miledirt
(Online)
#2
8/19/19 7:32 AM
Thanks for video
This track should be on the USAC Silver Crown schedule...
3 Likes:
oldfan49, rick42, TNRustler
ThePurple73 (Offline)
#3
8/19/19 10:24 AM
Used to be a nice mile track there.
ISF (Offline)
#4
8/20/19 11:36 AM
According to the aerial photos I've seen of the long defunct 1 mile track at Sedalia it appears track layout symmetry was similar to the Springfield Mile.
The Ultimate Racing History website shows the last Silver Crown race held on the Sedalia Mile took place in August of 1974 and was won by Mario Andretti. There could have been SC races later than that but none are chronicled on URH.
Those of you who are of a certain generation will probably know there was a gargantuan music festival held on the Missouri State Fairgrounds less than a month prior to Mario winning the final Silver Crown race at Sedalia. Historic estimates have the crowd size at something over 300,000 for the 3 day Ozark Music Festival. The epicenter of the festival was the infield of the mile dirt track with the main stage located in turn #3.
It took a monumental feat to get the fairgrounds, and more specifically the race track and infield, in shape to host the Missouri State Fair in August. Due to various forms of human contamination of the infield area during the OMF several inches of top soil had to be removed and replaced before the fair began. The fairgrounds sustained substantial damage during the 3 day music festival and a huge scramble ensued to get the grounds in reasonable shape to host the fair.
Silver Crown Championship Dirt Cars properly driven on a one mile dirt track are classic poetry in motion. Using that analogy, Jack Hewitt is one of the greatest poets of all time.
3 Likes:
chrismattlin, luckybuc97, Racer12
dsc1600 (Offline)
#7
8/21/19 10:21 AM
What an interesting piece of forgotten history....
A nearby farmer stated that two of his cattle and several hogs were killed and cooked for food. The portable toilets were turned over and emptied after they were quickly filled up.[2]
By Monday, July 22, the festival crowd had left, leaving a field of garbage behind. Damage estimates of $100,000 were reported, as well as one death and over 1,000 drug overdoses.[1]
After the festival the city of Sedalia only had a few weeks to clean up for the Missouri State fair, so helicopters were used for spraying lime over the fairgrounds as a precaution against the possible outbreak of disease.[citation needed]
On the ground, bulldozers scraped up the topsoil, which was (reportedly) littered with discarded drug paraphernalia and gnawed cobs of corn from a neighboring field along with mountains of contaminated dirt and garbage which were hauled to the county landfills.[citation needed]
Meanwhile, festival-goers crowded the Interstate 70 rest stops to catch up on sleep lost during the weekend. Tents, cots and sleeping bags were spread throughout rest stops all along the highway.
In early September of that year, the city council banned future rock concerts in the city.[1]
