Remember the GREEN MAMBA. Sadly the driver crashed and died here just a few yrs ago. His first crash many yrs ago he messed up both of his legs but he rebuilt car and continued on to many race tracks.
Printable View
Remember the GREEN MAMBA. Sadly the driver crashed and died here just a few yrs ago. His first crash many yrs ago he messed up both of his legs but he rebuilt car and continued on to many race tracks.
Remember the Decatur, AL speedway, back in the early 60's? Construction of I-65 got part of it and the owners closed it. It was locater in the SE corner of I-65 and I-565.
Remember Bureau Speedway in Princeton Il. ?
How about Bluegrass Speedway in Bluegrass, Ia... Wapello Speedway in Wapello, Ia
Went to 3 or 4 shows over at Bluegrass. Not positive but they may have been Summernational's events.
I particularly remember one night Chargin' Charlie Swartz rolling into Bluegrass late, unloaded the car and they allowed him to run his qualifying laps. The backstretch was so rough that the cars were jumping all 4 off the ground. Ol' Charlie loaded up and pulled out.
Bluegrass made a big deal out of their track watering system. IIRC it was plumbed to shoot water onto the track from the outside retaining wall. Wasn't our favorite track but was sad to see it go away, nonetheless.
I was involved with a dirt late model back when Bureau County was running regularly. It was bad, nasty fast and was very hard on engines! Tommy Rients and Ray Guss Jr. put on some epic racing at Princeton.
On a side note, I believe it was at Princeton I last watched Don Bohlander drive a race car. RIP Don...............
The watering system always leaked in turn 3 (the grandstands were on the backside). I remember my best friends dad 'mooning' the promotor because of a call on track (call that went my way, not his). Promotor was so mad that he rolled me across the scales after the race without looking at my weight-good thing as I would have been light).
Remember Speedway Park......they had a fair amount of nascar races back in the day!
Petty, Pearson, Jarrett, Turner , and Farmer raced there regularly!
Probly best known for Wendell Scotts only cup win!
Remember when East Bay was a fish farm,an we watched them race at the fairgrounds
Great memory, GA! East Bay was already built (1977) and in use when we last were at the Florida State Fairgrounds for racing but we attended a USAC Silver Crown/WoO's Sprint Car show one of the last years prior to it being done away with. It was a great place to watch a race!
Remember when we all used to get a database error? Yea it still happens every now and then
Never seen a race at the Florida State Fairgrounds but in 1993 we attended an NHL game there. The races that night were canceled so we went to see our Minnesota North Stars shutout the expansion Tampa Bay Lightning 1-0. In 2001, we went to see the Minnesota Wild beat Tampa 4-2 and then hustled to catch the last hour of the show at East Bay. Good times.
Remember before 4m, or social media fir that matter, sitting in the stands and striking up a conversation with a stranger before hotlaps about who you thought would be at the race, what races they had seen through the summer, who was was doing well ext.
There's always been some kind of chat forums for racing since the early to mid 90's. The only thing is that there wasn't a way to access it on a mobile device easily or even at all. So information wasn't coming in and out as fast and up to date as you can get it now
My dad and I were on business one weekend in Tampa in the mid 80's and went to the races at the fairgrounds one Friday night. They ran 7 classes of cars and were back in our hotel room by 11. Great racing and great organization.When the cars entered the track from turn 2 they received the green flag coming outa 4. They wasted no time there!
Most promoters should take note!
I had a "remember when" moment this week. Another one of the original crewmen from when my cousin first started racing in the 90's passed away this week. RIP to Jimmy. He passed away at age 62. I work with his son and son-in-law,and his former brother-in-law is a former coworker as well. Sad deal. Lost one of the crew a few years back way too early also.
We raced at Mt. Ida,Arkansas at the defunct Lake Ouachita/Arkansas Raceway Park speedway,and Orchard Park/Diamond Park Speedway between Murfreesboro,and Nashville,Arkansas. Mt. Ida was as slick as it gets. They used the dirt from the track in a passing lane project on US 270 between there and Hot Springs. Diamond Park is still open. Could be the best track in the world with just minor changes. For real.
The first track that opened here was Thunder Mountain in Hopper,Arkansas. My cousin did race there,but it was a few years after it opened and in a mod instead of a limited late model. The track was by a hog farm. It was not good in the Summer if the wind was blowing from that direction.
We towed the racecar with a Chevy step van we called the "Bread Wagon" because it was an old Ideal bread truck. It was a 292 with a 3 on the tree that my cousin's dad bought for the team. Stepped up to a newer model with a 350 and automatic later on. Open trailer of course. My Dad's best friend owned the car. We had a lot of fun,and it was like a big family. Unfortunately,we all aren't as close as we used to be for whatever reasons.