Originally Posted by ROSS:
Started at Mt. Lawn speedway where my Grandpa took tickets at the gate for many years and my grandma worked the concession stand. Grandpa used to let me run around the track in his pickup and I was hooked on racing. When I wasn't visiting grandparents I was going to action track with my family. Picking up a bucket of chicken and meeting other families in the infield. Great memories of throwing the football with my brother and watching the races. I can only hope I'm having the same effect on my own son right now.
By the way Shawn I was not a Fields fan. I was a Steve Ellis fan and they had some great battles. Also was a fan of LJ Lines. Mostly because my dad helped him when he was a kid. Bet we crossed paths many times.
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I spent the first 6 years of my life in the small town of Greensboro, IN, just south of Mt. Lawn. Would watch the cars going by on Sunday evening on way to track. My grandfather was a fan as were his 2 daughters so they began taking me to my first races at Mt. Lawn. Remember Dick Frazier, Kenny Eaton, Johnny Arnold, too many to mention. As an aside LJ Lines (Larry to me) and I used to put together modified soap box derby cars made from orange crates from the local market. Larry went on to be quite dominant at Mt. Lawn. Which by the way is shaped as it is because it also doubled as a baseball diamond, had cabins, pool, and was a Chatauqua meeting ground. My Dad was a lifeguard there in high school
Often went to Sun Valley. Watched Tom Cherry win his last Little 500, also SCIRA Sprint shows on Wednesday and Jeff Bloom spin and win the Little 500.
When I was about 10, two great young adult men took pity on me and I saw my first big time sprint cars at Terre Haute, ( Branson, Parnelli, Herk, McCluskey, Hinnershitz, Rounds, etc) Dayton, Winchester, Salem, and Champ Cars at Indy Mile.
Went to college, got married but drug my wife to her first race at the Tri County Speedway in Cincy. Since then many years later we have hit so many tracks I can't remember or count them all. Great thread, lots of awesome reminders of what our sport is and how it generates such deep and long lasting fan loyalty.