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Do you remember the first race that you went to? I was 15 almost 16 so i started a little older than most of you.

Ray

I consider my first race to be when my mom was in the grandstands 6 months pregnant with me at the 1967 Lawton Winternationals. They say that fetus can sense something at that point, so it's good enough for me. I do remember my first race I went to at OkC though, from what Shane tells me it must have been 1975. Jame MacElreath was there for sure.

I don't remember the first race I went to, but I do remember getting Hot Wheels from the corner store and those supers/modifieds under the lights, and it all just took hold on me I guess. There was an effort to steer me away from race cars and get me into music and art. I never got great at any of it, but I loved it all. Except for Lawrence Welk! But somewhere between the music, film, and you guys, I found myself wanting to put to music and film, stories of what we saw and maybe how it felt-without the bad stuff. This year I will finally get to put in a video tribute to the 55-57 Chevy hobby stockers I have wanted to do since I was 7 years old!

Many dreams broken along the way for all of us, but what we get in return anyway can be pretty good.

Paul Martens once told me "It's the people, not the cars, that make this so interesting. The cars add to it".

Ya know he's right. This stretch of Americana is my all time favorite. They say that all roads lead to Indy. But one of those roads leads back to here. Even if the bridges have been burnt, I would not be too proud to wade through the creeks to get back to this. I never made it to Indy, so my feet are dry!LOL

I was one of the 3,500 or so who attended the jalopy races at the Cowley County Fairgrounds in Winfield, Kansas on Memorial Day, 1953. I was only six years old and my father took me. He had never seen a car race before either and he soon felt that he was wasting an afternoon. I, on the other hand, was forever hooked! I was even afraid to blink my eyes for fear that I might miss something.

After that day, I only got to see a couple of races a year until I became a teenager but then there was no stopping me. I even looked at the price of admission as being a real entertainment bargain!

"Stay between the fences and don't scratch the paint 
above the windows"

I went to my first race i was 2 days old at Green Top Speedway in Joplin Mo, August 25th 1956 Saturday night...I dont remember a thing.....My mom said i was the perfect baby never made a sound.I guess i like the sound and all the noice....I did go to several races while my mom was carrying my before i was born..Riding in a car long distances to race tracks and the noice was interduced to me probably before my mom know she was going to have me..To this day i can sleep well in a car if there is a good driver..If i am with a bad driver that is not smooth i cant sleep at all....And i just a well drive myself or get a different driver. ..

..The first race i do remember was in 1959 in Joplin Mo at Ozark Speedway at age 3 my dad JACK BELK was diving a Orange coupe #6 with the Road Runner Painted on the Trunk,,BUD HATCH from Yates center was chasing him in another orange Coupe #87 that had Willy Coyote Painted on the trunk..Just like in the Cartoon the Road Runner got away..They were team mates that year with cars just alike.Dad was driving for Al Weiland also that year when he traveled to races at many tracks in Kansas and Missouri.

.I sleep alot in a car traveling to Race Tracks more than i did my bed at home from when i was born untill i was a teenager..I sleep alot in a 56 and a 61 Ford Station wagon,,then the back seat of a 64 Thunderbird,,then a 70 Thunderbird with the suiside Doors on it,,i never could get use to them doors.

One thing about kids and race tracks..When a race starts you can look around and the kids are as best behaved as you will ever see them..

Tim Belk

Win as if you are use to it.And lose as if you enjoyed 
it for a change.Its hard to get to the top and alot 
harder to stay there.

i can remember when i was about2 or so my mother took me to the garage where they worked on the racecar,,,i even have a picture of me on the left front fender of there old deuce and a half on one side was my dad and the other was gilbert hudson,,,,,,and i had a cigar in my mouth,,,trying to be like gilbert,,,,

my first race was when i was probably about 9 or 10 remember going with my family and i kept my eyes on a primer grey henry j numbered q 1,,,,the sound was loud but i loved it so much,,,

i helped johnny stinnete for allmost 2 years,,,worked in oklahoma city at scott chevrolet,,,and brought some 350 4 blocks for him,,,,,,and he helped me get started in raceing,,,,

by the way gilbert before he passed told me he first came to lawton from ohio,,,with a miget and clinton herring hired him to drive,,,,,,then my dad clarance cothren talked gilbert into driving for him,,,,he owned the C andS garage,,,,,on second street about I ave

we even had an old trophy gilbert won in 1952 i think on the mantle of the old house where i grew up,,,,and my dad died in the spring of 1953,,,,,,,,,,,

All these stories are great I hope there are more. Like I said earlier I didn't go to a race until I was almost 16. That just wasn't my parents thing. My friend Bobby started going with his uncle when he was young and he keep asking me to go with him and I finally went one Saturday night in May 1968. It was a special 100 lap feature to my knowledge it was the only 100 lap feature ever ran at Tulsa. From hot laps on I loved it. Buddy Cagle in the Zink car won but what I remember most is Pete York in the Del Torrance #1. He was in a wreck and went to the pits and came back out to finish the race without a header on the outside, you could see the fire coming out of each cylinder from the head, I remember that more than anything else. I was hooked for life.

Ray

Ray,

I can't remember the first race I went to because I was just a baby. But, I do remember things

like the old 81 Speedway Hill that you sat on before there was a grandstand. I also remember sheep

or goats grazing on the side of the hill. I remember the first Indy Car Race we went to at Milwaukee.

Those Offies were so loud, it just reveberated throughout the covered grandstand, it was ear spliting.

I remember my dad shielding my eyes at Terre Haute, when massive dirt clods were hitting us

when we sat in the first row. And I remember being at Joliet Stadium sitting in front of this beautiful

football stadium, looking at the perfectly mancured grass, when all of sudden midgets came blasting

out on the paved track around the field, and thinking where did they come from?

Ray C

my first race would have been at c-j stadium in wichita. c-j opened up right after ww2. i was six years old, would stand behind the concrete wall on the front streach, watch the driver's being introduced. there we're few midget races there but that didn't work out, promoter didn't want to pay, some racers were here from okla,texas and had travel expense's. track roadster's and jalopy's were the main stay. saw harry everhart, will forrest, frankie lies, wild bill Mears, and too many to remember all of them. seems like it cost my dad about 25 cents to get in, i think kids may have been free. other wise my tight ass dad wouldn't have taken us kids. so that started me going to races,and getting involved... still go these days. favorite tracks, belleville and knoxville.

yeh i remember the dirt hill with the 2X 12 seats, ones pring day it was chilli, someone down twards turn 4 end set th seats on fire for heat... lol

To All,

Remember sitting in the grandstands at Old Taft Stadium, we always sit on the east side for some reason, there were rail road ties around the infield to keep guys off the football field, at the end of the east grandstands there was a gate that the cars entered to the pits at, right inside to the left of that gate there was a road grader parked there that the pit crews stood on to watch the races from, more then once a car flipped over that fence and landed between the grader and fence, I always thought it was funny watching those pit guys bail off that grader!!!! Rusty Towe actually made it on top of that grader once. You couldn't set in the first 10 or 12 rows up from the wall as a car had hit the fence and one of the boards had hit a lady and broke her leg so they restricted the lower seats. I wore my butt out on those old concrete stands, we would leave the races and go to Maney's across the street and eat, Leroy Shadid cooked burger's there man I've never eat burgers that good since!!!! Some went to the Ace High Lounge and drank beer and booze, it was great being a 4 year old kid at that time, the driver's Madden, Eichor,Ferguson,Laden,Schoenburg,Flatt's etc, those guys were my hero's, and that place was one of the best midget tracks, Green,Ruby,Zent,Penwell,Hemphill,Long etc those guys were my midget hero's. The smell castor oil, nitro, methanol etc, sounds of those REAL STOCK CARS, and a Ranger, Offy or Alto boat motor in a midget I'll never forget, throw in the people Jay Hughes, Brotherton, Johnny Reynold's, Leon Downs, Paul Shouse, Harry Conner, Buck Durey, Russ Cofer, The Old Man etc, your not going to find it much better then that!!!!!!!!!!!!1

My first races were at CJ , Jack Petty and his wife would take me and my sister while my Mom would watch their baby Jimmy. Also his brother in law Darrel Graves was racing

"I do remember things like the old 81 Speedway Hill that you sat on before there was a grandstand."

---------

That hill was removed at 81 Speedway after the 1967 racing season. It was replaced by the grandstands that are there now before the 1968 season started. They were a little late getting the new grandstands up so the beginning of the racing season was delayed a few weeks that year.

"Stay between the fences and don't scratch the paint 
above the windows"

Funny Story,,

The first Race in Joplin that was run by a bunch of local guys was early in 1950..There was about 8 of them...They had no flags...So Claude the Starter guy said Ok all i got is this Red Grease rag..If you are not Racing and it is waving RACE...If you are Racing and it is Waving Stop racing..The first lap everybody hit the wall in turn one..It took a minute or two for one of the cars to make a full lap.There was so much dust they could not see if the Grease rag was waving or not.After talking to 6 different people that were there,,none of them could tell me who won the race ,,all they could say was they had a race..They ran several times that year and did get some flags.A few guys from Joplin were already racing in Springfield.And many guys from Kansas goined in.

The local group grow very fast they had 20 to 30 cars by the end of 1950..By the start of 1951 they had 2 Organized groups one running out of Joplin and one running out of Pittburg Kansas.

The Mighty Midgets came to Joplin in 48 and 49 a few times and ran in a local park in a subrub of Joplin..That was the first Race in Joplin..

Win as if you are use to it.And lose as if you enjoyed 
it for a change.Its hard to get to the top and alot 
harder to stay there.

Easter Sunday 1946 at a midget race in Alexandria, Indiana.

1966 Lawton Speedway in a Tomkins Auto Salvage Wrecker with my Dad, remember they all seemed fast to me back then.

J.D.

lol mom was 9 months with me 1964 sedila missouri the mile track ( so they tell me ) first i remeber was olymipic speedway kcmo I had to hve been 5 or so

Here is the earliest photo of me at a race track. This is the Topeka Fairgrounds in 1952. A nice double exposure. One of the two cars was more than likely my father (Don Elliott) in the number 17 Roadster. This would be the last year for this car. The next #17 would be a big car would be a flathead mercury with four deuces on nitro-methane. D. E.