Indiana Open Wheel - Some Eastern History

Below is a clipping from today's NY Times. I remember seeing the results from these races in Speed Sport News, but never made it there in person. Some friends drove down once, but I was too busy in school to go. I am surprised that they continued through 1962.

Kingsbridge Armory, at Jerome Avenue and Kingsbridge Road in Kingsbridge Heights, the Bronx, did indeed feature auto racing, billed as the Kingsbridge Armory Speedrome, from 1946 until 1962.

With outdoor auto racing on hiatus over the winter, fans from the city, New Jersey and Long Island filled their nostrils with the scent of gasoline and their ears with the roar of engines by going to the armory for weekend races. They were held on the armory's concrete drill floor, and guardrails were placed to form an oval track one-fifth of a mile long, which took up half the 180,000 square feet of floor space.

The armory ran mainly midget races featuring scaled-down cars, although the occasional stock car race was run as well. With such a small track and such high speeds, serious accidents were not uncommon at the Speedrome.

Kingsbridge Armory was one of the few places in the city where auto racing caught on. The Polo Grounds also held some races before the Mets began playing there in 1962.

The armory, built from 1912 to 1917 and made a city landmark in 1974, covered four city blocks and was the world's largest enclosed drill space. The National Guard gave up the building in 1994, and it is being converted to office and retail space, with a multi-use sports and recreational center. Auto racing will not be included.