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History Bring Out Yer Board Track Pics!

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by miller91, May 16, 2009.

  1. miller91
    Joined: Dec 7, 2008
    Posts: 542

    miller91
    Member

    Time to celebrate with a board track specific thread...this era in American racing history still needs some light shed on what must have been a spectacle. My Great Uncle spoke of attending races at the Rockingham Boards in Salem New Hampshire between '25-'29. I'll get it started...
     
  2. miller91
    Joined: Dec 7, 2008
    Posts: 542

    miller91
    Member

  3. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
    Member

    WELCOME TO THE HAMB !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Personally I'm giving you a pass for not posting an intro, GREAT photos, you'll fit in here just fine. How about all the paperwork for being an original investor in The Atlantic City Moror Speedway? Someone should write a book. Best wishes, Bob
     

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  4. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
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    Attached Files:

    Last edited: May 16, 2009

  5. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
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  6. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
    Member

  7. Little Wing
    Joined: Nov 25, 2005
    Posts: 7,505

    Little Wing
    Member
    from Northeast

    are there any board tracks left anywhere ?
     
  8. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
    Member

  9. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
    Member

  10. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
    Member

  11. Zookeeper
    Joined: Aug 30, 2006
    Posts: 1,042

    Zookeeper
    Member

    Wow! Great pics!! I honestly never knew they raced cars on board tracks, but I've read lots of stuff on bikes on the boards. Seems as though the bikes were very, very fast with not a whole lot of thought given to brakes, etc.
     
  12. Ruiner
    Joined: May 17, 2004
    Posts: 4,141

    Ruiner
    Member

    Good Lord that's a LOT of wood!...and there's quite a bit of lumber in the pics too...hahaha...
     
  13. Rootie Kazoootie
    Joined: Nov 27, 2006
    Posts: 8,134

    Rootie Kazoootie
    Member
    from Colorado

    Jimmy Murphy, Eddie O'Donnell and friends 1920.
     

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  14. The Brudwich
    Joined: Oct 3, 2005
    Posts: 788

    The Brudwich
    Member

    Great Pics! Thanks for sharing them
     
  15. Muttley
    Joined: Nov 30, 2003
    Posts: 18,500

    Muttley
    Member

    They knew even way back then:

    [​IMG]
     
  16. JokerJ
    Joined: Oct 11, 2003
    Posts: 93

    JokerJ
    Member
    from Hobergs

    From the vibrant imagination of Robt. Williams
     

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  17. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
    Member

    I doubt it, they had a life span of well under 10 years. Miami Fulford had ONE race and a tornado blew it away. :eek: The Atlantic City track was built with 4,500,000 feet of lumber that cost $185,000.00 in 1926, total cost to build it was $425,000.00.
     
  18. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,344

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    Perhaps TRJ should do a book on this subject? Gary
     
  19. gnichols
    Joined: Mar 6, 2008
    Posts: 11,344

    gnichols
    Member
    from Tampa, FL

    My new screen saver! Gary
     
  20. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
    Member

    Charlotte Speedway opened on October 25 1924, that was ALL WOOD.
     

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  21. joebuick
    Joined: Nov 9, 2007
    Posts: 584

    joebuick
    Member

    i heard they stopped board track racing because a spectators was leaning over the rail to get a better look and was decapitated by a passing motorcycle. i wish i could think of the exact source of that and confirm it, i know it was something on the history channel a couple of years ago, maybe modern marvels.
     
  22. tubman
    Joined: May 16, 2007
    Posts: 6,913

    tubman
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    There was a great article on board tracks in Automobile Quarterly about 35-40 years ago.:) They were mostly built by a couple of guys named Art Pillsbury and Jack Prince. You can see in the one picture (under construction) that they were made by laying the boards on edge. The early tracks that were built that way were pretty good, even though the article said that they started deteriorating as soon as they were finished; they required a lot of mainteneance. What killed them off is that, toward the end of the era, they started building them by laying the boards flat to save money.:eek: Those things were virtual death traps because of their flimsy construction.:(
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2009
  23. Rootie Kazoootie
    Joined: Nov 27, 2006
    Posts: 8,134

    Rootie Kazoootie
    Member
    from Colorado

    Quite a few board tracks through the teens-20s, most were closer to the two coasts it seems.

    Playa Del Rey, CA 1.0 mile 1910-1913
    Elmhurst, CA 0.5mile 1911-1913
    Chicago, IL (maywood) 2.0 miles 1915-1917
    Des Moines,IA 1.0 mile 1915-1917
    Omaha,NE 1.25 miles 1915-1917
    Brooklyn,NY (Sheepshead Bay) 2.0 miles 1915-1919
    Uniontown, PA 1.125 miles 1916-1922
    Cincinnati, OH 2.0 miles 1916-1919
    Tacoma, WA 2.0 miles 1915-1921
    Beverly Hills, CA 1.25 miles 1920-1924
    Fresno, CA 1.0 mile 1920-1927
    San Carlos, CA 1.25 miles 1921-1922
    Coati,CA 1.25 miles 1921-1922
    Kansas City, MO 1.25 miles 1922-1924
    Altoona, PA 1.25 miles 1923-1931
    Charolette, NC 1.25 miles 1924-1927
    Culver City, CA 1.25 miles 1924-1927
    Salem, NH (Rockingham) 1.25 miles 1925-1927
    Laurel, MD 1.125 miles 1925-1926
    MIami, FL (Fulford-by-the-Sea) 1.25 miles 1926-1927
    Amatol, NJ (Atlantic City) 1.5 miles 1926-1928
    Woodbridge, NJ 0.5 mile 1929-1931
    Akron , OH 0.5 mile (no dates)
    Bridgeville, PA 0.5 mile (no dates)
     
  24. six pack to go
    Joined: Aug 2, 2008
    Posts: 1,938

    six pack to go
    Member
    from new jersey

    Awesome thread, MORE PLEASE!
     
  25. Rootie Kazoootie
    Joined: Nov 27, 2006
    Posts: 8,134

    Rootie Kazoootie
    Member
    from Colorado

  26. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
    Member

    When the tracks started to fall into disrepair several things happened. Loose boards allowed kids to pop there head up to watch oncoming cars, like todays NASCAR "Digger" camera shots. Emagine what that sight was like for a driver, human head on the track in front of him! That and the cigar size splinters that once they hit you in the forhead mushroomed against your skull.
     
  27. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
    Member

    Thanks Rootie! Those photos may be from the Inagural Opening race on July 11, 1925 official name of the track was Baltimore-Washington Speedway, in Laurel, Md. Car #12 is Pete DePaolo in a Duesenberg car #23 is Wade Morton in another Duesenberg. I couldn't read any other numbers, if you can I can ID them from the program.
     

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  28. Levis Classic
    Joined: Oct 7, 2003
    Posts: 4,066

    Levis Classic
    Member

    A great, great post. Amazing feats of engineering to build these tracks.
     

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    Last edited: May 16, 2009
  29. pacemaker
    Joined: Feb 26, 2007
    Posts: 153

    pacemaker
    Member

    Ditto. Great thread. Amazing structures, more amazing feats of speed.
    Best i can recall there was a bad motorcycle crash at a boardtrack in Newark, NJ that was the beginning of the end. Spectator casualties. The whole phenomenon was short lived. Better historians can fill in.
     
  30. The37Kid
    Joined: Apr 30, 2004
    Posts: 30,627

    The37Kid
    Member

    I read that a few years ago, really terrable 10-12 people were killed. The Joe Boyer wreck was awful, killed him a few months after he won INDY.
     

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