Your "Home" Track

[David Bogard]

So what was your "home" track; the one you went to most? It may not have even been your favorite but it was the one you were "always" at. It can only be ONE track, not a bunch, and throw in a photo or two if you have any. Rett's old '56 Ford got me to day dreamin' a little so let's see who really went to the races back in the day!

Mine was Peoria Speedway, Peoria, Illinois. I lived across the river in East Peoria so where else was I going to be every Saturday Night? The old Speedway is still goin' strong today!
Peoria Speedway 1970

Early Coupe Action!

Early 60's Action. You never could go four wide for very long!

[john2]

   Jackson International Speedway, Clinton, Ms.  It operated from late 1968 thru a single race in 1986.  High banked, half mile, asphalt.  Proclaimed by my favorite, Freddy Fryar, as his favorite track to run.    Visited by  name drivers including the Alabama Gang, David Pearson, Pete Hamilton, Tiny Lund, Ed Howe, Butch Miller, and Larry Phillips among many, many  others.  Too long a list to name. 

NASCAR, MASCAR, and All Pro ran there.  The weekly shows included super modifieds, Hobby, and Late Models. 

The best racing I ever saw was right there.  I loved it.

Many pictures on www.misschicken.com under asphalt cars.

It failed because they were never able to cultivate enough local late models to sustain the crowds when there were special events at other tracks, and the names went where the money was. 

Thanks, David, for this topic. 

Many pictures are on www.misschicken.com under Asphalt Cars.

[Olderndirt]

Lakeport Speedway tightest oval in the state. 1/4 mile high banked oval, Two miles from the house, right in the middle of town ( where it should be). On a Saturday night in the summer, I can here them runnin’ while sittin’ on the patio drinking beer.

  Olderndirt

[supergluek5]

Paducah International raceway  "PIR"   Operated on and since 1972.   lived 7 miles from track   was there every race nite until I moved away.

supergluek5
Mike

[Brian Conn]

  My Home track was the Shawnee County Fairgrounds BIG 1/2 dirt track.


 
  I grew up about a 1/2 away from this track.  The track originally was a horse racing track...the first automobile races were "Gentlemen's Races" which happened in the early 1900's   Barney Oldfield raced here a time or two back in that era as well.
  My Maternal grandfather and his brother raced motorcycles here before WWII.  Super Modifieds (later to become Sprint cars) began racing here a few years after WWII.  IMCA began racing stock cars here in the 1960's .....I'm pretty sure that my very first race happened here...I don't think I was out of diapers yet.
  I began going to the races on my own in 1977 on Saturday nights...the very last race was in Sept. of 1980....I NEVER missed a race during those years unless it was a Boy Scout High Adventure trip or family vacation.  It was during this time that I really began to pay attention to the dirt stock cars....something that has stayed with me to this day.

   
  Should have proofread this issue of race week a little closer......The Marshall Mo. track would have been better off to have BANDED together the Late Models instead of banning them...oh well it was their loss.  Perhaps Shane Carson of WoO fame took some of that Late Model money with his win.
  This picture was taken in turn 3 at the Fairgrounds .....Mike Dibben has the lead on Joe Wallace.

   
  A couple of pictures out of the above racing program.


  Drivers roster and pictures from 1979......Galen Schaefer in the # 11 Late Model would make it a three-peat that year in points. 

[sentsat71]

While not the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd track I went to, in my early years (and young years), but after moving to Southern California, i was a regular at Ascot from 1972 to early 1984, after which the number or races started dwindling down.
Most Sat. nites found me at Ascot for the CRA sprint car races, with occasional trips on Sun,. night for figure 8 and oval track races. Briefly in the mid '70's mad addition trips to Ascot for IIRC NASCAR dirt late models. Pit crewed on a F-8 car from mid '76 through the '77 season, though the owner/driver had an agreement with his wife, that he would only race once a month. Also made most of the USAC Midgets Turkey Night on Thanksgiving night. This would included the last 2 races ever at Ascot, late Nov. 1990. The Sat. before Thanksgiving, was the last ever CRA sprint car race, where Billy Boat driving for Bruce Bromme set the 1 and only non winged sprint car 1 lap track record with a  17.8 somethiing timing. Then took in the last Turkey Night Grand Prix the following Thurs.....Both nights were SRO....

For me, racing has not been the same since Ascot closed.

[gator]

Lancaster Speedway. Fastest half mile track in the south. High banked red clay since 1954. Lancaster, SC.

[TonyK]

Portland Speedway in Oregon. My Dad went there when Pat Vidan was flagman before he became the Indy 500 flagman. He especially enjoyed the Midget racing.
He took me there when I was young and I continued on to enjoy all types of races there. Winston West was always a highlight but I especially liked the Sprint cars and Modifieds. Was a big fan of Herschel McGriff and his son Doug. Remember Tom Sneva and his family when they came with some radical modifieds.
Used to visit my grandparents as a kid who lived a few miles from the speedway. You could always hear the cars on Sunday so my parents would let me run over there and I'd wait until the ticket window closed up (usually 3/4 of the race was over) and I'd just walk in and watch the last part of the race for free.
I started taking my son there in the '80's and we enjoyed all forms of racing, the NASCAR trucks and then the track went dirt and we went to the World of Outlaws. Sadly it closed soon after and now it's used to store containers and other transportation stuff.

[gator]

Gator is right, they really do get after it here. Gator was a filmographer for the track and I have a couple of older DVD's of his and not only is the filming great but the action is to. You still do the filming there Jackie?

Yes, I still do the videos there. I am set up right in the center of the infield in the overhead picture that I posted. Here is a shot of me hard at work several years ago. It was taken by and posted to his twitter page that night by NASCAR racer Clint Bowyer. He was there that night with the two car latemodel team he owns. We just finished the regular season a couple weeks ago but there is a Ten Thousand to win Super Latemodel event scheduled for the last of November. Hope it doesn't snow. lol.

[Dirtman]

Hales Corners Speedway, my home track, 7 miles south of my house. This track ran from 1948 to 2003. Modifieds, Sportsman, midgets, sprint cars. I ran from1966 til '75 in sportsman mostly and some time in the late models. It was originally a 1/4, when I first went there spectating in 1957. Sometime in the early 70's switched to 1/3. Unfortunately now its a MENARDS store!! It was one of three tracks in the circuit. The other two were Firemans Park in Cedarburg that is closed down,and Slinger which was converted to asphalt in '73 or '74 and is still going strong today....in the early 70's we ran 4 nights a week with our sportsman car. Also did Thursday Sportsman only at Hales.  Great days and we all miss Hales Corners. They still have reunions every few years and that's a ball.

Rett

[Bob P.]

Port Royal Speedway is a fairgrounds track, located in Port Royal Pa. I believe they started racing jalopies there around 1950.
It was originally a horse race track, as many of the old fairgrounds tracks. I started attending races there around 1953 as a young boy.
They now race 410 Sprint cars and late models on a weekly basis. It's seen major improvement in the last five years making it one of the nicest track in Pa. The promoter was also awarded promoter of the year twice in the last few years.

My son lived right off the second turn for a few years and we got two free passes every race. So for three or four years I attended every race.

This is the way it looked when I started attending the races in 1953.

Hosted on Fotki

The old wooden grandstand has been gone now for probably twenty years, replaced with all aluminum seating with backrests.

Hosted on Fotki

This is the way it looked several years ago, more improvements have been made.

Hosted on Fotki

Bob

[Dirtman]

Any old Hales Corners photos?

The only ones I'd have are of me probably. I'll check around and see if i can find any others..

Rett

[bandit2026]

Does any one remember Starkey speedway in Roanoke Va.? My dad built modified - sportsman cars in late 50s and 60s. Track champion a couple of years with Charley "fliptop" Williamson at the wheel. They ran Grand Nationals a couple of times and all the hot shoes would show up for the big races. I've searched the web but no pictures.

[BobD]

I became "addicted" to the sport at my hometown track - Tunis Speedway in Waterloo, Iowa.  My older brother let me tag along when I was 7 years old, and its been in my blood ever since.

The half-mile track was built for horse/sulky racing in 1947.  A year later track owner Judd Tunis was convinced by area midget car drivers to build a 1/4 mile bullring inside the larger track.  The first "auto" race was held in 1949 on the 1/4 mile with Paul Newkirk of Cedar Rapids IA winning the first midget feature event in May of that year.  'Stock car' racing had become increasingly popular following World War II, and in 1950 Tunis Speedway fazed out the midgets in favor of the stock car class.

Tunis Speedway operated on Sunday nights & holidays, and was revamped into a 3/8 mile in the mid 70s.  The 1979 season was the last full campaign.  From 1980 through 1983 only 'special' events were run, and at the end of 1983 Judd decided to call it quits.  He had offers from various interested parties to continue promoting the track, but he declined, thus ending the longest weekly-running track in Iowa at the time.

I was a regular reporter at Tunis (and several other tracks) for Hawkeye Racing News from 1969-1972, and intermittently until 1976.  Several years ago, a friend and I published a two-volume book set, 'Sunday Night Memories' - a pictorial history of Tunis Speedway with over 1,200 photographs.

These photos and my old scrapbooks are the lasting memory I have of my favorite track.

  T2 by RD Dix, on Flickr                                                               An early 1950s lineup..

T1 by RD Dix, on Flickr                                                           A 1970s aerial view

tunis book by RD Dix, on Flickr

[Hondo]

Well, growing up and living in Charlotte, NC, we had several choices of race tracks in the area.
Anything from micro midgets up to late models on dirt, modifieds and late models on asphalt
Even whatever NASCAR was running at several tracks within an hour or two of home.

I'd have to say though, my "hometown" track was Metrolina Speedway in Charlotte.
It was a big and fast 1/2 mile semi-banked dirt track.
I spent many nights there with my Dad taking it all in.
If I went with Dad, we were usually the first couple folks thru the gates on a Friday night in the '70s and early '80s until he passed away.

Metrolina was built during the mid-1960s IIRC as a dirt track. It raced into the 1990s before finally closing. It was paved in the mid 1970s for a couple years. Ned Jarrett was the promoter with NASCAR modified and late model racing. Then the asphalt came up and it went back to dirt.
Some big high dollar races were held several times a year around holidays. They even ran a few 200 lap dirt LMS races. The NDRA late models as well as the World of Outlaws sprint cars ran there too.

Many great local racers ran there including Ralph & Dale Earnhardt, Freddy Smith, Mike Duvall, Billy Scott, Heyward Plyler, Larry Wallace (cam grinder by day at Holman-Moody), Gene "Stick" Elliott, Carl Smart, Harry Gant and many more. The main two classes were the late models and "semi-modified" 6 cylinders. It was always fun when "the Georgia boys" showed up late in a group of 5 or 6. This usually included Buck Simmons, CL Pritchett, Charlie Hughes, Fulmer Lance, Ray Allison and occasionally Billy Thomas from Alabama among others.

Too bad so many old tracks have gone away over the years. There were some great ones.
Here's a few pics:


View as it sat a few years back


Bought a ticket and walked up that hill many times. The pressbox that sat at the top of the hill was torn down years ago.


Frontstretch


Turn 4


Pits & flagstand


Turn 2 1977


Fulmer Lance 1978


Mike Duvall #5, Stick Elliott #57, Nova in the pits #8, is Dale Earnhardt 1977


#92 Don Bumgardner, the "Y" in the lettering is Robert Yates. He built the engines in this car. It was VERY fast.


My hero, Freddy Smith. Great racer (nearly 800 feature wins) and even nicer guy. Probably his last steel bodied car, 1978


The late Jim Dunn, NDRA 1982


Rodney Combs, NDRA 1982


Kenny Polston, "semi-modified" 6 cylinder class. None better


Turn 1 a few years ago


NASCAR late model sportsman race 1974