles professional scratch race, the 100 guineas amateur team challenge race and professional and amateur handicap races.
In December 1898, Dundee FC were liquidated, but the club were re-constituted the following year and made their home at Dens Park. With the imminent threat of closure and the sale of the grounds, bicycle racing at the grounds reduced for the next couple of years and some meetings such as the Dundee police sports were held, but by 1899, the Dundee Harbour Board evicted the company and the ground was sold for industrial use.
** Robert Vogt (1869-1929) was born in Glasgow and was a world class rider, he broke all the English track records at Herne Hill from 2 to 10 miles and the World records from 6 to 10 miles. In 1893 Vogt rode against Zimmerman at Parkhead and finished second to the world champion in the 3 miles scratch race, watched by 15,000 people.
^^ AA Zimmerman (1869-1936) was one of the world's greatest track sprinters, as an amateur he was the American national champion from 1890 to 1892 and the world champion in 1893. He raced in Britain in 1892. Zimmerman turned professional in 1894, riding a Raleigh bicycle and demanded to be paid in gold.