Mid 1960's at a 1/2 mile horsetrack at the Lincoln Illinois Fairgrounds. It was a Sunday afternoon race and all the central Illinois drivers were there and several from Missouri including a couple of the Weld's. The track had a white board fence around it and by the end of the day most of the fence had been destroyed. One guy went thru the fence between turns 3 and 4 and did a doughnut outside the track and came back through the same hole in the fence and rejoined the race. It was a great race but saftey conditions were non existent. If I recall the ambulance was just station wagon. The racing was great and I was sold.

My earliest memory is Marion, Il. - tracks been gone like 45+ years.

Hmmm. I kinda got a late start, but my first pure sprint car race was sometime in 1974 at West Capitol Raceway for a NARC show. I don't recall when I first went to a winged sprint show, though. Back in the 70s in Norcal, winged dirt supers were the "top" class, I guess. I didn't see a lot of racing in the 80s, as I was out of the country a good bit of the time. My first winged sprint race was probably at Big H Speedway in '88.

1979 Knoxville Iowa non-wing. I was 4 years old but still remember it. Not sure of the winner but might have been Tim Green in the Jensen Const. Co. car.

I might add, most of the RR cars were flathead Ford, but also a few were aircraft engines, the Ranger 6 cylinder being the most popular, one of which I have on my to do list, I have the engine and other parts, and was going to build a period correct shores sprinter, but have changed course to an Indy car of the same period, it is an easier build, and has a lot more flexibility in mounting the engine, the engine is already drysump, and for 1 person, it just is easier to do.

First race was motorcycles at the Peoria Civic Center at a couple years old...

First race would have been at Spoon River Speedway for a weekly show...

First sprint car race would have been the Tom Knowles...I think Beechler won...

First non-wing race was really the Crown cars and the midgets at Springfield in 89/90...I'm really having to think about the first actual non-wing sprint race but starting out as a Late Model guy in central Illinois, we weren't exposed to that cup of tea until I got my driver's license...

Interesting story... 10 hr. drives? wow... 5 hrs kicks my ass
Lebanon Valley is an pleasant drive for me, "Olde New England" countryside, even saw a moose one trip (& convenient for Massachusetts dispensaries!)... but the racing there has been boring as hell every time, no passing. I did see Kinser's last race there (Sammy won!)
How do you like living in Indiana?

Wow, you saw track roadsters? I'm jealous, wish I had a time machine!
Occasionally you can see a "track roadster style" hotrod at a show...
I'd love to build one if I had the $$ & knowhow...

I missed the whole supermodified era... another good reason to get started on that Time Machine!

So where's Professor Funk?