I have been around racing for 45 years of my 45 years on earth and for some reason I have never known the history and the meaning behind the 4 wide salute to the fans. I always hoped Chris Economaki would have done an article on it, but nope. I think I might have even wrote him one time asking him to explain it. So:

When did this start? (assuming it started long ago out east)
Where did it start?
Why 4 wide? (could have just as easily been 3 wide as a nod to Indy)
I know it's a salute to the fans, but did it always mean that?

Thanks for taking the time to answer this.

Because some promotor, Maybe Ted Johnson or Bert Emick IDK for sure said "BECAUSE WE CAN" and it stuck.

They did it for years at Ascot; Bruce Flanders called it "goin' fours", and it never failed to get the hair on the back of my neck to stand up. Still does whenever I see it. I have no idea where it originated.
Why fours? Easy to split the front rows and bring the rear of the field up the middle. Another hair-tingler is when the flagman throws the double checkers and the front half peels off of the formation to get ready for the green.

I think it pre-dates both Ted & Bert's promoting day. Someone told me that it started in the '30's with some Midget group.

steiny

This thread is going to go a lot of different ways. Here is what I always thought as it was relayed down to me:

In the late 70s (1978) WoO was formed. USAC still ran the Indianapolis 500. Indy always had a three wide parade lap. WoO, who stood in parallel to USAC, not to mention against them, wanted to one-up them. Hence, four wide parade laps to salute the fans who came to the WoO races.

Of course, this was told to me by guys drinking beer....

The midgets in Indiana were doing it in the early 70s, long before WoO existed. When NEMA ran the first NAMAR race (I forget the year), I made a trip to Indiana to a few midget shows to drum up support. I don't remember which clubs I saw run (not USAC), but they were doing it then. It was the first time I had seen it. When I got home, I tried to get NEMA to do it, but the old timers refused. They said the outside of the track was full of junk that would tear up the tires.

Of course, NEMA does it now. I don't remember when it started, but it has to have been after those old timers retired.

And, my recollection is that USAC only started doing the 3-wide (instead of 4) a couple of years ago.

my step grand dads step dads uncle told my great uncles 2nd cousin that a friend of his heard from his neighbors 3rd cousin that it started at a race track right here in the US of A, but I wouldn't bet on it, they have been wrong before.

Back in the day the Outlaws slogan was also, Only The Best Go Four Abreast........... Kind if a snappy little jingle.

Badger was definitely doing the four abreast in the early 1970s. Ted Johnson was around the club in those days and might have adopted it for the Woo circuit when he started it. I am sure Badger wasn't the first to do it but I know they really "schooled" the rookies on watching their positions. The veterans weren't very patient with screwups as I recall.
Of course just making the feature required a high level of skill back then. Lots of cars never got on the 32 car program much less the twenty car feature. When forty to sixty cars signed in just making the program was an acomplishment.

The first 'four wide salute' that I seen was at Armscamp Speedway near Alexandria in 1946 but I do not know why or if that was the first.