[racefan20]

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.

Started going to Anderson just after high school, absolutely loathed Bob Fields, I cheered for Vic Hellis who graduated HS one year in front of me. Was a big Darwin Blankenship fan too.

[Tumey's 55]

Originally Posted by Tumey's 55 I grew up about 15 miles north of Paragon. As a youngster my parents and grandparents would take me to Paragon and Bloomington on a regular basis. That was nearly 50 years ago, hard to believe but true. If my memory serves correctly we would watch guys like Gaines (rooted against him because he won all the time), Beavers, Gilstrap, Rose, Bob Kinser, and many others whose names escape me right now. Got my love of racing from those days.

One addendum, the trip to Bloomington was made sweeter by a stop at a relatively new hamburger joint on the north side, McDonalds. This was one of the few Greasy Mc's around and at this time was a carry out only. We would grab a cheeseburger and I got to listen to my dad and granddad relive the race on the way north on 2 lane 37.

Posted via Mobile Device

[ronmil]

Originally Posted by hoosierhillbilly Dad used to take me to,haubstadt on Sundays several times a season. It was a lonely drive back to Floyd county. Like a good kid, I would sleep all the way home. We used always eat at Lakeview truck stop. They had good cheeseburgers and plate lunches. We would also hit other tracks too. I remember trips to Knoxville and Eldora. The best was a two week run. Eldora for 2-3 days, back home for fresh clothes and on to Knoxville. Fun times. Posted via Mobile Device

Sure do miss Lakeview truck stop!

[smith19]

well i didn't have a chance in hell to do anything but racing as i was a kid. the family was involved in it before i was born. dad had coupes that jim bob luebbers and ross smith drove around the cincy area. then my granny bought a sprintcar. it was all over from there. i was never home and didn't care much for stick and ball sports. we all know it takes two ball's to play our sport. lawrenceburg was our home track but didn't run there regular till 1975 when we won the championship. sure do miss the old times drivers, tracks and traveling...

this past sunday it would be 35 years since granny smith fielded a sprintcar...damn

[racegal]

Kokomo Speedway! We used to sit on the top row with our legs dangling off the back! There was a fence but a big gap on the bottom of it!
And Figure 8s!
Ray Kenens, Don Walker, Louie Mann, Mark Caldwell, Ron Fisher and more!!!
I remember when we were little going around and getting all the drivers' autographs! How I would love to see those autograph books now!

[JJMooney]

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.

[old time Hoosier]

Armscamp in Alexandria and the original 16th Street Speedway, in Indianapolis for midgets, Sun Valley in Anderson for the roaring roadsters and Winchester and Dayton for the 'big cars' and thanks 'Pop' (gone now for 30 years)for being a racing fan and not a golfer.

[dirtnonwingfan]

Pittsfield Illinois Speedway. Jerry Blundy, the Uppinghouse brothers, an occasional visit by Wib Spaulding, Eddie Freese, Ralph Vortman with his beautiful blue GMC (I think) fuel injected inline 6 supermodified, Dick Vance, Wild Man Kelly with his grey #77 34 Ford flathead stocker, the Weld Brothers, Larry "Boom Boom" Cannon, Chuck Amati, and many more. The track had real promotions: a corset race where the supermodified drivers ran half of the feature and pitted, put on a corset, jumped back into the car and went back out for the other half. A greased pig race where catching a greased pig took the place of putting the corset on. A 500 lap partnership race, with management turning off the lights a couple of hours after the race ended with 13 teams still arguing they won. Seeing drivers burn tires in the pits in October to keep warm. A visit from some guy from Kentucky we had never heard of driving a winged super who went off turn 1, down the steep bank into the bean field and came up the road back of the back stretch more than once during the feature and still won. We had never seen him or heard of him, but that changed after Roy Robbins won the first Knoxville Nationals the next week. Another special promotion which featured 100 lap features four Saturdays in a row. $1,000 to win (this was in the early '60s) with the winner starting in last place the next week. A $1,000 bonus if anyone could win all four weeks. Although Dick Vance was strong in the #401 Buick-powered super, he wasn't that strong, so they got a substitute driver; Gordon Wooley, who did win the bonus. The thrill of squinting into the sun and trying to figure who the strange car might bring to the track. Especially memorable was the Saturday night of the dirt champ races at the Illinois State Fairgrounds. The excitement as the shiny red and white #55 (I think) super rolled into the pits. No one paid any attention to the shabby-looking #401 towing in with it with the driver whose name the announcer butchered. Bill Putter... who? That lasted until Bill Puterbaugh took time trials. He easily swept that night, as he did the next year after the State Fair dirt champ race.

My first visits to Granite City and Little Springfield and the Springfield Mile were thrills, but my heart will always be with Pittsfield, the track of my youth. It is now a Wal-Mart.

[Sausage]

Originally Posted by illinisprintfan I was born in April of 1968, and by June I was a regular at the old San Jose Speedway where they ran super modifieds (called them hardtops) on asphalt. They shut that track down when I was in elementary school, so we started going to the dirt track at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds in San Jose. Sometime in high school I started going to Baylands raceway in Fremont CA.

I started out at Oahe speedway in Pierre, SD which was a Sunday night show. We had relatives in Miller so got to see their Sat. show often, and always went to the State Fair in Huron for the races.

Moved to California to go to college and hung out at San Jose Speedway, then the Fairgrounds, Baylands, back to the Fairgrounds. Ended up in Southern California at Perris before moving to Indiana.

[ronmil]

My family didn't attend races on a regular basis, as my dad owned a service station and he worked long hours. I also worked there, so between work, school and sleep, little time was left for anything else.
I remember quite a few drivers coming into our station to buy gas for their race cars, so I began to notice racing a little bit. We sold DX, and that was the highest octane gas available at the time. The cars they raced were based on coupes from the thirties, and powered by a variety of engines; Chrysler flathead six, Ford flatheads and Oldsmobiles.
The DX distributor from Morganfield, KY would stop in our station on his way to and from the Indy 500, so I developed an interest in the 500 by talking to him. And, of course, Sid Collins radio broadcast really got me thinking how I must see that race one day. I finally did in 1965, and have been to everyone since.
As far as tracks I attended as a kid, I do remember my parents taking me to the Boonville fair. This would have been sometime in the late forties. It must have been a major event, as I do recall Troy Ruttman being there.
I began attending races on my own in 1955 at the Sturgis, KY drag strip located at the airport.
As far as oval tracks, I first attended TSS (Haubstadt) when it opened in 1957. That got me really interested in cars going in circles. In the late, sixties I attended races at Ellis Speedway at Reed, KY and Kentucky Motor Speedway (Whitesville), both asphalt tracks, where some guy named Darrel Waltrip was making a name for himself.
In the early seventies, I began attending the newly opened oval at Chandler, as well as going to Windy Hollow Kentucky. Princeton, IN fairgrounds had a scary fast half-mile for a while in the seventies.
But, Haubstadt probably planted the seed that started my love for dirt tracks.