CIRF-Your Top #3

[Pennsboro32]

Good read. This is why I come here. We need more of this. I enjoy my annual trip to Fairbury so much. I wish it weren't so far away. But for the past 3 years we have made the 7 1/2 trip to watch the PDC. Sadly, I don't think we're going to make it this year with everything that's going on in the world, (if they even have it, is another debate). I've enjoyed Fairbury so much that we've actually looked at houses out that way. If I could somehow swing it, there's no doubt I would be at the speedway every weekend. Enjoyed reading your thoughts, CIRF.

[CIRF]

Good read. This is why I come here. We need more of this. I enjoy my annual trip to Fairbury so much. I wish it weren't so far away. But for the past 3 years we have made the 7 1/2 trip to watch the PDC. Sadly, I don't think we're going to make it this year with everything that's going on in the world, (if they even have it, is another debate). I've enjoyed Fairbury so much that we've actually looked at houses out that way. If I could somehow swing it, there's no doubt I would be at the speedway every weekend. Enjoyed reading your thoughts, CIRF.

Pennsboro, I sincerely appreciate your kind words. You're 100% correct when you say we need more of this kind of interaction. I admit to being somewhat hypocritical in that I respond with stupidity to ignorance and incendiary remarks directed towards me and often my responses are equally silly and incendiary and do nothing to increase the level of information or enjoyment. Guilty as charged. There seems to be much less silly confrontation in this sprint car section than in some other sections. The perpetrators of that crap don't seem to post here, thankfully!

There is no question that Fairbury is the shining star of bull ring dirt late model racing, maybe in the whole country. Being as close to Fairbury as we are I can tell you for sure that real estate is a fairly good buy value-wise but the downside is real estate taxes are terribly high. The overall problem of living in Illinois is taxes. It's brutal, and real estate taxes are some of the most brutal, even in small rural communities of downstate Illinois. If you could make it work my suggestion would be to look for a place just east of the Illinois-Indiana state line. The state line is just under an hour from Fairbury. Indiana is a MUCH less expensive place to live, plus you would be somewhat centrally located to some very good tracks in addition to Fairbury that we've discussed previously in this thread. You have of course Kokomo, Putnamville, Terre Haute, Paragon, Gas City and Bloomington all within a couple of hours, give or take. Plus, Macon and Kankakee are close enough to be doable from western Indiana, as well.

I too, have thoroughly enjoyed the discussions Over4T and Mark got started. Those guys, along with you Pennsboro, seem to want to exchange ideas and experiences as opposed to wasting time and energy trying to one-up someone with smart assed remarks who has offered a bit different outlook and opinion. Let's try to keep it going and keep it enjoyable!

[Pennsboro32]

CIRF, have you ever been to any tracks in West Virginia? If so, which ones? Maybe give a breakdown of those tracks as well if you have the time.

[CIRF]

Pennsboro! Whew! Where to start. Yes sir, I've been to your namesake, Pennsboro Speedway, for the DTWC. I've also been to Mineral Wells.

Pennsboro was an experience I love to talk about with folks who've never been there and aren't familiar with it's history and legacy. Over the years we've had lengthy conversations with our Chili Bowl group in January. Those guys and ladies come from all over the country, from New England to the Upper Midwest to Tulsa to Kansas City. They are amazed at the stories we tell of the legendary Pennsboro!

I saw Pennsboro as a huge law suit waiting to happen. The hill across the road from the speedway is always a popular aspect of our Pennsboro stories and I'm sure you know why! The way fans dug into the side of the hill on the main straightaway side of the track. The hill you had to climb to make your way up to the few bleachers they had. The toilets (YEESH). The creek splitting the track in half end to end and how the track was asymmetrical. How they did virtually no track prep the whole weekend after wheel packing and hot laps on day one. I get looks of disbelief from everyone who hasn't seen a race at Pennsboro, especially the guys at The Chili Bowl!

I had my one and only opportunity to date to sample real moonshine in the bleachers at Pennsboro. Crazy Bob, who always wore the dark blue Jack Boggs jacket, sat one row in front of us one year. He offered all of us a pull off of the quart jar numerous times but I always declined. To this day I don't know if that's good or bad!

The racing was better than one might expect. Bloomy put on a show in the alphabet soup races that I've never forgotten but he broke just after he got a transfer spot into the A-main. Freddie Smith won and IIRC Mike Duval led a bunch of that race.

I wouldn't trade our experience at Pennsboro for any other race we've ever attended. I feel fortunate to have experienced "The Magic of Pennsboro"!

The other track at Mineral Wells I believe was known as West Virginia Motor Speedway and was still a 5/8's mile when we were there. I understand they've shortened it to 4/10's since then. It was so cold I don't remember all that much about the place except our struggle to stave off frost bite. I do remember the place was very nice in contrast with Pennsboro. IIRC the seating was cut into a hill and it was a fairly long walk from where we were parked. I don't even remember who won the A-main that night. Our rooms were in Clarksburg for that trip and the car thermometer said it was 34° on our way through the mountains back to our hotel. The place near Mineral Wells was bad fast, too.

The first time we went to West Virginia for the DTWC, etc., we had to leave late in the day due to work obligations. Pennsboro is about 9 hours from home. We didn't have reservations for the first night thinking we'd stay on the road somewhere. We got all the way to Parkersburg and every hotel/motel, and I mean EVERY one we stopped at, was booked solid. So, we started backtracking. We tried every hotel from the sleaziest, bed bug infested joint to the Hilton's and Hyatt's and could find nothing between Parkersburg and Zanesville, Ohio. We had backtracked all the way to Zanesville, Ohio and we found a Holiday Inn that had just one room with a single king size bed. By this time it was 3 AM and we're dead tired. There was 3 couples and we all piled into one room but were ecstatic to even find a room! We all say to this day it was the best money we ever spent for 3 hours of sleep! Had this particular Holiday Inn not had a room we were so tired that we were going to try to get a little sleep in the van!

Other than those two tracks we've not attended any other racing events in the state of West Virginia. What we saw of WV it is a beautiful state. I've been to Morgantown on business a time or two and always wanted to attend a Mountaineers football game but never have pulled that one off.....yet.

[Pennsboro32]

Awesome stuff again CIRF. West Virginia is truly a beautiful state, especially in the fall. The drive from Pennsboro to Parkersburg in the fall is fascinating, the many colors of the autumn trees. I love hearing those Pennsboro stories. I pass the ol track on the way to work every day. I grew up down Bunnells Run Road across the highway from the Speedway about a mile. Wish I could watch just one more race there.

[CIRF]

Pennsboro, what was the downfall of the Mineral Wells track? I thought the place was a decent place to enjoy a race if the temperature hadn't been just a few degrees above freezing! LOL.

[Pennsboro32]

Pennsboro, what was the downfall of the Mineral Wells track? I thought the place was a decent place to enjoy a race if the temperature hadn't been just a few degrees above freezing! LOL.

A few things caused WVMS to shut down IMO. First, WVMS at one time was a weekly track. Eventually costs of racing got out of hand and local guys quit running there regularly, Carl Short brought the DTWC back to WVMS in 2010, it drew 53 late models for $50,000 to win, a disappointing car count at that time and much lower than any DTWC in recent memory, virtually no locals supported that race. I believe the low car count was the reason for Carl moving the DTWC to Atomic in 2011 and then Portsmouth. I think that if that race would have been successful that we would still have a race or two a year there still to this day. Last, they shortened the track and ran a handful of shows a few years after that DTWC. I assume they shortened it thinking that local cars would now support the place but nothing really changed in that aspect. Turns 3-4 were really bad and caused a ton of wrecks. They tore up a lot of stuff. I wish someone with a ton of money would buy the place and run 3-4 big shows a year, maybe even a couple bigger sprint car races. It was too nice of a place to be sitting idle.

[CIRF]

A few things caused WVMS to shut down IMO. First, WVMS at one time was a weekly track. Eventually costs of racing got out of hand and local guys quit running there regularly, Carl Short brought the DTWC back to WVMS in 2010, it drew 53 late models for $50,000 to win, a disappointing car count at that time and much lower than any DTWC in recent memory, virtually no locals supported that race. I believe the low car count was the reason for Carl moving the DTWC to Atomic in 2011 and then Portsmouth. I think that if that race would have been successful that we would still have a race or two a year there still to this day. Last, they shortened the track and ran a handful of shows a few years after that DTWC. I assume they shortened it thinking that local cars would now support the place but nothing really changed in that aspect. Turns 3-4 were really bad and caused a ton of wrecks. They tore up a lot of stuff. I wish someone with a ton of money would buy the place and run 3-4 big shows a year, maybe even a couple bigger sprint car races. It was too nice of a place to be sitting idle.

Do you think the size of the track was the largest contributing factor to it's demise? It's a fact of life that it costs more to maintain and prepare the longer tracks. Lighting costs more, and the list goes on. As I'm sure you're well aware, car owners tend to shy away from the longer tracks for all of the obvious reasons and spectator culture has changed substantially over the past 20 years. Dirt racing spectators these days lean heavily towards the slam bam full contact racing and away from the longer more high speed tracks that award finesse and car control.There is a safety risk factor for drivers and equipment that comes into play, as well. Safety is probably more of an issue with the dirt open wheel divisions of sprint cars and midgets than the dirt late models, modified's and stock cars.

[Pennsboro32]

CIRF, I do think shortening the track was the dagger. I sure do miss both of those places (Pennsboro, WVMS).

[Late_Model_Mark]

I am liking this area of the website due to the "experts" on the other genre on this board. Plus the fact that I still do love the sprints, Ascot Park will do that to you. I way wish I could have gone to Pennsboro as well. Used to read about it in Speed Sport news. Then really felt left out when moving to the South and hearing endless stories about the DTWC. I have been to sh%$hole tracks and I understand that Pennsboro was in that category, but it really sounds like it had a vibe and character.

One night after the races at Talladega I sat in wonder and envy listening to Ronnie Johnson describe his time there.

Late Model Mark
TST Announcer

[CIRF]

Mark, this is no slight towards Pennsboro whatsoever, but I'm going to say unequivocally that me never having seen a race at Ascot is a greater loss than you not seeing an event at Pennsboro.

But, I must admit that Pennsboro is a racing experience that will never be duplicated. At least not by our standards.

I mentioned the hillside across the road from the backstretch at Pennsboro. The promoter had no control over people congregating over there to watch the racing for free. So, legend has it that he (the promoter) got permission from whoever owned that property to spread pig sh!t and fish guts up there. That did not deter some folks from watching for free, nonetheless. As the story goes the opportunistic spectators would lay down Visqueen, pack their noses full of cotton and set right down in it and enjoy the races.

The permanent toilets on premises (not the port-a-potty's Kevin Gundaker used to turn over and set on fire) were mere holes in concrete and there was raw sewage within 3 or 4 inches of the bottom of the concrete. It stunk so bad it would gag a maggot off a gut wagon and the fly's were in there by the trillions. My wife walked in the ladies and immediately walked back out gagging. If nature called she would go into the woods behind the bleachers, find a big ol' tree and take care of business there.

The tops of the old rickety bleachers had no back of any kind on the top row. If you sat in the top row and leaned back too far you'd fall to the ground. We saw a guy that weighed about 300 lbs. who was setting in the top row behind us actually break the wood seat part of the bleachers and he fell to the bottom, which wasn't all that high, maybe 8 or 10 foot. However, he got hurt to the point that the EMS people had to put him on a back board and it took 8 men to get him down the hill. When we came the next day for the finale' the broken wooden bleacher seat was still there and they just put yellow crime scene ribbon around it.

There was a hell of a party off of turns 1 & 2 after day 1 racing was over. They had bands and there was enough beer and booze on hand to get a small city stone drunk! I must admit, we got right in the middle of that scene and thank God my wife doesn't drink too much!

I will defer to Pennsboro32 and let him confirm whether or not I'm guilty of any degree of embellishment. If Pennsboro32 says I'm a bit off on my descriptions I digress because I'm sure he was there many, many times more than I. But that is the way I remember it and I wouldn't have changed a thing! LOL!

[Raceready]

Lucky enough to have always owned 4 wheel drive units, we would camp in the infield or clear up on top the hill on a lease road on the East side at an oil well location. The porta poopers were horrendous. This is why they were stacked in a pile and covered with worn racing tires, soaked with Turbo Blue then lit on up ! Oh what a bright display ! Even in the last races when they had the trailer toilet units, the sh1thouses were so full of crap that the sh1t would be piled up a foot higher that the top of the seat ! There were log skidders and backhoes on site on Sunday night towing the stuck rigs on up out of the infield swamps. They would water the track on Saturday after qualifying and the boys with their homemade pack cars would ride around for hours while hooting and hollering to anybody that would watch them. One of the buggys would have a keg of beer and the only time they would stop for hours is when somebody needed another gallon jug of beer or had to take a big old pi-s ! ! When I see Wal-Mart and other stores sold out nowa-days due to the Corona virus, I'm thinking that we sure could have used all of that poop paper at the ledgendary Pennsboro Speedway !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Pennsboro32]

I love this. CIRF, you are spot on. I'll admit, I'm probably one of the younger users on this thread. I'll turn 30 this year so I was young when a lot was going on at the Boro. My dad and I would attend almost every race there in the mid 90's until it's demise. I saw a lot of firsts at that place, as you can imagine what I'm talking about. One time during Hillbilly 100 weekend, we sat on the front stretch hillside just before turn 1 in a remote area, for some reason people weren't sitting there. There were a couple old rotten boards laid on the ground, I was a young kid and thought kicking and moving them was a good idea, 13 yellow jacket stings later, I was out of there. I toughed it out, and my dad took me to our local subway to I guess try to calm me down, I was still picking bees out of my shirt in the parking lot when we got there. I would kick those boards around again if it meant experiencing another race weekend in Pennsboro.

[CIRF]

Pennsboro32, that is some great stuff...........except for the bee stings...........OUCH!! I appreciate you vouching for my recollections of our trips to the 'Boro. I'm sure I've told these tales to people who thought I was making up a good story but had the courtesy of not showing it!

Looking back, the things that took place at Pennsboro and were accepted as normal were incredible, especially in the toilet department.

I don't remember the wheel packers on-track party but my attentions most likely were elsewhere on the property! In comparison, the first time I went to the Indy 500 I was a sophomore in college and by that point we'd done some pretty nutty things while under the influence. I was astounded by what I saw go on at Indy, especially in the real Snake Pit in turn #1. But Pennsboro on the Saturday night of DTWC weekend equaled or surpassed anything I ever experienced in The Snake Pit.

I probably left a couple of years off the top of my life at those places but as the song says, they are the best times I'll never remember, but I wouldn't take a million for all of it! LOL!

[Late_Model_Mark]

I have heard these exact stories mentioned in the last pack of posts. What we put up with then, like it was said in the movie Goodfellows, it was a glorious time. Could you imagine the folks that had to deal with the wee-wee and excrement following the race, yikes.


How was the spectator parking there? The food?



Late Model Mark