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I grew up at Shangri-la Speedway in Owego NY, a half mile paved track in the Southern Tier of NY state near the PA border. Geoff Bodine started his career there. Went to my first race at three months old. My dad crewed/built engines for the Northeast pavement modifieds that raced there in the 60’s and 70’s with drivers such as Mike Zopp, Don Diffendorf, Graeme Bolia, Don Yeingst, Larry Groover, and Brett Bodine.
When I got older, I helped sell welding insurance at the track. For those who have no idea what “welding insurance” is: if you paid two bucks for the insurance and needed the welder to help with repairs on your race car you were covered. If you didn’t have the insurance, you had to pay the track welder’s hourly rate which was something like 10 bucks. That was back in the days before store bought parts. If you broke it-you fixed it, most times at the track in between races. A track welder was pretty popular back in those days.
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