Best Racetrack Memory as a child?

[latemodelman]

With Christmas around the corner what was your best memory as a Child? I will start. Mine had to be when I was about 10 years old and my 8 year old brother and I and my Dad went to Eldora and got to see the ALMS guys run over Labor Day but one special memory was earlier that year at a Family Fun Night getting to meet Jack Hewitt. My dad took us to alot of races and we went to ARCA races and all over. Sounds funny but when I think of times with my Dad at the track it brings back warm memories and now I am making memories with my son.

[ZERO25]

I have a ton as my uncle was a very successful dirt racer in the Southeast and my dad was his crewchief and also worked for Ray Fox on his Cup team! I have many memories of being at dirt tracks and in the pits at Cup races!

But my fondest memory is standing in the flagstand at Ocala Speedway, with my dad, as he was the flagman at that time.

[BTExpress]

My very first race was as a 9 year old. I went to Langhorne Speedway in 1968 with my Father, Uncle and cousins to see the Indy Cars race. The highlight was going in the pits after the races, and sitting in Bobby Unser's #3 which weeks earlier had won The Indianapolis 500....fell in love with racing that day and have been going every since.

[Josh Bayko]

The first time I was ever at SDW in Syracuse as a child. I was 11 or 12, and I was simply in awe.

[Morgs153]

I don't even remember my first race, but just about anytime I got to go as a child it was great, if my folks didn't take me, I had an uncle who did. For the next several days after going to the race me and my friends would find a place to race our bikes pretending to be stock car racers. Who didn't do that?

The first time I went to the Milwaukee Mile was memorable. It was during the Wis State Fair so the atmosphere was great for a kid. When I got in the grandstands and seen the size of the track I thought the place was huge. My frame of reference at the time was 1/3 and 1/4 mile tracks. I still remember Ramo Stott winning that USAC race.

[Late_Model_Mark]

Ascot Park as far as dirt goes, place was epic.



Late Model Mark
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[84wedge]

1983, I was 4 years old, The first time I saw a wedge era late model come over the banking onto the track I was hooked.

[go2fast]

the old track in springfield mo watching larry phillips mark martin rusty wallace in the mid 70's

[NeedforLM$peed]

There was a guy who won the mod feature. And he absolutely dominated it. He'd come off turn two and get the rr tire just over the berm and throw up a rooster tail of dirt. After the race was over he come up on the front stretch for pictures and when he got out and took his helmet off it wasnt who was suppose to be driving the car. It was his brother who raced in another division. Moral of the story he was Dq'ed. lol

[BHinBC]

Waiting after the race to ride with Duvall (or whoever was giving rides but Duvall was my favorite). Metrolina speedway, best French fries anywhere but we didn’t always go there. When my dad owned a car stopping at 66 drive-in in Bessemer City NC for late night breakfast on the way home. So much I remember. Miss them times.

[dirtcrazy4u]

My best memory was of my dad's driver sitting at the kitchen table going over plans on what to build for the next season. They were drawing and making remarks that a little guy could never understand. Going to tracks such as heidleberg and south park in western pa. I'd get to sit in the car the next day still smelling like nothing I ever smelled before and I loved it. My mother told me one time, one of my dad's finer moments was when (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) Linder drove my dad's car at heidleberg and won in it. He climbed out and told him he had built a good car. Mom always said he was proud of that moment.

[EvelB7]

Probably racing against my father for the first few years of my career, then having my dad qualify a backup car at a race just a few months before he passed away. He hadn't been in a car in over 10 years, made the show (not a big race, but quite a few local good cars went home). We didn't always get along when we ran against each other, all on me being a punk a$$ kid. He'd still be the first one at the track if he was around today....

[Barbecueboy]

Walking up the hill from the parking lot at bowman gray as a kid smelling the sweet smell of alcohol in the air, with a cooler full of moms tomato sandwiches and orange crush in the brown bottle in the trunk of our 66 comet.

[Dirt Clod]

Nice reading these posts. I'm lucky the neighbors took me with their son to see my first races. Late 60's we would go to the Mazon Speedbowl on Friday nights and the old Fairbury on Saturday nights. Both Fairgrounds tracks had covered grandstands and legendary racers. Being from Streator, IL, I was a big Jack Tyne fan. Fairbury "rails" had unique exhaust smells back in their days. Got my first Speed Sport News paper at Fairbury and I've been hooked since.

[harleysanddirt]

First memory was at the old Canton Ga speedway with my uncle and a jalopy he and friends had. Then in 69 when Dixie opened- Working all day at a little home town grocery store before i was old enough to drive - then my mom dropping me off at the track to sit with their friends. Rome, West Atlanta, Dixie, North Ga and everywhere after i got my license. Loved Buck Simmons. And ole Jody too! Hooked then -still am. Great memories. Thanks for the thread. Merry Christmas everyone

[zyoung25]

My dad sneaking me into several pit areas. He helped Strickers when Weasel Rhoads drove for them. They would hide me in the closet of the hauler to get me into the pit area until hot laps started. Then I would come out and helped keep the car clean. They would also send me over to other drivers cars to scope out the tires before the feature. Nobody thought about a 5 or 6 year old walking around their car looking at the tires.

Meeting Donnie Moran for the first time was a big one for me too.

[latemodelman]

One other one was going to the Fall Classic in 1996 at Shadybowl since my mom and dad lived 4 miles from the track. Got to meet Dale Earnhardt Jr. Got his signature and also got to see some good racing. I miss those days. Even though it was asphalt. We went every week and dad got us Pit Passes. I remember him paying $105 for 3 pit passes when Arca or a big 10,000 to win race happened. God we had fun. Now I dont blink an eye when it costs $100 for 3 of us to go to the races.

[Finnfan25]

Sitting in the stands at Lake Cumberland Motor Speedway in Burnside in 1989 at a weekly Saturday night show. There were only 8-10 late models, but a few of them were pretty decent to best of my memory. After sitting through qualifying, countless heat races in several divisions, it finally became time for the late model feature. All of a sudden several people stood up and started looking towards the incoming road that leads in from the highway to the track (past the charcoal plant for people that have been there). In rolls a tractor trailer, unmarked but the cleanest, shiniest rig I had ever seen. Of course back then NOBODY had anything like that to haul their cars. It pulled across the track to the infield pits and parked parallel to the grandstands on the front straight. The entire crowd was standing, and a buzz started growing. It might as well have been Elvis Presley arisen from the dead with the excitement in the air. The door to the trailer opened and out rolls number 18. Back then with no internet and limited news about SLM's, I had barely heard the name Scott Bloomquist. Turns out a big race somewhere in Tennessee had been rained out so he hauled @$$ to Burnside. The gave him 3-4 hot laps to the dismay of the other SLM drivers. I had never seen anything so mesmerizing as that black 18 smoothly running around that track. He started at the tail of the feature and I think was leading by lap 5 or 6 and never touched a car. He lapped the field at least once and for the final few laps it looked like he was just testing different lines and entry/exit points. I told my then date (now my wife) that "Scott Bloomquist" was a name to remember, that he had the potential to be big, lol.

[d-glenn]

I have two that stand out the most for me, both at the BIR at the Birmingham Fair Grounds in the early fifties.

1. Nero Stepto (yes, that's right, google him) he ran 23 laps of a 25 main with the left front tire and hub missing and won the race.

2. The Grand Nationals ran there and the thing I remember most was Fireball Roberts being there driving an Oldsmobile.

See y'all at East Bay...

[84wedge]

Nero Stepto? That name belongs in the favourite names thread.

[dirtluver]

Watching (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) Nelson and Jim O'connor race @ Kankakee Speedway. Another time would have to be going to Eldora for first time ( I think about 1982) First car i saw was Bob Hill coming out of turn 4 and was amazed every since. That was the fastest car i had ever saw at up till that time.

[ride height]

Watching Jeff Purvis make a mockery out of a big race at Granite in around 1987. He lapped the field, and this wasn’t a bunch of scrubs either. I never saw him before and didn’t know who he was....well he’s been my hero ever since. I’ve never seen anything like it since....it was a total beat down.

[zyoung25]

1. Nero Stepto (yes, that's right, google him) he ran 23 laps of a 25 main with the left front tire and hub missing and won the race.

Did he have lugs hanging on to the door? Probably my favorite part of stroker ace. Seeing that would be hard to forget 🤣

[4Barrel]

The Mountain Dirt Classic at Mountain Motor Speedway in Isom Kentucky in the late 1980s.

[FastEd95]

My favorite day/night attending races happened on August 19, 1978 when I was eleven years old. Got to see my two favorite late model drivers each win features that day at different tracks. Don Hoffman won the Steele County Fair 50-lapper at Owatonna, Minnesota, in the afternoon and then that same night, Mert Williams took the win at the Southern Minnesota Dirt Track Championship at Lansing, Minnesota.

[TUTY]

Bob Shryock showing up with his bus with car on the back 1/2. He would show up periodically in SW Minnesota and beat up on the local guys. I believe at my home track the last time he was there the locals took him for a ride into the wall and he never came back.

[TackyTracker]

lot's of early memories

1. The bees hovering around the garbage cans at the bottom of the santa fe grandstands and not caring
2. not knowing how lucky I was to have an awesome racetrack in my town
3. getting to see mostly the same people every Friday night we were there watching and so were they