Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Just curious as to the ages of members on this forum. Gives some idea as to what era of racing each of us came up thru. In my attending races for over a half century, cars could not keep up with a 358 racing today. 

Alum. 427, 70 years old, started attending races as a youngster back in the days of jalopies. Worked on everything from karts, micro's, big block late models and modifies and of course sprint cars. Owner/Driver for 5 yrs and proud to say I did it on my own. Buckley was building good cars back then, we had are good runs and got close to parking it in victory lane a time or two. The thrill of flipping that mag switch and the car coming to life. WOW, it's a feeling that can't be described. Luckily I could a lot of assembly and machine work back then. Today's cars are mostly store bought. 

My screen name comes from the motor I assembled and put in a 71 split bumper camaro and street raced for 3yrs. That car won me a lot of money back in the day. I had a line of guys wanting that motor, guy showed up with a 33 chevy master cp and down the road it went. Back when big motors came out of Detroit I would find a car at that right price do as little as possible and send them down the road making a few bucks for the next adventure. Life provides everyone with adventures, I've had my share, would like to and hope to have more, only if father time allows.

Well let's see if anyone else is inclined to do the same.

68. Grew up at the Reading (Pa) fairgrounds. Went to all the dirt tracks in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York to watch modified stock cars. Fell in love with sprint car racing in the 70's. Been going ever since.

Almost 70. Started going to races back in the mid 60's.at Skagit Speedway in Wa. Most of my early years we went to dirt and pavement open wheel races on the west coast and up in BC.

31. Been going since I was a baby. Lots of early memories of David Hesmar and Danny Lasoski running Knoxville. Seen many come and go even in my short time. Lots of TMAC and Kerry Madsen memories. Billy Alley was my favorite for years. He was the ultimate 360 driver winning both twin feautures one night (I miss twin feauture night) and a few 360 nationals. Glad he got a 410 champ in the Gifford car. That car was gone the following year. What an exit. I still remember when 1200 lb nationals were a thing and also was a pretty big Don Droud fan as well. Still am just don't get to see him run much. The Gumout Series was a thing, thought the NSL would be a thing. It's amazing the things that start and stop and some things just keep going.

51.  Grandparents were big into Indy Cars and Stock Cars so my first races as a kid was at The Milwaukee Mile.  Our neighbors were into Sprint Cars and took me to my first dirt track race at Wilmot Speedway (now Wilmot Raceway) in the early 80's.  I grew up there watching and loving Sprint Cars and the Modifieds (not IMCA type) back in those days. Greats of the days of my era here in S.E. Wisconsin included Dick Colburn, Darrell Dodd, Bob Robel, Al Winker, Joe Roe Gib Wiser, many others.  It was awesome. Never played sports as a kid, started kart racing in the late 80's and got my first racecar and started racing at Wilmot and Beaver Dam in the 90's. 

100% Sprint Cars are my favorite. Enough so that the sport is part of my livelihood.  Thank God for awesome neighbors.     

Jeff Wesell
Hartford, WI

My first race was at the South Dakota State Fair in Huron June of 1964. 

I don't remember who won.

I was two weeks old. (according to my mom...LOL)

But the first races I remember going to were in Jackson, late 60's...super modifieds at the time.

Darryl Dawley, Lyle DeVries, Jim Matthews, Bill Mellenberndt, Harry Torgerson, Marv DeWall, Bobby Geldner, Roger Larson and Jack McCorkell were some of the top names at the time...then followed by names like Joel Taylor, Keith/Jerry Franzen, Doug Wolfgang, Don Reiners, Lou Kennedy, Kenny Chapman, Kim Lingenfelter, Leland VanEmmerick, Denny Houseman, Todd Mack, Marlon Jones and Jerry Richert, Jr. when the 'sprint' cars replaced the super modifieds.

From there, we'd end up branching out to tracks such as Huset's, Hartford, Fairmont, Knoxville...and after that about anywhere.

My username was originally was partially from coworkers at Harris nicknaming me DMan. And that was in Iowa, so my handle then was dmania...the combination of the two. Then after moving to TX in 2000, the IA was replaced by TX. LOL. 

51    been going to HUSETS since july 4, 1973...at times would have 4 generations sitting together, and when my son was born and went to july 4 race in 1997, there were 5 generations of us sitting together.    I had uncles who raced, cousins who raced, a cousin who is an announcer, my oldest son worked at the track, and an uncle who was on the safety team.....I spent summer of 2001 making the 10 hour round trip to knoxville every weekend to be in the KNIA/KRLS radio booth.    i will admit i am a sprint car zombie

My mom actually baby sat for darryl dawley before he passed

my earliest racing memory is from the fairgrounds and cheaters day in 1978...they were delaying the show just a little bit and a small plane flew over and they said that was DOUG WOLFGANG in a private plane flying in to do this race....as a 6 year old child i thought   WOW...that guy must be a big deal if he flew in to race here instead of driving an old truck

screen name: my 1st outlaws trip to knoxville with my wife in 1996....i picked up shirts for joey saldana in beef packers car , greg hodnett in the red shelma shell car, and HURRICANE Randy Hannagan in the mopar car...and I was instantly hooked on him as my driver...oh yeah, for you wwe fans..the next night we drove to omaha for the wwf in your house ppv, good friends, better enimies, with diesel-vs-shawn michaels where diesel pulled off mad dog vachons fake leg....all these years later..still with the same wife, i have almost 30 different Hurricane shirts...and he is still my all time favorite driver

40s. Been attending races since late 80s, probably a couple in the mid 80s at Knoxville.

Same memories like IADIRT. Lasoski dominating, Doug Wolfgang running weekly for awhile. Some of you will remember the Mike Brooks TMC car. 

As a kid I cheered on Tuttle, Rocky Hodges, Wolfgang, Tmac in his earlier years, Max and Melinda Dumsney, Skip, Mackie Heimbaugh, Mike Twedt, Randy Babcock. 

I'd love to find some pictures of the track in those days and before. 

Keep It Real

57.  Grew up in central Nebraska.  The early 70's were modifieds, coupes, 55-57 Chevys as "late models" with sprint cars soon to follow.  The sprint cars only lasted a few more years at my track and it was late models and street stocks.  We'd go see the sprinters at Eagle once or twice a year.  My focus changed in 1995 when I attended my first Nationals and saw the light.

I won JR fan club one week and still have the picture Knoxville gave me of me and Skip who was my favorite driver then because I loved the color orange (I was five or so but still like the color orange, love the Gio Scelzi car currently for looks) and he drove the 55 car that Ian had a throw back of at Nationals a few years ago. Will never forget that nor the pace car ride and still run into Skip from time to time.  He doesn't know me and obviously wouldn't remember that I selected him as my favorite drive some 25 years ago but I know.

Up for some LM nattys this week? If we don't do any field work I might head up if interested.

53 going to races my whole life.  Grew up in Oregon so alot of late models.  Some midgets and sprints.  Have seen sprint races in all the PNW states.  Baylands was my favorite.  Moved to TN 12 years ago and have been to Knoxville, Bloomington and Tri State since moving here.  Hope to go to PA and witness sprints at the best track in PA.....Port Royal.  haha

Just turned 50 in July.  I started attending my local track, Freeport Raceway Park in Freeport IL when I was in Jr. High.  Full Saturday night show ever week with bombers, mods, pro-stocks, and usually a great field of Late Models.  I spent time in the pits making friends with some of the racers, and occasionally helped a driver or two who was short-handed.  I thought it was great.  Then, once I got older and started to visit other area tracks, I realized Freeport was not keeping pace.  I spent a lot of time at other fender races at Dubuque and Farley Iowa.  I also made a yearly trip to Michigan Int'l Speedway every June for the ARCA/Cup race.  I thought all forms of racing I attended were the absolute bomb!!!   

Then, a friend of mine asked me on a Friday night in August 2002 "you wanna come to Knoxville with me tomorrow night?  I have an extra seat"   And the late models and Nascar were history!  Haven't been back to a Nascar race.  I've seen only a handful of fender races since 2002.  Although I previously watched the World of Outlaws on TV, and the IRA visited Freeport Raceway park 2 times while I was in attendance, I never expected what I saw that night in person.  I have now attended 22 straight Knoxville Nationals (counting 2020's one and only) and have branched out to see various sprint car races at:  Jackson, MN, Beaver Dam, WI, Wilmot, WI, Angell Park, WI, La Salle Speedway, IL (Now closed), 34 Raceway Burlington, IA, and a few winged races at Dubuque and Farley.  I also attend some of the other events at the Knoxville Raceway such as the WoO show in June and I have seen 2 of the Late Model Nationals.  

40. Been going since I was in the womb, so I was told. Stopped going to the races between the ages of 13-21ish... I was playing  three sports in high school, continued to play one in college and just generally wasn't interested in going. Started going again around the time I was finishing college and have been going consistently since then. I go as often as I can, but sometimes camping, fishing, hunting, parties with friends, and other activities keep me away. 

I will be 72 later this month and went to my first race in 1960 at nine years old.  My uncle and cousin worked on an old home built modified with a model A body.  We dropped by to hang around and my dad who had been going to races for years asked if I was interested in going.  Their driver was Jerry Richert and he would drive it on Sunday night at the Twin City Speedway up in Blaine, Minnesota.  We went to watch and I was hooked instantly.  When Jerry won the 1962 Nationals and teamed up with Scratch Daniels and the Wagner cars they both eased out of the Sunday night local racing.

Life happpened and I ended up supporting a family but always went to a few races and kept up with whatever papers and magazines I could find.  In 1999 I created a website dedicated to Minnesota dirt racing and ran that through 2016.  During that time I wrote and took photos for a local racing paper and did some writing and photos for Flat Out and submitted to Hawkeye and a couple print publications that are no longer around.  Today I have Dirtvision and Floracing and get to a couple races per season.  I'd go more often but I had a neck fusion in 2001 that gets brutal sitting in grandstands.  I went to a race this past Saturday night, sat through three hours of rain delays and finally got out of there by 1am.  I laid in bed messaging my neck until after 3am when I finally dozed off and woke up yesterday feeling like I got run over by a truck.  Attending races without a comfortable chair to sit in has become a painful experience but I tough it out a couple times a year.  I have a luxury booth body on a metal bench budget and it's cutting into my enjoyment of attending races.  Our local track has parking around turns three and four but to get a spot one has to get in line before noon and spend the whole day in line.  

Stan Meissner

I am 35. Been around racing all my life. My dad raced from 1982 until 2005 when he was in an incident during the B-Main at Grays Harbor Raceway on the night before the World of Outlaws, Elma was running a Northern Sprint Tour race. Had a car back the next year with a handful of drivers in the car. Then in 2007, I got into doing videos of races and have been doing that ever since as well as photos and even write ups at GHR (write ups for the last 8 or 9 years). Racing has been in my family since the 1940's, my grandfather (mom's side of the family) built cars back in the old days and 2 of my uncles raced sprint cars or back then they called them Modifieds. My brother raced from 2011/2012 until 2019 at Grays Harbor Raceway, and did some traveling to Skagit, Cottage Grove and Yakima.

Over time I got to see some really cool races in the PNW. Got to witness the years of Fred Brownfield's Northern Sprint Tour and his time as promoter at Grays Harbor Raceway. Seen some really good Dirt Cup events as well (Especially in the 90's). Last year made my first trip to Tulare for Trophy Cup. Man that was such a cool event. Going back this year and hoping in the future to maybe attend Gold Cup (Have been to Chico for the Fall Nationals in 2009/2010).

Racing videos at:
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/ARRacingVideos

Photos, updates and write ups at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ARRacingMedia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ARRacingMedia

61. Born and raised in Altoona, PA where as a wee one I went to tracks like Bedford and Hesston and fell in love with the late models of that era. Myy heros as a child were Turk Burket, Kenny Imler, and Tom Peck. Ocassionally was able to get to Central PA for a sprint car race where my hero became Keith Kauffman.

20 years in the Air Force allowed my to spend several years at a time in places like Northern CA where NARC was king, the 360 Civil War series had just started, and Red Bluff in the winter. Went to most of the CA tracks (over 100 races one season).A few years at Offutt in Omaha allowed me to attend races at great tracks like Eagle, the former Sunset Speedway, and of course Knoxville. Mow retired in Dayton, OH I'm and hour from Eldora, Atomic, Waynesfied, and Lawrenceburg.

61...I don't remember my first race because I was still a baby. But grew up around the Oklahoma scene and began wrenching on "Supers" when I was 12 until I was in my early 20s. I was also the competition director at Lake Ozark Speedway the first three years it was open and have been doing racing photography, shooting specials coast to coast since 2010.

Member of this message board since 1997

Lots of middle-aged fockers on here. Don't forget to get your colonoscopies scheduled kids, I just had mine done last week. Good times!

Just turned 45.been going to attica and fremont since early 90s.ran a 305 at both tracks in early 2000s and then was a mechanic for several years up to about 10 years ago.longtime lurker here, figured it was time to register and chime in for once.

Almost 60. First saw a dirt track race in the early 70s near Rochester, Minnesota. My dad's best friend lived in Rochester (we lived near the Twin Cities) and was a friend of Wendell Kuehn (sp?), who was a local hotshot at the time running a 1971 Mustang in the Late Model class. In the mid-70s, we were living in Moorhead, MN, so West Fargo Speedway became a regular Friday night ritual, watching the steel-bodied Hobby Stocks and Late Models rip up that big, fast half-mile. Jack McDonald, in the #100 Purina Camaro, was The Man back then. I would take my lawn mowing money from the previous week and spend it on snacks, a Minn-Kota Racing program, and the latest issue of the Hawkeye Racing News. Many times, dad would visit the beer garden a little too often, and I would be tasked with driving the 10 miles home on those nights as a 13/14 year-old. By 1978 we were living in Oregon, so dad took us to Douglas County Speedway (paved back then) and Cottage Grove Speedway. There was a local at CGS racing an old Torino Talladega-bodied stock car on the dirt; I always thought that was pretty cool. 

We had family up near Mt. Vernon, so summer visits up there often times meant going to Skagit Speedway to see the Sprint Cars, Supermodifieds (their version ) and Late Models (or Hobby Stocks?). Back then, the clay was still super-sticky at the end of the night, and you could lose a shoe if you were not careful. I started taking my family to Skagit regularly in 1994, after we were rained out on a 4th of July camping trip at the coast. Set up camp on a Friday night, and it poured down rain all night - everything was soaked! We drove home to Renton (Seattle) the next morning, then made a completely unplanned and randowm decision to drive north almost 70 miles to Skagit - and thats whwn I really discovered sprint cars! They were running 410s (Brownfield, Huson, Waggoner, Burrows), 360s (Fletcher, Cross, Wilskey, Fauver, Ridge), Sportsman Sprints (305s) and Late Models. Saw a young driver doing double-duty in Sportsman and 360s; if he didn't win, he crashed in spectacular fashion. His picture should have been in the dictionary next to "checkers or wreckers' - Jason Solwold. Later that summer, I had grown tired of seeing an endless string of teenage girls being picked as Trophy Girls for the night - aren't there any grown women who could do this? My wife suggested she could be a TG one night, but felt weird about it; then she wondered aloud if she could be a TG with our 7-year-old daughter. I thought that was a great idea, so I called the track office at Skagit and asked - they loved it!! The next Saturday night, my wife got to ride around in a brand new Dodge Viper pace car before each race, and then after each Trophy Dash and A-Main, our girl would be escorted out of the stands and across the track to join in the trophy festivities. Both girls had an absolute blast that night. 

The next summer I volunteered to help out a local 360 sprint driver as a pit guy - he was going to run the new WESCO touring series for sportsman sprints - they went to Eugene Speedway, St. Helens Speedway, Port Angeles, Grays Harbor, Spanaway (an asphalt track), among others. I did that for about 3 years; as a reward I got to hot lap his sprint car with his 360 motor installed at Grays Harbor on their Playday event in 1998. It was the last last session of the night, specifically for rookies and crew guys and other idiots like me. I think there were 5 or 6 cars on the track for that, including a teenager named Gary Taylor - Fred Brownfield's nephew? - in his first laps in a sprint car. I recall idling around the track under caution, waiting for the green flag to drop, thinking how crappy this car drives - the front wheels are flopping back and forth, vibrating like crazy; the stagger keeps me having to counter-steer down the straights.... and there is the green! Once you hit the gas and get some speed, the car settles in and drives! Now I get it! The straights were easy - here comes a corner, but that stagger just keeps the car in a nice, steady arc. I know I barely got the ass end sideways - scared to death and in way over my head! - but I'd gas it up down the straights and enjoy the brief rush. The corners were another story - those ruts you see from the stands don't seem so bad, but when I drove by at speed, they looked like a damn canyon!

We went to lots of shows at Grays Harbor and Skagit into the early 2000s, and by 2004 I eventually got into racing a 500cc Outlaw Kart, mostly in Washington, Oregon and Montana. I still have all my stuff, and had planned to get back into racing in 2020 - then COVID hit. Now I am to the point of decision to go racing again - or sell everything - still to be determined. My last sprint car race was Dirt Cup 2018 at Skagit, but now we are retired (sort of) and living in the middle of Nowhere, Washington.

As a final note - the best-run dirt track programs I have ever seen:

1) Willamette Speedway in Lebanon, Oregon. Regular Saturday night show, four stock car classes, 130 car count, started at 6PM and was all done by 10PM. Smooth, efficient, great track, great racing, packed stands, no wasted time, no BS allowed. Loved it!

2) Deming Speedway in Deming, Washington. Regular Friday night show with 4 mini-sprint classes, plus 7 or 8 500cc Outlaw Karts (including mine) as an added bonus. Probably close to 100 mini-sprints total. Started at 7PM and done at 10PM. Everybody is in line and ready to go at all times - you barely have time to add fuel and adjust tire pressures, let alone make any repairs or major setuop changes! As for the track, I was still pulling tear-offs in our main event - that's how good the clay is at Deming! Just tacky, tacky, tacky all night long. Hit the cushion so hard in Turn 4, I almost knocked myself out trying to pass for 3rd place. Best part of that night? We were turning lap times within a second or so of the 1200cc mini-sprints, and we got a lot of attention for that. Someone mentioned afterwards that Brock Lemley himself watched our entire main event from his pit.  Great program at that track, for sure.