Originally Posted by Shawn
I grew up going to Anderson Speedway on Saturday Night, every week. I was a fan of the figure-8 racing, but really loved the weekly late model series. My favorite driver was #31 Bob Fields, who would do battle with #51 Vic Hellis, #15 Rick Rhonemus (sp) among many others. It was always great racing, plus the cars always looked perfect. They were always squeaky clean and just beautiful.
We would then head to Mt. Lawn Speedway on Sunday and watch the same drivers to battle there. Usually we'd have a picnic, or some sort of meal on the way to Mt. Lawn. As a side note, I really think this is something that HAS to happen with Anderson and Mt. Lawn. They need to have the same rules and race on different nights. Plus, enforce and stick to the rules...for everyone.
We also followed the special shows at Winchester, Salem, etc. We were into the asphalt late models, which included ARTGO andASA. So, I remember going to Nashville Fairgrounds Raceway, Queen City Speedway, Baer Field, etc.. I was fortunate to see drivers like Butch Miller, Johnny Benson, Dick Trickle, Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin and others that moved onto bigger things. There were also the drivers that I enjoyed watching, like Bob Senneker (sp), Mike Eddy, Jay Sauter, Jim Sauter and many others. My Dad was one of the first members of the Mark Martin Fan Club. So, we traveled a lot helping them with the picnics, or whatever. What a great time!
My dad and I were talking on our way back from the USAC Midget Week show at Kokomo. We sure missed a lot of great racing on the dirt during that time. We both really wish we would have been turned onto the dirt racing scene a lot sooner, but I wouldn't trade the time at the race tracks while growing up for anything. It was time with family, every weekend. It was also creating memories with them. It was also what ignited my passion for racing. That's something that will last forever.
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