Where was your first race you attended, and —--

[JimBo]

Fair Park Speedway in Dallas Texas. My dad took us to the Jalopy races in the late 50’s. I was 4 or 5 years old but i was hooked from then on. Dad loved drag races so we went to the drags every year at Green Valley Raceway. Family moved to Tulsa in 1969 and that is when we started going every Saturday night to the fair grounds to see the Super Modifieds which morphed into sprint cars. We would also go to Muskogee where they ran Late Models.

[Danimal67x]

mid 70's Heidelberg Speedway in Pa.
wrote a school report in 4th grade on a wreck that happened in front of our seats between Larry (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)son and Greg Weld.. left the rear from one of the sprint cars hanging from top of the fence.
other than that I have a distant memory of red lights and screaming after the bleachers collapsed at the old Greater Pitt Speedway near my house in Clinton,Pa.
but its just a glimpse of that horrible moment.
something no matter the age you would never forget.

[Dirt Clod]

[QUOTE=CIRF;n1693240]

1967 or 68
11 or 12

Mazon Speed Bowl, Mazon, IL
Ray Young & Lee Schuler

Fairbury, IL
Larry "Boom Boom" Cannon - midgets called rails
Jack Tyne - 8-cylinder stock cars
[/QUOTE

The open wheel cars that were the top division at Fairbury in '67-'68 were not midgets. They were what was generally known at the time as super modified's. At Fairbury, for whatever reason, they were referred to as rail-cars. Some were actually sprint cars. For instance, the #B4, owned by Wink Bridges, crew chiefed by Unc Blacker and driven by Danville, IL residents Larry Cannon and Norman "Bubby" Jones was in fact a full house sprint car. Several others including Jerry Blundy, Bobby Carrigan and Dean Shirley also ran genuine sprint cars. Most of the local guys, including Jack Tyne of Streator, IL, drove home built super modified's. Jack Tyne didn't drive stock cars at FALS until Fairbury eliminated the "rail cars"/super modifieds/sprint cars following the 1970 season.

Midgets were raced at FALS semi-regularly after WW II when the 1/5th mile track was built in 1946 but during the late 1950's through the 1970 season the V-8 powered rail cars/super modified's/sprint cars were the top division with pure stock and modified stock cars were the support classes. Later years midgets made yearly appearances at FALS generally during the Fairbury Fair.

I'll bet you and my dad crossed paths at Fairbury back in '67 or '68. Dad says he didn't miss many summer Saturday nights at FALS in those days.

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't think they were called midgets back in those days. I forgot about the super modified term. Guess I was trying to explain Fairbury's early days of open wheel racing. I remember the B4 car getting towed by a Lincoln, which was confirmed by someone on Facebook. He mentioned the same owner Wink and crew chief Unc.

I knew it was around 1970 when the open wheel "rails" went away. I asked a USAC owner about the term "rails" and he said it was because of the rail frames that were the chassis back then. Sounds reasonable to me.

Stock cars were simple back then, 8 and 6 cylinders. I remember the classic battles that Jack Tyne had with Bob Shell. Being from Streator I was really lucky that my friend's parents started taking me to Fairbury and Mazon. Those fairgrounds tracks were legendary. I may never have gotten the racing bug had it not been for them. Kudos to your dad for being such a Fairbury loyal fan back in the day. It was truly the thing to do on a Saturday night, sitting under that legendary fairgrounds grandstand with the roof. Same with Mazon on Friday night.

Thanks again.

[pierceFAN]

Kankakee speedway 1969. Driver Bill Bonams (sp) broke an axle and wheel and axle went bouncing all over. I was 5 and thought that was the coolest thing ever lol

[slmcrewchief99]

Friday night at Redfield Speedway in Redfield AR and Saturday night at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock AR. It was 1970 and I was a 5. I can still remember the figure 8 races Friday night and the Sprint cars on Saturday night. Somewhere I have a picture of me sitting in a sprint car of a guy that worked for my Grandpa. I've been hooked ever since.

[d-glenn]

1951
BIR -- Birmingham
Freddy Fryer
Fireball Roberts

[Snake X3]

In 1968 my Dad took me to an Indy car race at Langhorne Speedway, Pa. I was 9 years old. Things were a lot different back then as the fans were allowed in the pits after the races. I got to sit in Bobby Unser's #3 Rislone sponsored car. He had just won The Indy 500 a few weeks before with the same car. I have been a race fan ever since.

That is so frickin' cool. That '68 Indy was the first race I remember. I listened to it on the radio with my father, a tradition that lasted until his passing in 2002. I was a fan of Bobby Unser until he retired. I loved that #3 he ran in '68. It was my second fav of his after the #6, #8 and #48 schemes he ran in the 70s.

My first race was also 1968 at Flemington, NJ to watch what is now the Big Blocks. I was 7. I don't know that anyone that ran that night ever made it nationally. Sammy Beavers won in the #43 car owned by Jimmy Horton. Stan Poloski ran the #24 that was later driver by Billy Pauch. There were a lot of famous Big Block names that ran there every week, but anyone that would be familiar to Late Model fans like Barefoot Bob didn't come along until much later.

[BTExpress]

That is so frickin' cool. That '68 Indy was the first race I remember. I listened to it on the radio with my father, a tradition that lasted until his passing in 2002. I was a fan of Bobby Unser until he retired. I loved that #3 he ran in '68. It was my second fav of his after the #6, #8 and #48 schemes he ran in the 70s.

My first race was also 1968 at Flemington, NJ to watch what is now the Big Blocks. I was 7. I don't know that anyone that ran that night ever made it nationally. Sammy Beavers won in the #43 car owned by Jimmy Horton. Stan Poloski ran the #24 that was later driver by Billy Pauch. There were a lot of famous Big Block names that ran there every week, but anyone that would be familiar to Late Model fans like Barefoot Bob didn't come along until much later.

Our paths are similar. After attending the Indy car race at Langhorne in 1968, my Dad started to take me to the Modified races in the mid 70's. We went to East Windsor Speedway and Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey as we lived in between both tracks, with an occasional visit to Flemington. Sammy Beavers & Stan Poloski were the big winners at the time. Even Buzze Reutimann (stilling racing UMP Modifieds in Florida at 84 years old).would come up from Florida in the summer to race at those tracks. Billy Pauch, Jimmy Horton, Brett Hearn, Frank Cozze and Doug Hoffman were all just getting started, and all would become Big Block Modified legends. Good memories.

[chathamracefan]

My dad raced at Quincy Raceways in Quincy IL starting in the 2nd year of the track (like 1976 or so). I would have been 4 or 5. In those early years the most famous guy that raced there weekly was late model standout Steve Fraise & occasionally a very young Mike Wallace.

[d-glenn]

BIR -- Birmingham, AL
1951

[Snake X3]

Our paths are similar. After attending the Indy car race at Langhorne in 1968, my Dad started to take me to the Modified races in the mid 70's. We went to East Windsor Speedway and Bridgeport Speedway in New Jersey as we lived in between both tracks, with an occasional visit to Flemington. Sammy Beavers & Stan Poloski were the big winners at the time. Even Buzze Reutimann (stilling racing UMP Modifieds in Florida at 84 years old).would come up from Florida in the summer to race at those tracks. Billy Pauch, Jimmy Horton, Brett Hearn, Frank Cozze and Doug Hoffman were all just getting started, and all would become Big Block Modified legends. Good memories.

Oh yeah! I saw Buzzie race at Flemington at least once. It might have been the big 100 lapper they ran every year. There are a lot of guys you left off that list, which is not surprising because the list goes on and on. Billy Osmund, Oliver Butler (was not a fan), Gerald Chamberlin (also not a fan), Al Tasnady (great champ from the 50s, but I saw him at that first race), Fritz Epright, Mike Grbac and (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) Havens...too many to mention. Sammy Beavers was my favorite driver. I actually dated his daughter a couple of times. Sammy made it very clear what time she was to be home...very intimidating...handshake nearly broke bones.

There is a lot of good stuff on the web about Flemington. I'm glad to see they are still keeping the memory of the track alive. I had posted a video on here a while back from the track.

I never got to Bridgeport. My father used to go, but once my brother and I got old enough to go to races, he kept it close to home. I used to go to East Windsor from time to time, especially after they paved Flemington. That was a sad day. Used to go to Wall Stadium which was close to my grandfather's place to see the modifieds when we were down there.

Did you ever get to go to Trenton or Pocono for Indy races? I never got to Trenton, but would always go to Pocono for the Indy cars and NASCAR races.

[BTExpress]

I went to Trenton once with my Dad as a kid and saw the last Indy Car race with my son at Pocono. It was tough to see the Indy cars from the Grandstands on the front strech as the cars sat so low, but the speeds were unbelievable.

[over4T]

Beginning of the '50s my folks took me to the jalopy races at a small dirt track carved in a local farmer's field. Fence was two horizontal cables strung between tree trunks buried in the midwest black dirt, no grandstands, no lights. People sat on their car hoods or back of their pickups to watch. 'Bout as crude a joint as ever was. Folks weren't race fans but knew I, at 9 or 10, was already obsessed with anything with wheels and an engine. Don't know if the track even had a name but it was in a small summer vacation town in NE Ohio called Geneva-on-the-Lake just a few minutes from our then home. Early in the show while sitting on the hood of our Oldsmobile one of the cars lost a wheel which came over or through the "fence" and darned near took my Mom's head off. Fortunately, it didn't touch her but that pretty much killed any possibility of them ever becoming fans. I did get to race there once in '56 or '57 when I was 14 or 15 and talked two visiting college girls out of their '46 Ford coupe, a very nice little street car. Took off the hubcaps, tied the doors shut, taped up the headlights, "borrowed" the seat belt from my Dad's Stinson, a football helmet and no roll bars and went out and beat the crap out of that poor car. Still feel bad about it till this day. The next, and only other, time they attended a circle track was 50 years later when they came to watch me in a LM at our local dirt track in Grass Valley, CA after I'd been racing for some 45 years. They left after our main.

[Snake X3]

I went to Trenton once with my Dad as a kid and saw the last Indy Car race with my son at Pocono. It was tough to see the Indy cars from the Grandstands on the front strech as the cars sat so low, but the speeds were unbelievable.

I always sat in turn 1. The only time I was in the grandstands was during qualifying for a NASCAR race. I'm not sure of the year, but it was probably early 90s.

That's really cool that you got to go to Trenton. I asked my father a few times if we could go, but I forget why we didn't. I used to sim race on that track. It was am awesome track. Very tough to drive. Do you remember where you sat or the year you went?