[captrat]

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. Posted via Mobile Device

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.

[PatrickMead#13]

Columbus Motor Speedway in Columbus, OH. Both the little track with quarter midgets and on to the big track!

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[Joltin Joe]

Grew up going to Sunshine Speedway in Pinellas Park, Florida and East Bat Raceway in Gibsonton, Florida

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[arctic monkey21]

I grew up going to Haubstadt and Salem mostly with the occasional trip to the Springfield Mile during the state fair. I have no idea what the first year I actually went to a race though. It was likely sometime in the mid to late 80s.

[openwheelfan1]

I attended my first race at Haubstadt in 1965 (I think). We went to a lot of motorcycle races for the next few years, although we occasionally visited Haubstadt (renamed Tri-State) and started going to Salem in 1968, attending both sprint car and stock car races. We started going to Terre Haute in 1970. We continued to visit these tracks regularly as well as occasional visits to other tracks until I graduated college in 1977. Yes, I'm old!

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[Flatrightrear]

First races were at the old Evansville Speedrome just south of Morgan Ave. on Green River Rd. and Haubstadt.

[JstAbvVMC]

Vallejo Speedway in CA. (Yes Jeff's G's hometown) My Dad ran stock cars there when I was twelve. When I was old enough to drive to the races on my own, Calistoga, Baylands and Altamont and even West Capital Speedway before it was closed....

[fish]

I grew up spending all my Saturday nights at Butler Speedway in Michigan (even though we lived in Indiana). Guys like Jack Sharp, Larry Zimmerman, Sparky Young, Don Taylor and Hank Lower were my heroes. My dad was a cousin of Lower and we cheered him on in the days when he couldn't even make the feature and drove a gray 6-cylinder coupe.
Butler has went through a lot of changes since those days and so have I. As a kid I could tell you the number and name of almost any driver that raced there (and the fields were around 100 cars). I remember when I-69 was built and we no longer took the route past "mom's pink house" and I also got to drive a car for the very first time with my dad at my side while going to Butler. (No wonder I log so many miles chasing racing.)
The place used to have an oil surface (wasn't as messy as you think, and so tacky it'd try to pull your shoes off) and also had a wall on the inside and the cars pitted in the middle. The oil disappeared in the mid 90s and the inside wall followed and the pits have moved outside the track.
The track has some cool memories and there are some races that I saw there that are forever etched into my mind: I considered a late model race that I saw between NASCAR driver Tiny Lund and the track's hero the "Pink Panther" Don Taylor in the 70s as the best I ever saw for years and years. Another race where Jack Hewitt drove the Briscoe #5 to a 1984 win coming from the tail still registers as an epic to me.
It's also the place where I experienced one of the neatest moments in my life. I was picked to take the media ride with Jack Hewitt in his 2-seater. So I was lucky enough to ride with my hero on the track that I grew up and also able to tell Jack about my mother and how she was a great fan of his and took care of a family of five kids every Saturday night right here at this track. (And for the record, he scared the crap out of me.)
Anyway, I've had a love/hate relationship with Butler over the years, but the truth is the track that I grew up at helped make me the person that I am today.

Jim Fisher

[cmakin]

Unlike a lot of folks, I didn't get to my first race until I was 12 and it was at Hangtown Speedway (now Placerville). I was hooked from the get go. Other area tracks that we used to visit were Stockton 99, West Captital, All American Speedway (in Roseville), Triple M (Marysville) and Silver Dollar. Never did make it to Baylands, it opened after I had gone off to college and sea. . .

[VSneader2]

I remember when Bulter had Bill Elliot on hand one night. He was to drop the green flag for the sprint feature. I have never seen someone jump out of the flag stand any faster then he did that night. It was quite comical. I do miss the pits on the inside there.

This has turned into a pretty good thread. Nice to read though it all and see where people grew up going and what has helped shaped their addiction with racing.