History NW WA dirt track races 1950- pre and Early Skagit Speedway

My dad grew up around racecars


heres from left to right My Grandfather Rollie , then Uncle Jim, Then Uncle Cal, then my dad George, this picture is of a Hudson powered "speedwagon" my Uncle Jim had Built with the help of Mike New





this is the car before the finished stge without the rear sheetmetal and with wire wheels at point roberts WA at the horse track in 1950



Jim ended up in the fence






heres the car a couple years later








heres the local paper
























Ill post up some more History as I get it ,I hope this thread can bring out some of the early history of racing in my area, pre skagit and early Skagit speedway,

uncle Jim was one of the original owners of Skagit Speed in Alger Washington, him and I think it was 8 or 12 guys pooled together and bought the land I think in 53 or 54 , there first race was in 1954 and Jim Raper my uncle held the track Record the first few years, Jim had 3 cars, the first was a overhead reworked Model T powered car on a dodge? frame, the second car was the one in the pictures, a willeys frame and axles with a hudson hornet engine, and the 3rd car was a coupe with a 270 GMC engine , I have a pic of the T I just need to find it, I have no pics of the coupe, all 3 cars had the number 13 and were painted John Deer green with Catipillar yellow letters, if anyone reading this has history or pictures of my uncle or any of the early skagit area races from the early days say 1948-75 please post it of PM me, of email at [email protected]

 

Very interesting pics, thanks. The Nesbitt Rebuilt Motors, as shown on the car in the article, would that be any connection to Rick Nesbitt? I remember visiting his engine shop in Bellingham, good guy.

 

Yes Nesbitts was a engine Machine shop that was in Bellingham for many years, not sure when it shut down but I can remember 20 yrs ago they were still in town, just down from Herfy's drivein which is not there anymore either

 

I remember being there once and Rick Nesbitt was a "big" guy, but his bill collector was there and made him look small! Oh, and I'm 6'2" and 300 lbs.

 

I got the Speedwagon last summer from a older guy in Skagit county, he knew the history of the car and had wanted to restore it , well I got it from him and here it is, I would like to know what all the parts are from, the cowl and doors Im not sure on , they dont look ford, Dad says the frame is a willys, if so what year? theres a tag on the frame I took a image of,the rear looks like a narrowed car hood, not sure on the make? the dash has a hudson guage but it looks like that was carved to fit as the engine was a hudson, the car was built in 1950

 

fuck i wish there was a circle track close by in washington we could have fun in

 

That is SO cool! And you found the car!

 

Nice find! This is a perfect example of what AACA wants for "Certified Race Cars". You have the car and photos, and a shot of it racing.You could restore this car and have it on the show field at Hershey. Sure, it isn't a MILLER or Kurtis Offy, but it is a piece of American Racing History. Best wishes for the rebuild. Bob

 

Cool piece of NW racing history.

 

wanted to bring this back up, still lookin for early Skagit speedway history, and this car history

 

I helped build Skagit. I think it was 16 drivers that purchased and built the speedway and Jim Raper, a dear friend, did all the blade work. I was just a young man and did a lot of pick and shovel work in the stand area. Prior to Skagit we raced at the Hannigan Motorcycle Track north of Bellingham and prior to that the horse track at Pioneer Park in Ferndale.
Jim ran a yellow and green coupe that I always thought was a Plymouth but he ran a 6 cylinder Hudson and the car was #13. We (Bub Scrimsher) ran a '27 T roadster with a Hudson straight 8 and were very competitive with Jim. The T was black with a big 8 painted in white on it.
I do remember the Nesbitt sponsor and kind of the shop. These were my days!
Mike

 

Great story, and you got the car back!

 

Mike

that's awesome ! wouldn't happen to have a few pictures from back then?

 

I sure wish that I had pictures. I have some great mental images tho.
Jed Davis was the flagman and could nearly, or so it seemed jump over the hood of the winning car. I remember the pickup he bought in 1956. It was a brand new Ford F-100 baby blue in color and he hauled a lot of our spare parts like wheels and tires and the such and we flat towed the T with a '38 Chevy 2 door sedan.
About that time we built a '34 5 window coupe numbered 180 but we mainly ran it on the asphalt in Canada. Bub also had a driver about this time for the roadster and I think his name was Glen Harden and he had a '54 Pontiac hardtop but he didn't stay on long. Also had a driver for the '34 but after we welded the rear gears up and he went straight through the fence in Langley he didn't drive for us anymore.
Jim Raper was a prince of a guy and I remember his little house along side the highway at Deming. Of course us Hudson guys had to stick together.
I think another owner was Harold Bitler from Skagit County. The last time I saw the track was 1968 as I had been gone sine '58 and Harold was running an overhead cam Pontiac 6 and killing the small block Chevy's that I think were limited to 300 inches at the time but the times weren't much faster than when we first ran with the Hudson's
Mike

 

That's some cool history. Thanks for sharing and good luck with the car.
Tom

 

found this I wanted to share





mentions Gerald Metzger, that's my Uncles Brother

 

I love these types of threads... keep digging up the cool history.

 

Wow! What year was his clipping from. Brings back a lot of memories.
When we would spin out the rail on the inside of the horse track would get destroyed and probably one of the main reasons we went to the motorcycle track later on.
What a great time that was.
Mike

 

The clipping is from June 15, 1952, Bellingham Herald.

More of the same can be found at:

http://befastpast.blogspot.ca/search/label/1952

 

Man, I just love it when the story keeps going full circle. My favorite pix were of the crew in front of the car (at first I thought the guy in white must have been the driver! He's just too clean) and the other photo of the car under and outside the fence (a breakthrough year!). Best luck getting it all back together. Gary

 

There is.

 

more Skagit first Year 1954

 

found another Racer my Uncle Jim had, dad says it had a truck GMC straight 6 in it loads of torque, and was the 3rd and last car Jim had , can any ID the body and frame for me?

 

finally getting back on this
see it?

 

Ok, where did all the great images go? Gary

 

I worked for Nesbit Auto Parts through the sixties, knew Jim Raper pretty well, and worked on a few of his motors, I didn't work on the Hudsons, but I was very familiar with the 270 Jimmy and later 277 Plymouth V-8. Then Jim got hurt about 1969, didn't race any more. Also knew some other guys, Art Hillestad, Don Raymond, Jerry, can't remember his last name#10 car, Lemleys, Probably a dozen or more I can't remember right now. Another old race fan sent me some pictures of racing at Kentucky Street in Bellingham, that was between Ferndale and Skagit, trying to figure how to move them from Email to here. Jim R. is in one pic and Harry Weatherby's wrecker also. Dave S. from Bellingham

 

Dave, save the photos to your computer from the Email and then click on upload in the area where you type your post. I don't know those names, but spent several Sunday nights at the Speedway on 99 south of Seattle. watching the circle track racers before catching the ferry back to Bainbridge after a weekend with my dad in the late 50's early 60's.

 

Used to be a speedway in North Seattle on Hwy 99, just north of the cemetery's/wrecking yards, became a mall, mall's now gone, and there are now apartments. That track was there in the 40's/early 50's. Used to also be a dirt track in Monroe, Sky Valley Speedway, now there are shopping centers, and a movie theater there. They used to race jalopy's that you got into through a cut out roof; the doors were welded shut. A former drag race partner of mine, used to circle track race, and told me the story of a jalopy that rolled at Sky Valley. The drivers "helmet" was bouncing down the track, and an official was chasing it down, when some other officials started yelling at him to stop, but he did't. Seems there was a head in the helmet from the rollover, and the roof opening had decapitated the driver. Sky Valley Speedway is not Evergreen Speedway, but was only a few miles up Hwy 2 from Evergreen. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

The old head in a helmet story. Not busting balls but every track has the same one. Remember hearing this a Skagit Speedway.