Remember this place anyone? I just missed it, we went to Star in Epping, NH website: www.thepinesspeedway.com and a Hemmings feature: http://www.hemmings.com/hmn/stories/2006/04/01/hmn_feature10.html
That was the place to be in the '50's on Sat Nite. They didn't go to OHV's in the A mods untill the late '50's. There were some really strong flatheads running that circuit. By the time they switched over to OHV's the drags and street use for flatheads had pretty much dried up. Therefor a lot of them lay under someones workbench gathering dust and rust for a long time. Just wondering . Is that a recreation of Ollie's "Big O" in that picture?
They have recreated some tribute big O cars, but that's a contemporary pic my guess early to mid 60's. These were real working "hot rods" and are really not discussed much in the mainstream or even traditional circles. I love the sturdiness built into them, they were workhorses, and the different tire sizes amaze me. I grew up with the Supermodifieds up at Star in NH, mostly injected BB Chevys, heavy offset, solid axles all around felt like an earthquake!
Some of the cars I remember were the Flying 5(Red Seguine{sp?}Pontiac powered;Jerry Dolliber(sp?)# 27;one of the hottest flatheads around that could take care of just about any OHV;Rocky Labonte out of the East Lynn Garage with #181 and 191.One of them had a narrowed 53 Ford trunk and quarters grafted to the coupe body.Trunk worked and so did the tail lights. We raced a B car but it wasn't very competitive.Probably one of the reasons was I was building the engines.At 16 I was still learning a lot!The lettering looked good though!
Yeah, the OHV vs. Flathead battle went a little longer than in other places on these tracks. The experienced flatmotor builders still had some tricks up their sleeves, and the good overheads took awhile to hit the junkyards to be cheap enough!
real nice to see someone posting old pics from the Pines. Got many,many memories of racing there. some notes about the 29 of jerry dolliver is that that was one of his first cars w/ a sbc......most of his wins came with a jr. prescott built flathead....he beat many of the sbc cars for a few years driving the flathead. real good shot of archie archambal in the #54 he was the true gentleman of racing in these early days...he always wore garberdine pants and a neatly pressed shirt or sweater when he raced.. and the pic of a early ollie win may have a racer named whity hoyt peeking in from the right side window......there is a websiye esp for this track @ thepinesspeedway.com lots of info and pics there....whom ever started this post i hope you post somemore pics from your collection i have not seen some that you posted before....thanks
Your from Ipswich do you remember this car??? http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364968
Sure do....remember it well. This car was owned by Paul Fraher from Topsfield. Built at Perkins Marina in essex by Eddie Perkins and friends. I believe this was the first time at a track for the car. This was at Pines Speedway in Groveland. In pic 6 it shows eddie in car...paul in reddish shirt along side car and possibly me leaning on hood of truck in background.......
i talked to ed perkins today and he told me the car is being restored in middleton ma. but did not remember the guys name. i will follow up on this car and post when i get more news
They have a reunion there every year. I have taken a few pictures and some of the cars that were there are in your old photos above. Here are some from 2006 and 2008: http://www.pangalacticconsortium.com/cars/CarEvents2006/PinesSpeedway_2006/index.html http://www.pangalacticconsortium.com/cars/CarEvents2007/PineSpeedway_2007/ Rebecca
The #3 is "big Daddy Don Maclaren.......in the back ground is the ford sedan owned by Ernie Mc Kay and driven by Bently Warren
YUP, that's Don with what appears to be Forest Dame's last #3 coupe, the next was a rail. The #44x is Ed Santisi from Salem The #213 is Brice Haskell, (the bald guy that always wore the straw boater hat when not wearing his helmet.
What a cool historic thread. I see the dude holding a checkered flag with a flatty on board, and it looks like a lot of sbc's in the cars at that time. Then other posts echoed the fact that the flatties were taking out the ohv mills for some time. To damn cool. Thanx for a great history adventure, the pine trees in the backgroung suggest a real sweet setting for this race oval. ~sololobo~
[FONT=3ad6f85ffdd0cf1612ead490#841000]NH Short Track Heroes[/FONT] <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg589472875826163 _prototypeUID="2">Home <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg35353627 _prototypeUID="3">Mission <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg51124068 _prototypeUID="4">Driver Rosters <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg13417629 _prototypeUID="5">Models Blog <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg52027591 _prototypeUID="6">Links <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg64596627 _prototypeUID="7">Restored-A Blog <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg95420209 _prototypeUID="8">Odds & Ends <LI style="POSITION: relative" id=pg82669358 _prototypeUID="9">Show Stoppin Winning Combinations <!-- WEEBLY_START_CONTENT -->Brookline Speedway 1/4 Mile Paved Banked Track Located on Route 13 in Brookline, NH Freddy Borden subbing for Jim Travers wins on Memorial Day, 1959. (Photo courtesy of Howard Towne, who is in the process of restoring this car) Jim Travers pictured with the same car, 1959. Car was year end points leader, just beating out Roger Lancey. (Photo courtesy of Marty Harty and Howard Towne) Roger Lancey (photo courtesy of Howard Towne) (Photo courtesy of Cavalcade of Auto Racing) Lloyd "Lucky" Thompson (Cavalcade of Auto Racing photo)
they do a reunion car show at the site of the track every year. usually in sept/october. i've been the past 2 years. the track was way before my time & i've never been much into circle track, but it's still one of my favorite local shows. a bunch of old race cars & tons of old pics, articles, & history on display there. i'll post up this years date if i can find it. *opps missed rebecca's post.
That's Don wearing 1 of his baby blue polo shirts, baby blue shirts were the only color I ever saw Don wear, even if he was wearing his biz. shirt from 5-D's welding, also baby blue. Nice of you to acknowledge Ernie McKay's car & Bentley Warren, BUT what about the other 2 drivers that drove it from time to time?????? So, can I hear 3 cheers for the other 2 McKay's,..........Anna, & Bertha who both drove it in powderpuff derbies,......& won a lot of them. Side note: The McKay clan of Ipswich were some of the nicest people I've ever met.
I was at the Reunion yesterday and saw Jim Martel who use to drive for Art La Bonte. I use to be on the pit crew for 181,191 and 51 years ago(Billy Malo). Bruce Junior LaBonte build and drove the cars and Bob Labonte built the engines. Art had Red Castor back in the 40's driving for him at West Peabody Speedway. Red was a Ollie Silva back in that era and Art won quite a few Feature races at West Peabody. Art ran Oswego and many of the local tracks back in the 50's. Art was a great guy! I remember when we when to Enderle fuel injection on the race car up at Hudson one day. We had growing pains with that injection system. Ollie was running Hilborn and was cleaning up.
56Kustom, I remember Brookline. When I was 11 or 12 I had older cousins who lived in Fitchburg who raced a Studebaker ice racer in the winter. They took me to Brookline a few times. Brookline used to have a street stock class where they would let anyone race and one time, I saw a nice custom 55 / 56 Ford coupe similar to yours ,green with white scallops go out and tear the place up. People couldn't beleive he was taking such a nice car out there and racing it. I saw a few cars wreck in that race but the Ford stayed out of trouble and finished in the top five,I think.
Does anyone remember a crash that killed Stores Coffin in the 60s. He had someone looking to buy his car and he was test driving it and the throttle stuck and crashed. He was my uncle and was looking to see if anyone had photos of him and his car during the 60s. He drove a black and white car and I believe it was #17. Would love to see some memorabilia..
I was there the night Eddie Coffin died. He went over the first turn. I was 10 years old. I believe that it happened in 1964. Never did know why he wrecked...until now. No one else touched him. He just went up and over that first turn for , until now, no apparent reason. Does anyone know what the cause of death was? I've always guessed he hit something after he went over the turn but never heard anything on that score.
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