Wonder if anyone has any picts of where Ascot in SoCal used to be...in Gardena. There were actually several Ascots in SoCal ...think that the last one closed in the '80s....I crewed Blair's sprint car there in the '60s.
in marlboro maryland was marlboro speedway, an oval for stockers and a famous road course in the sixties. abandoned as a race track 4 decades ago, i believe summit point took the races when it was new. many famous racers, sports cars, had a lot of laps here. used by state police for high speed driving training, even that ened thirty years ago or more. its for sale, only 3 million bucks! drove my surbarban a few laps, old pavement still there but with grass coming thru it drives like a dirt track. the corvette color marlboro red was named after this track, but name changed in 68 because of marlboro cigarettes.
when did we lose nazareth? i used to go there in the 80's for nascar races, busch series. god i'm getting old and irrelevent
Shangri-La Speedway, Owego NY - half mile asphalt oval that ran from 1946-2005 when the owner decided to mine it for gravel. Replaced by a new concrete oval on top of a nearby hill that's a beautiful track in the making.
This is a photo of US 30 Drag Strip, in nothern Ind, taken in 1995. I made making runs down this strip from 1966 to 1970. Also worked in the tower reading the clocks and writing time slips in 1962-63
Actually, its a Menards. I used to race at Hales. Prior to the curfew we would hang out in the pits until about midnight and then everyone would move to the parking lot, sometimes staying until the sun came up. The near by retirement/senior apartments and condos led to the noise complaints and curfew. John was looking to sell the place for a few years and Menards came along with the right $$$
Don't forget the track that's under Lake Lanier here in GA- became visible again furing the drought last year! Where exactly is this located? What town? What was the track's name? I was just at Lake Lanier last week. Maybe I'll be back there this summer.
I remember finding CenLa raceway by accident late one night in late '77 when I was in the AF in Alexandria. I saw the overgrown sign at the bottom of the driveway and decided to go check it out in my 69 Nova SS. Couldn't believe how bad the dirt road was getting up to the place! When I finally got up there you could tell it was pretty neglected, cracks in the pavement with weeds growing through them, etc. Decided to take the hot rod out for a run and almost killed myself!! Didn't realize it was an 1/8 mile track (being from NorCal I had never seen one) and had to lock it up real hard to keep from getting into the cyclone fence at the end of the track. The funniest thing was a couple of weeks later I took some of my AF buddies out there to show them the place but when we got up there, there must have been about 100 locals out there with their rides doing a little outlaw racing but let just say we didn't feel any "southern hospitality" and we hightailed it out of there. Is the oval track still there in Foresthill?
Dont forget about Alton Dragway,in Alton, Illinois.A lot of history made there...i came across this old Falcon that had these stickers on it...
First auto race on a track in the United States - Smithsonian Collection On September 7, 1896, an electric car built by the Riker Electric Motor Company wins the first auto race in the United States, at the Narragansett Trotting Park–a mile-long dirt oval at the state fairgrounds that was normally used for horse racing–in Cranston, Rhode Island. Automobile companies sponsored the race to show off their newfangled electric-, steam-, and gas-powered vehicles to an awestruck audience. The carmakers’ gimmick worked: About 60,000 fairgoers attended the event, and many more people read about it in newspapers and magazines. Seven cars entered the race. Along with the Riker Electric, there were five internal-combustion cars and one other battery-powered machine, this one built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company. The race began slowly (“Get a horse!” the spectators shouted as the automobiles wheezed at the starting line), but the Riker soon pulled ahead and won the race easily, finishing its five laps in about 15 minutes. The other electric car came in second, and a gas-powered Duryea took third. Rhode Island is probably not the first place most people think of when they think of American automobile racing, but car racing in the Ocean State actually has a rich history. That Narragansett race was only the beginning: The Cranston track drew so many spectators that cities all over the state soon built dirt ovals of their own. For its part, the original raceway got so much use that its owners had to close it in 1914 for renovations. When it reopened the next year, it was like nothing any car-racing fan had ever seen. The new track was a paved, banked “Super Speedway” designed for 100-mile races. On September 18, 1915, 50,000 people came to the first contest at the new park, where they watched the celebrity racer Eddie Rickenbacker coast to victory over a field of famous drivers in spectacular cars. Unfortunately for the Narragansett track’s investors, however, Rhode Islanders’ enthusiasm for car-racing waned as other kinds of mass entertainments grew more popular. The race track was closed in 1923. Today RI is the only state in the union with no race track
Yesterday I read a post here from a guy who, in 2008, discovered what was left of the Puyallup dragway in Puyallup, WA. Back in the seventies, that place was a hummer. I ran there; you could hear the cars from my house. I met Shirley Muldowney, Don Prudhomme, Tommy Ivo, Mongoose McEwen and Wild Bill Shrewsberry there. And a few others that I can't remember right off hand. Wild Bill had some of the damndest wheelstanders you ever saw. The one I remember best is the tank.
OKC Fairgrounds Speedway Tulsa Fairgrounds Speedwayx 2 Tulsa Speedway Thackerville, Ok Speedway Arbuckle Raceway Ardmore raceway (dirt track south of the dragstrip about a mile) Sooo many more to list for Oklahoma. Duncan, Ada x 3, Pauls Valley, many in Oklahoma City x ?, Marietta, Ringling/Healdton, Colbert, Anadarko, Quartz Mountain,Goldsby,Altus,Faxon,Ft Cobb, and those are just what i can think of right now.
SE Florida had a lot,and now only Miami Homestead nascar=don't count any way,NO ONE CAN RUN THERE WITH out ROBBING A BACK!, actully I only count ovels under 1mile as race tracks for weekend racers, we had Hialeah Speedway1/3m,Palmeto Speedway1/3m, Hollywood {older} 1/4m,and new Hollywood 1/3m,Fla.City Speedway 1/8m,Stock Inland 1/4m,Palmbeach Fairgrounds 1/2m,Vero Beach 1/3m,Melbrun 1/4m,Ft.Perces1/4,,and more I can't think of right now,.There all gone,I raced at all of them at lest one time or more,there isn't even anything to show a photo of,they are wiped from the earth
We lost mid america raceway in Wentzville Mo. Think thay are workong on building a new one at hiway 19 and I70. Hope it gets done I fill the need for speed.
Does anyone out there have any memories or pics of the drag strip in Cotati, CA back in the '60's? I remember going there a couple times as a kid. First time I ever saw a funny car, although I think it might have been a gas, not nitro car. It had a late 60's Vette body and I think the guy's last name was Mitchell. I also remember seeing a crazy shortened WB '60 Ford that was popping wheelies.
Midwest, Sunset speedway, Omaha, The dragstrip south of Millard,NE, the wood race tracks at Des Moines, IA (south of the fairgrounds) and Kansas City, KS(now the Nascar track) Cedar Rapids, IA dirt oval (behind the Walgreens)
Gainesville Speedway. Lost when Lake Lanier was filled in, 1957-58. Here are two pictures taken after the track closed, but before the lake filled up: And a few taken during the 2001-2002 drought, when the lake was down about 15 feet: From ESPN.com: "Deep beneath Lanier's surface lies Gainesville Speedway. The half-mile dirt oval at the lip of the Chattahoochee River was carved out of a cornfield in 1947 by a local named Max Looper. For 10 years, the track was a playground for the first generation of NASCAR driversregular men with regular jobs and irregularly fast cars who often trafficked moonshine into the mountains. Then, in 1957, the track was flooded by the Army Corps of Engineers to make a 500,000-acre pond that provided a booming Atlanta with precious water". The speedway was located near Laurel Park, which is located on the north end of Lake Lanier. From I-985 take exit 24 (Jesse Jewel Pkwy.) west towards Lake Lanier; take a right on Limestone Pkwy and follow until it dead ends into Hwy 129 (Cleveland Hwy); take a right on Hwy 129 and Laurel Park will be on your right just after the New Bridge Baptist Church (look for the park signs).
I was at an old stock car track a few weeks ago in Byron (Macon) Georgia. Went to a David Allen Coe concert and a Dukes of Hazzard convention. The track was used by Dodge in a comercial a few years ago. I found out that a rock concert was held there in the early 70's. There were thousands of people there, may have been as high as 50 thousand there. Now the track sits vacant. It is only about a mile from I-75. So Georgia had it's on Woodstock that featured some of the hottest acts around. Remember that the Allman Brothers were from Macon and it was the home of Capricorn records. Mike
Ky international raceway or speedway...near florence ky....looked to be a old horse track...think it only lasted a couple years in late 60's
Here in Louisville Ky. I remember the Fairgrounds Motor Speedway when I was a kid. And Louisville Motor Speedway, which is now part of United Parcel Service. May be progress to some,but I miss the tracks. I was at the track every weekend,and had a lot of friends who raced.
Kansas City-1922 The Greatest Display of Skill, Nerve, and Daring 'Million Dollar Speedway' Kansas City Speedway ,September 17, 1922, professional racecar drivers vied for a $30,000 prize in the inaugural race at the Kansas City Speedway.* Advertisements declared that the winner would exhibit the "greatest display of skill, nerve, and daring in the history of modern sport."* Its design was perhaps the best in the nation when it opened to a roaring crowd of 50,000 spectators.*In the "golden age" of automobile racing in the 1920s, the best tracks designed for top-end speed were made of wood.* The Kansas City Speedway Association accordingly constructed its speedway out of a million feet of lumber 2 x 4's, set on end and bolted together to form a 1 1/4 mile oval track.* In contrast to traditional materials (primarily brick or*dirt), the board tracks of the era allowed for very steep 45-degree banks around the curves to help the cars maintain faster speeds.*Kansas City's board track was located at 95th and*Troost, where Pratt & Whitney later built a WWII-era aircraft engine plant.* Two steel and concrete grandstands faced one another, giving the track a combined 50,000-seat capacity.* Parking lots and the infield could accommodate 20,000 cars.* State of the art technology included an electric timing device that helped track the cars' progress.* There were only about 20 board tracks in the nation, and several fans and drivers declared Kansas City's to be the best of them all.*Many nationally-famous drivers entered to compete in the first race, originally scheduled for September 16, 1922.* Among them was Cliff Durant, head of the Durant Motors Corporation, who was positive that world speed records would be set in Kansas City.* To make the event even more sensational, Durant chose to come to Kansas City by flying in a private*plane*from Oakland, California.* Spectators who gathered at a nearby airfield to greet him were disappointed to learn that the plane had crash-landed near Leavenworth, Kansas.* Fortunately, no one was injured in the crash, and Durant was still able to enter the race.Most of the other drivers and their cars arrived by more traditional means:*trains.* Starting on September 1, the six- and eight-cylinder cars sat on display at*Union Station*for several days, raising hype for the upcoming contest.* Organizers set the race at 300 miles in distance - 50 miles more than any other board track race in history.* They expected the winner to finish in less than three hours.The race was postponed one day due to rain, but on September 17, 1922, all of the preparations came to fruition.* Driver Tommy Milton won the race at an incredible average speed of 107 mph; nearly 13 mph faster than the winner of that year's Indianapolis 500; which took place at a brick track.* One accident occurred, claiming the life of Roscoe Sarles, a driver and movie star from California.* But such tragedies were not unexpected in 1920s racing, and it ultimately could not spoil the merriment.*Unfortunately, Kansas City's board track disappeared as quickly as it had stormed the professional racing scene.* Its investors were a group of local businessmen who had hoped to make great profits, but it proved difficult to recoup their $500,000 construction investment.* Only four races were held between 1922 and 1924, with the last drawing just 20,000 spectators.* Instead of blossoming into one of the nations' premier racing cities, as the builders had anticipated, Kansas City lost the sport entirely.*In just two years, the board track (made from untreated lumber) had rotted to such an extent that cars could no longer safely race on it.* The last race actually had to be cancelled when large holes appeared after the race leaders had already driven 150 miles.* Without any finances available to replace the surface, the Kansas City Speedway closed permanently in 1924.* Today there are no visible remains of the "old board track" - was at 95th & Troost http://www.kclibrary.org/?q=blog/week-kansas-city-history/greatest-display-skill-nerve-and-daring
is that the one that had a tunnel under the ticket booth leading into a moonshine operation under the infield? I remember hearing about that..lol in my area there are too many closed up tracks to mention..a few would be the former Pittsburgh International Dragway "PID",Heidelberg which is now a mall although we still race in front of the old stands and walls at PPMS. Greater Pitt is a mile from my house,closed early 70's and the 1/4 mile track itself is still there..plus many others,sad really.
Well I can add another one. Green Valley both a drag strip and a dirt round track. It was sold in Sept 2013 all 400 acres. To be made into what know one is telling at this time. I need to tell the location.. It is in the Gadsden area of Alabama.
Beeline Raceway.. North east of Mesa AZ.. You can still see the tower from the Beeline highway between Scottsdale and Payson. On a side note Speedworld in Surprise AZ can be added to the list as it has been shut down indefinitely leaving one track in the Phoenix area currently to be open hopefully.
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