Originally Posted by Vukie:
Russ, I think he was referring to the Tony Hulman years. And Winchester was almost around that long, wasn't it?
No, to Winchester but yes to the Wisconsin State Fairgrounds and the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
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Winchester was built in either 1916 or 1917 so has been around ALMOST as long as IMS...... and while sprints and midgets are "niche" racing they draw FAR more fans than formula fords and other low horsepower open wheel road racing events. When Smoke and Billy Boat etc were racing and winning the ratings where a hell of alot higher than now and so was oval crowd counts. In fact the old Thunder shows drew much much better ratings than the current IRL...