Racing Stories Here, Let's Hear 'Em!

[Dirtman]

Giggily, giggily, laughing so hard!!!! This if fun!

Rett 

[Lefturns75]

I remember my first check.  I started a heat with 7 cars and I was on the tail.  The track was heavy and wet and I had tires just a touch harder than concrete.  The green drops and the six cars in front of me swarmed in all directions like roaches when you turn on a light.  When I got to turn one I was the leader and no caution!  A lap or two later a mustang pulled along side and like all dumb rookies I looked at it and that is where my car went.  We banged a couple of times and he fell back.  He pulled on the high side of me a lap later and once again I looked at him and we banged again.  One lap to go and going into turn three I could hear him so I am really standing on it.  With my slow steering I am doing the lazy fish-tail down the front straight trying to gather it up but I am about two turns late on the wheel each time.  The guy in the mustang simply took the apron and went by while I bobbled around and stuck the nose in the fence under the flag stand and came to rest facing the wrong way.  First thing I see is a car aimed at me with a driver wearing a full face helmet.  Even though it has been 45 years ago I can still remember seeing two HUGE eyes looking at me through that helmet slit.  At any rate, the guy missed me and I got a second place backwards.  My winnings were $38 and some change and I thought I had won Daytona.  I don't remember but I am sure I spent ten times that just to get to the track but I got paid!   Yep, crazy how a dumb kid thinks. 

I look back today and wonder what the heck was I thinking?  I wasn't thinking, that was the problem.  I had other things happen,  Lost the battery, entire rear end came out of the car, spit out a drive shaft, lost wheels, broke axles and spun out a lot.  I spun one night and a guy hit me and knocked me into the infield.  When I stopped I looked up and could see one of the track lights bright as day.  I looked to my left and my entire car body was on its top off the chassis.  I am sure in my rushing around I didn't have it bolted down very well.  I have no doubt the guys at the track had a good laugh watching me.  I am sure they were glad when I parked the car before the season was over too.

The next few years I watched, listened, took notes, asked questions and in the early 80's built another car, very much un-like I did the first time and HIRED a driver.  At season end we were in the top 5.  Things got better and I was able to learn from some pretty sharp guys.  By 90 or so I burned out and sold everything.  Rules changed, cars changed and it wasn't fun anymore.  The home grown 350 was history, the home grown chassis was history.  The 15K race motor and 10K chassis didn't appeal to me and thats what it took to run up front with the local boys. 

[Hondo]

Having watched Dale Earnhardt (not Jr) coming up on the Carolina dirt tracks I always appreciated how good he was at car control.
Even though this story is a NASCAR/IROC one, I always laughed.

As told by Jeff Gordon:

This occurred in one of Gordon's first IROC races at Daytona. The then-budding superstar vividly recalled being caught between Kenny Schrader and Dale Earnhardt practicing as he came off Turn 2.

Let's let Gordon pick it up here.

"I was running second and Dale gave me a pretty good push," Gordon recalled. "I got underneath Schrader and was like, 'Cool, I'm going to go right by him.' And then before I could even look in my mirror Dale was inside of me three-wide down the back straightaway.

"It just seemed like the longest back straightaway I'd ever experienced. Like in all my laps around Daytona, it just seemed like that back straightaway went on for like five minutes because the moment stood in time, and I was just there, like, taking it all in."

You have to remember at the time the seats didn't have headrests, so drivers had clear visibility into the cars around them. This made the moment even more surreal, first as Gordon turned to his right to look at Schrader, who focused on what was ahead, and then Gordon got a glimpse of Earnhardt.

"Dale is over here like … he's kicked back, he's got one hand over here [at the window] and one on the steering wheel. He's looking at me with this big grin on his face."

As Gordon approached Turn 3, he learned what it was like to be between a rock and a hard place.

"I was like, 'Now, which one of us is going to lift? I'm not going to lift,'" he remembered. "As we got closer to Turn 3 and I look over at Dale, I realized I was going to have to be the bigger person in this moment and lift. And thank God I did, because I lifted and Dale went in there sliding all the way up three lanes [and] got in front of Schrader. It would have been a heck of a wreck.

"But I'll never forget that look on his face and just how relaxed he was in that race car at that moment when I was freaking out because we're three-wide."

Typical  "Intimidator"........

[Gary Davis]

You ought to be a writer Lefturns75! I was laughing loudly enough that my wife wondered in to see what in the world I was doing! Great stuff!

Man OH MAN....I think you gave me a side cramp GEORGE! MY face muscles are killing me here. Great stuff bud. And I think Davids 100% right...you need to write a book on your racing career....

[Lefturns75]

If I did, the title would have to be "How NOT to go racing".   If you are laughing that hard at my recount of my stupidity, think what it would have been like to see it back then.  I still see guys today that horse-laff me about my first car and my feeble attempt at racing and its been 43 or 45 years ago.  I am really surprised I didn't kill myself or someone else back then.  Heck, when I was there, even the fans were in danger.  Trust me, I saw more black flags and blue flags than anything else.  I didn't see many checker flags in features, by the time I got to the flag stand, the flagman had usually gone home.  I am not sure, but I really think I crossed the finish line on the hook more than under my own power.

[Olderndirt]

My father-in-law Floyd,and I, worked as night time security at the local fairgrounds during our county fair, to earn a little extra money. The fair is held over the Labor Day weekend. The local short track is located in the fairgrounds complex. It’s a quarter mile high bank, with long corners, and short straights. The infield is used for rodeo events during the day, and overflow parking for stock haulers, after closing.
 Floyd and I had been doing this for several years, and used our little Baja Bugs as patrol cars. One night after closing, I was leaving the livestock area, when I heard Floyd’s bug winding up pretty good, and went to investigate. I soon realized he was out on the track, and had entered from the pit area. I was entering through an emergency entrance on the front straight. He couldn’t see me when he came out of turn four onto the front straight, so I took off after him. My bug was much faster than his, and to be honest he wasn’t really pushing it. I was probably about twenty three at that time and really wanted to give him a scare. I passed him on the outside just short of turn one, and dove down low and pretty much stayed on the throttle. Everything was going fine until my big old ten inch wide worn out Indy’s got on some marbles, kicked up by the stock trucks. The rearend started coming around, and at about that time things started moving like molasses in January. I remembered to turn into the skid, and stay off the brakes, as the fairgrounds seemed to rotate around me. Just short of a complete 360 the tires had scrubbed off enough speed that I was able to straighten out the wheels, and give it a little gas, and it straightened right out. When I came around onto the front straight Floyd was right where I’d passed him. When I pulled up he rolled down his window and said that if my pants weren’t wet, I was definitely crazy.

  Olderndirt

[vsrn]

For Modified fans in the Northeast from the 50's through the 70's, The Race of Champions at the Langhorne Speedway, was the biggest deal of all. Local tracks up and down the East Coast would have qualifying events that earned the winner a "Guaranteed" starting spot in the event.

Well after the 1971 race, Kmart decided to build another store, and poof, Langhorne was no more.
So the race moved to the nearby Trenton Speedway. Trenton started out as a 1/2 mile dirt fairground
type of track, then was expanded to a one mile paperclip track. In 1968, they chopped off turns 3 and 4,
then put a dogleg RIGHT hand turn at the end of the backstretch, leading into a big, sweeping banked
turn, which led into the new frontstretch, which was Twice as long as the original straight. By 1972,
the cars were packing a lot of horsepower, which meant that the speeds at the start / finish line were
horrendous.

The race format was simple: Everybody time trialed. If the 30 "guaranteed" starters were within 110% of the pole speed, they got one of the first 30 starting positions. The next 30 fastest qualifiers, got positions 31 - 60. So that took care of 60 of the 180 entries. To give everyone a last chance to make the race, they had two 20 mile consies, 60 cars in each, with the winner of each race getting one of the last two starting positions.  No pressure at all.

So here comes a field of 60 cars, two by two, off the 4th turn, and the pole sitter decides to take a chance, and jumps the start. Everyone else took off after him, but by the time he got all the way down to the start/finish line, he had a 3 car length lead. Unfortunately, just as he arrived at the start / finish
line, he blew up, dumped all of his oil in the track, and locked up his rear end, turning him sideways
in front of 59 other cars, all of which were running wide open, and at max speed. With the track being quite narrow at that point, things got a bit exciting. To make a long story short, when all of the cars stopped, and the dust cleared, the whole field was in the wreck, and at least the first 30 cars were piled
up on top of each other, 3 deep! Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt, but needless to say, it took quite a while to clean up that mess. IIRC, there were maybe 25 cars that could continue, and the restart was a lot more "orderly" !
The Good Old Days...
vsrn

[Lefturns75]

OK, since it is so slow here I will throw out another racing story from my past.  As I mentioned before, I had helped on stockers in some way since the 6th grade.  It was Feb. and I was finishing up my Jr. year in high school.  I had not yet gotten to the point of my Chevelle Disaster a few years later but I had that racing bug super bad.  One of the local drivers told me that if I wanted to race so bad, I should get an old car and enter in the new Amateur Class this year.  The car had to be completely stock, less glass and interior, have an approved seat and belts, and roll bar.  Yes, roll bar behind the driver, no cage.  It was cheap and heck, might win some $$. 

I talked a school chum into helping me as I thought he sorta knew his way around a shop.  Wrong.  I purchased a car-------and guys, don't shoot me for this-----from a local salvage yard for $50.  It was a 1964 Mercury Marauder with a 390 and a 4 speed.  The Transmission was in the trunk and it needed a clutch but ran.  I got it home and started work----as soon as I smoothed things over with my Mother.  I got the new clutch installed, stripped the interior, purchased a seat and had a local guy weld in the roll bar.  I was also out the bucks for two tires since I had two that wouldn't hold air.  Then the first obstacle hit me.  I wasn't 18, I couldn't drive it.  There  was NO WAY Mom was gonna sign the papers to let me drive so I needed a driver.  I rounded up a guy that had driven a few junkers in the area and he agreed to do it if I paid his entry and pit pass. 

Now my school chum I had as a helper was the second obstacle.  Early on while working on this mess I asked him to grab a 5/8 wrench from the tool box.  He dug around and fooled around and I told him to get with it, I need the wrench.  He said he couldn't find it so I go look in the drawer, pick it out and ask him if he was blind or something.  Now I am not making this up.  He looked at it and said "Oh, I get it, I thought that was #5 of 8".  I knew then that I was in deep, deep trouble.  The poor guy didn't know a screw driver from a rose bush. 

So, somehow I get this thing to the track and we get entered for the night.  The Amateur Class only ran one race during the evening and it was a 25 lap feature.  Everyone drew for starting position and we were somewhere in the back of a 27 car field.  Before the start I was trying to talk to the driver and all I was getting was "Yeah", "Sure", "Whatever".  He knew, I was too dumb to know.  The green drops and it looked like rush hour in Chicago.  There was dust, smoke, flat tires, parts flying and pileups like at Daytona.  I saw my Merc take a shot in the rear and bow up like a Banana.  A couple laps later I saw it get stuffed under the rear of a big Chrysler New Yorker or something and half the pack pile into it.  It was over.   I got it home only to take flak from my Mom because it was leaking oil and coolant all over her driveway.  The guy at the Salvage yard where I got it said he would give me $50 for it, which is what I paid him.  He took out $10 for a wrecker fee because he came and picked it up.  I'm not sure what I spent but I no doubt went in the hole.  Thanks to me a very straight and rust free Merc got destroyed, I blew my savings and I should have learned my lesson but when you have "the bug" nothing will beat sense into you.  A year or so later, I attempted to do it again and have told you about it.  Yes, things got better years later after I got the "Dumb Kid" out of me.  If I could do it all over again would I?  You durn Skippy!

[Dirtman]

I've missed some of these stories, so I got caught up tonight. Loved everyone of them! Have to come up with a couple more of my favorite ones one of these days.

Rett

[Lefturns75]

That sounds like a "Regular" Saturday Night at Riverside Speedway in Kansas City.    Oh the mud, blood and 16oz Bud!!   Family Entertainment at its finest!!!!!!

[Brian Conn]

That sounds like a "Regular" Saturday Night at Riverside Speedway in Kansas City.    Oh the mud, blood and 16oz Bud!!   Family Entertainment at its finest!!!!!!

   And with that I'll take my que........
  Spent many a Saturday night at Riverside...early 80's thru the final season in 1988.  Not sure of the size, but I can tell you it was under a 1/4 mi., you could always tell a Riverside car by its battered appearance.... pretty much a circle.
   One of the contributing factors to the atmosphere was that the race track shared a parking lot with Red X Plaza with the Red X liquor store less than a minute walk away from the front gate.....don't know about the Bud, but there was plenty of Red, White & Blue and Schmidts quaffed by the crew that I rolled with at the time....I think I remember a case of either one being around $5.00    That liquor store would be packed during intermission.
  I can remember on alternating weeks there would be either a figure 8 race or a roll over contest after the regular races.
  The race track sat in the Missouri River flood plane...after the great flood of 1993, any evidence of the former racetrack was washed away.  The Corp of Engineers built a flood protection dike in the mid 90's where the pits would have been.
  My son in law lives just a few minutes North of Riverside, Mo.  and once while visiting last year he up's and decides that he wants to go to Red X Plaza, now just a glorified flea market,to buy something.  The parking lot hasn't changed and the liquor store is still there.....but,you would never know that on the South side of the parking lot was Riverside Stadium.       

[Lefturns75]

My time at Riverside was around 1966 to 1971.  I was not there every saturday night but at least 3 or 4 times a summer.  I do not remember much outside the track----like the Red X but there were guys vending cold brew walking through the stands all night----16oz bud.  Usually by feature time one or two would be sitting somewhere in the stands and would yell "Cold Beer" every few minutes as he was unable to walk up and down the stands.  This was the only place I ever attended where it was common to see a kid take a slug of dads tall boy.  It was more like a party than a race.  The track was small, the cars ugly but everyone seemed to have a good time even during the fights.  I can remember only two names from that time----Everett Reed and Claude Loomis.  I am sure they were gone by the time you started attending.  I got to attend Olympic Stadium a couple of times but can't remember much about it.  I do remember Greg Weld was there.  After 71 I never got back to Riverside.  I spent time at Ozark Speedway, 71 Speedway, Springfield Fairgrounds, I-70 and a number of other places.  Good memories.  I still believe I got to see some of the greatest short track racing there has ever been during those times.  Sure wish I could see all of it again. 

[Brian Conn]

  Misc. pictures from Riverside.....

  John Oswalt in the White #62...early 70's   I think that's you sitting just to the Right of the flag stand about 3 rows up along the isle.


Typical Street Stock action in turn 4



 Some Late Model action...early 80's


Randy Bramhill in the 96...Red X plaza would be in the upper Left portion of the picture just beyond the people standing on the truck.

[Lefturns75]

LMAO!!!!!!   Those first two pics are like what I remember.  I think you are seeing my stunt double.  I would have been to the left of the flag stand near the top row.  I remember the Street Stockers looking like the big one at Daytona every lap.  The Supers were the big show when I went back then.  It was always hard to tell who was leading with the stockers.  It was usually bumper to bumper during a feature and pile up after pile up.  that had to drive the score keepers insane. 

[Brian Conn]

  THE FIRST TIME I SNUCK INTO THE PITS...hey, I was given a lawful order to do it!

  So I am 14 years old and going to the races by myself at the fairgrounds track here in the middle of Topeka, Ks.  Grew up about 6 blocks from the track.  I had been going to the track for a couple of years already and had met up with a guy named Paul....Paul was in his late 20's I guess.  Paul knew who drove what and in what class, so I learned a lot those first few season.
  For what ever reason we where walking around the outside of the track, outside of the wall some where in turn 1 and 2.  We heard a loud crash from the back shute, figured it must be bad. Stan Crooks had punched a rather large hole thru the cinder block wall, just past the pit gate....all there was between the wall and the racing surface was a single guard rail and about 5 or 6 feet of dirt between the guard rail and the brick wall....needless to say a car could get launched.
  By the time we had made it to the area of the back gate ( this was a BIG 1/2 mile) quite a few people, who where in the pits, had made it thru the gaping hole in the wall to check out all the carnage....Stan wasn't hurt and the car wasn't in that bad of shape, all things considered.
  The Shawnee County Sheriffs dept. was in charge of security since the fairgrounds was county property.  A sheriffs deputy showed up and yelled at ALL of us to get back into the pits.....which of course we all did
  The crash must have occurred during an early heat race.  As I recall ,we spent a long time in the pits wandering around trying to conceal the fact that we didn't have pit passes or that I was an under aged minor in the pits with out parental consent.   

 
  Shawnee County Fairgrounds track circa 1955.  By the time this story had taken place, the trees along the back shute and turns 3 and 4 had been removed....more than likely due to cars flying out of the track and hitting them.  The area just past the pit gate, where the crash happened, sat directly across from the center of the grandstand as pictured.