Attending the finale of ISW last weekend and Mr. Gardner's recent post on track and racing history got me thinking, which I know is dangerous.

I recall attending a race at a recently opened track that was called Haubstadt Speedway in, I believe, 1965. The race was a 200 lap Super Modified race. I don't remember much about the race other than it was so dusty we couldn't see the cars except when they were right in front of the grandstand after about 25 laps. If I'm not mistaken, the Helfrich family purchased the track in about 1967 or 1968 and renamed it Tri-State Speedway.

I THINK it is possible Tri-State Speedway will be 50 years old in 2015. That is certainly a milestone, even though the Helfrich family hasn't owned it the whole time.

Is there anyone on here that has a more complete history of the track other than my frequently faulty memory?

Steve

Not your fault but you have a bit of bad info. Ed Helfrich built the track next to his farm and opened it in 1957. The family has always owned the track but it was leased out for a short time in the early 1980's to Joe Koewler, an Evansville man who owned East Park Cinema and the West Side Drive-In Theatre in Evansville. After Tommy retired from driving the late models he got totally involved in the track and along with the lovely Loris worked hard at making improvements at the track and promoting it while Ed continued to prepare the surface and he taught Tom a whole bunch on that end. I don't have anymore solid stuff to offer but others might such as the professor Ron Miller. There coud've easily been a 200 lap race in '65. The track had two 100 lap LM features one night and that was a night of survival. They used to always open the season with Twin 50's featuring sprints and late models and also did Twin 50's on the holiday weekends. The weekly programs all through the 1970's were fantastic with premier drivers in both divisions competing. On a side note I talked to some people from Mississippi up for Sprintweek at Terre Haute and they were relatives of Jerry Inmon, a very tough driver who had some great battles with Tom at Haubstadt. Also, some of this info may be incorrect but I did write a good story.

Thank you! I frequented the track in the late 60's and early 70's as it was the closest track to where I grew up...Tell City. Dick Pole, Calvin Gistrap, Bob Kinser, Larry Miller, Dick Gaines and Cliff Cockrum were some of my earliest racing heros.

the track had its 50th birthday 7 or 8 years ago. Remember they had specials on different things like hot dogs 50 cents and pop corn and had a 50 lap sprint race. TSS was only track around that ran sprint and late models togather every Sunday

Back in the day…they pitted in the infield.

Yes...I remember when they pitted cars in the infield. Usually it was stock cars on the backstretch and sprint cars on the front stretch. Unfortunately, there was more than one occasion when a car would spin and slide in to one set of pits or the other. I can plainly remember a sprint car sliding in to a stock car that was up on a jack and knocking it off, trapping a crew member under it. Fortunately, he wasn't seriously hurt!

Steve

Steve,

You are probably talking about the same race I attended. I was thinking it was 1963, but you are probably right about the 1965 date. I knew I attended a tremendously long race, thought it might have been 400 laps, but that doesn't sound feasible. I know it was so dusty, it was virtually impossible to see the cars. Believe Hooker Hood was one of the featured drivers.

Yeah, Steve, I saw that, too. Having the pits in the infield was great as you could witness driver confrontations. Jim Waters was always good for a couple of fights every year. Waters was a pretty good driver and I pulled for him but he often times had bad luck and really needed better funding to run up front. Wow, great days at the Speedway for sure.

I helped a friend with a midget and we raced there in the late 50s early 60s with CORA and pitted in the infield.

When the cars pitted in the infield they would let fans go to the pits during intermission.