Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Getting Dirty in the Devil's Bowl Continue reading the Original Blog Post
My first trip to the Bowl was in 1967, saw Shady McWorter win a 75 lap race. Still go back every year, great racing.
There's a Devil's Bowl Speedway in Vermont. Used to go there with my Dad in the late 50's early 60's, those were the Days!
There were a lot of fun, about 1:20 mark a car looses the right front wheel and some one hits it. It was not unusual that a car lost the right front going in turn 3 the spindle broke, that's why the people in the stands were standing so they could dodge the wheel. They use to have rollover contest on the front straight away. The pit entrance originally was in the entrance to turn 3 but too many race cars wound up entering the parking lot damaging spectators cars so they moved it to the middle of the back straight away. There is a ledge about half way up the wall between turn 3 and 4 where cars would land sometimes. Devils Bowl was built in a old rock quarry, off loop 12 now it's all apartment.
We lived close to the original Devils Bowl location in East Dallas off of Buckner Blvd. from '59 to '61. We would ride our bicycles over and sneak in and hide in the trees on the backstretch and watch the races. Had to be home by 9:00 but I would stay awake half the night listening to the engines. Devils Bowl moved out east of Mesquite in '67 or '68. Last time I was there was about '70.
Original Devil's Bowl was on John West Road a short distance west from Buckner Blvd. It's on Lawson Road in Mesquite now. My first wife was one of Lee Coleman's blonde twin daughters. Lee always thought I married his daughter to drive his sprint car. He was wrong. His other daughter married a Holman-Moody guy from Troy, North Carolina. I was not competitive with Lee's other main drivers James McElreath and Johnny Rutherford. ETA Lee Coleman was first to keep Chevrolet 400ci small block engines from blowing head gaskets between cylinders. Cyd Czekaj got Franz Weiss to show us how. Cut grooves in deck and O-ring all cylinders. I never thought I would get finished hammering beryllium-copper wire into those damn grooves.
Thanx for the awesome video, love that ol time racing, especially with ohv motors. I see a full size Cadillac in one race, coolsville!!
There was a 250 cubic inch rule V8 ohv and flatheads and 6 cylingerd 300 cubic inches. Frank Riley ran a International 6 and it had a different sound than anything else. There was a mess of 241 Red Ram Dodges and some 265 chevys claiming to be destroked to the 250 cubic inch limit. Shady owned a transmission shop Shady's Hydromatic services, in Ft. Worth. Gordon Woolley, Johnny Rutherford, James McReath all ran at the bowl. There was another place they raced on Saturday nights at Fair Park but they were mostly the fat fender cars, we called them jalopy races. I would ride the trolley down to Fair park to watch them and had to catch the last trolley home. In the spring they ran Devils Bowl on Sunday afternoon till the weather warmed up then they went to Friday night.
When I lived in Texas in the 70's I worked at JT Carpenter automotive for a couple of years. JT was in his 60's then but took his son in law's modified to the Devil's Bowl when Robert Prior had other commitments and set the track record with it. I never made it up there from Mcgregor/Waco but had a lot of friends who went up there pretty regularly.
Thanks @Jive-Bomber ...Great footage...and yeah the oval demo derby...it definitely accounted for some limiting of the availability of projects today...There are always vehicles that stand out amongst the crowd in that racing...by that I mean custom touches that add individuality...
The old Devils Bowl on John West was actually run out of Dallas because of the noise, that is when they moved to Mesquite. On race night you could hear the engine noise for miles all over the White Rock area.The old track at Fair Park was at one time also called the Devils Bowl. I have very fond memories of setting in those stands and watching the quarter midgets run at the Fair Grounds. The local Masonic Lodge and the Shriners would hold a midget race every year. I believe that was the first time I ever saw a V8 60. Great times.
The Jalopy Journal
