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

My dad worked in contruction with the Sargents who raced at San Jose Speedway in the late 70s! They asked my dad to come check it out sometime and he did when my mom was pregnant with me in the summer of 79. My dad watch a super modified race for the first time and thought it was great! My dad also started going to sprint car races at both San Jose Speedway , Baylands, and Calistoga, California when his coworker was the mechanic for Brent Kaeding's car starting in the early 1980s. My dad brought me to my first race that I remember in about 1984 at Baylands and I loved it soo much! My mom was actually dissapointed that I would rather go to a sprint car race on a Saturday night than out shopping with her! Nothing personal, I just would rather go to a race :) I still love going to races and have been to almost every dirt track in California, 2 in Nevada, and Lernerville in PA! I don't go to as many races as I used to, now that I have a family, but I still try to go as many as I can and enjoy them more than ever! Luckily, my boys love when I take them to the races and my dad goes to many of the races too. My daughter and husband would rather go do other things on a Saturday night, oh well ;) My home track is Marysville and its only about 10 minutes away from where I live. I also go to KWS 410 races, Civil War 360s, and try to make the annual birthday trip to Tulare for the Trophy Cup, along with some WoO races!

Looking forward to the new Golden State King of the 
West series schedule! 

Winged sprintcars = the fastest and most exciting 
racecars on dirt! 

Mine started when I was 3. My mom and I road up with my cousin and her husband to what would become my home track. To watch a friend of their's hot lap. I got to go out and wheel pack on the wednesday practice night. Then they ran old 50 and 60 stock cars.

My years later after I got out of high school I could go to the races, all the years before my mom said I'm not going out there with all the drunks. So I never got to go. So I started working parking cars now my mom came out to watch a few times and like it. Then died at the end of the year. So my dad and I would go to many races from then on.

Before then I was watching ABC's wide world of sports and saw Andrett's video of Aldo going over the fence. I loved sprint cars from then on. My now home track had a new promotor who was a sprint car driver. So he after getting into it with then the Super Stock drivers and brought in the 283ci sprint cars. Which turned into the 360 open motor cars. He also ran 410's once or twice a year before another track opened that ran the 410's. 

I could not afford a sprint car so I help out with parts, tires, set-ups. Mostly on Non-wing cars. But I do watch winged cars also.

Mine was back in 73.  My folks took me to Hangtown (Now Placerville) Speedway when I was 14.  They ran three classes, including limited supermodifieds.  There were one or two sprint cars that ran with a wing. . . but my first REAL sprint car race was later in the year down at West Capital Raceway with a NARC show, way back before they ran wings. . . . 

www.manvelmotorsports.com

My first dirt track exposure was when I was just a month old in 1953. The folks took me to Capitol Beach here in Lincoln, Nebraska to see the "hoodoos" which evolved into the modifieds/supermodifieds/sprint cars. We always went to the IMCA sprint races at the Nebraska State Fairgrounds every September.

After Capitol Beach closed in 1962 it was off to Midwest Speedway, Lincoln Speedway and Eagle Raceway.

I've been going ever since and even started my 2 sons out at a VERY early age just as I had been.

I am lucky enough to work at one of the best tracks 
anywhere.

My dad in 1989 took me to an All Star show at KC Raceway in Chillicothe. I have no clue who won, I slept through the feature. He bought a car in 1991 and we raced for 5 years and 1 All Star tour, it was awesome.

I took my 15 year old daughter to Wayne County last year for a Speedweek show and she loved it.

DA

My dad inspired by Bud Grimm the creator of the central PA greatness we know to this day.

Luna's Ford engine style that won 2 WoO titles and 3 
Kings Royals before a weight rule against the best EVER
in their prime and now DOMINATES super dirt late model
racing is no longer allowed/wanted in a WoO sprint
car.... Was Luna a miracle worker?

Same..  Watching Joe Kristan, Darrell Dodd and Joe Roe.  Also trips down to Santa Fe Speedway.

My Dad was a safety man at Wilmot in the 60's and when i was 5, I was deemed 'old' enough to go sit in the stands by myself.  Been going to Wilmot ever since.  Grew up with Harris, Reimer, Otto, Robel, Colburn, Dodd, Roe, Moulis.  Wouldn't change anything.....

Ah yes, Freeport.  I saw two IRA shows there, and they were pretty good.  One was suposed to be a two day show.  Drove my beater out there, saw Dick Colburn shatter the qualifying record, win his heat AND the feature.  He celebrated later on by attempting to pop the cap off a bottle by smacking down on it and the frame of the trailer.  Bottle broke, Dick needed stitches and that was the end of the 2 day show, at least for him.   I was not in attendance when the fence was torn down.  Good stuff

Thanks Robert,  I know there's a plumber located in a small house on the right when you turn off Reisterstown Road.  Can you confirm if it was on the left or right side.  There is also a big old church farther down on the left and there is an auto repair shop in the garage of a house on the far left side of Church (Warrens).

Warrens is the garage where the 88 was kept. I have been thare a half a dozen times in the past few years. A wealth of memories & stories to be told in the family owned garage.

At 1 time in the 30's there was a speedway named Pikesville that was in operation of which the Grimm family provided me with an original program of which they allowed me to copy & I sent it to Paxton at the EMMR. Very cordial group of people at Warrens......

We moved to the nieghborhood just north of Knoxville Raceway in 1976. We were a block and a half off of turn 3. This was well before the back grandstands, billboards or tall fences that kept the noise blocked, or mufflers. The first year we would go to the basement on Saturday nights to watch TV and even then it was too loud to enjoy. So we started going to the races since we had to listen to them anyway. LOL. On weekends that us kids didn't get to go we would get on the roof with our cousins and we could at least see the cars go by and hear the announcers.

I remember you telling me about the broken bottle.   The fence incident happened early to mid 2000's.  Had rain the night before.  IRA showed up and couldn't believe the terrible condition of the fence.  They almost left-afraid with the wet track the cars would end up in the road.  Decided on running the 1/4 mile inside track.  They were hauling it pretty well-until heat two, lap two.  Car tore 10-15 foot of fence down, caught the support beam, and stopped on a dime.  Show over.  Think u could find chicken wire in farmtown Illinois.  Gave us a $10 refund on a $22 ticket.  The Freeport way.  A ton of pissed off race fans.  Saw 1 heat, and hot laps for bombers and mods for $12!!!!

1960 and my dad asks me if I want to go see the race car that my mom's cousin and my uncle worked on for a local businessman.  I was kind of familiar with race cars living three blocks from the Minnesota State Fair while it was still dirt so it sounded like a neat idea.  We went over to the garage and the race car was an old chopped down Model A and was the coolest thing this nine year old had ever seen.  They had a driver by the name of Jerry Richert that drove the thing on the weekends he was in town.  Another driver by the name of Scratch Daniels got in it once in a while and one or the other would sometimes stop by while they were working on the car.  A couple years later they bought their own car and both Jerry and Scratch moved up to Sprints full time so they got a guy by the name of Jerry Lepinski to drive it.  I hung around and went to as many races as I could until I went in the Navy in 1969.  When I got out in 1973 I was working nights and weekends so I missed their last few seasons and wasn't able to start chasing races again until 1979 when I changed jobs and got some free weekends.

By 1979 I was married and had a son old enough to take to the races.  We went out to a place called North Starr Speedway a couple months before they closed the place down.  I recall a rain shower stopping the action and tow trucks working the track in.  When the Feature lined up it was lightning quick and there was a wreck on the front stretch between Richert and another car.  My son's eyes got as big as saucers and he's been going to races ever since.

Since then I spent a bunch of seasons taking photos and writing stories so I guess I caught the bug in 1960.  My first race was to see Jerry Richert drive that old Supermodified a few days after that first visit to the garage.

Stan Meissner

oops... guess that would be Turn 4....

Back in 1984,85, I remember being at a friends house and the WoO was on TNN and it was at that point I saw Jac and was converted from dirt modifies over to winged sprint cars. Had seen Sprint car racing from the action track, Terre Haute Indiana on wide world of sports and enjoyed it, but it wasn't till that WoO race that I had a new favourite dirt track racing.  

No matter how hard you try.........you can't polish a 
terd!!!

We drove right past Knoxville on the way to Grandma's house int he late 70s and me being a curious 10 year old wondered what the commotion was on the other side of that big white fence.  

You could hear the races from grandma's house which further peaked my curiousity, but the flame was really lit when someone unloaded and started working on their car right across the street in the old swimming pool parking lot.    When I asked grandma about it,  she told me to stay away because all racers are "drug dealers and hookers".   

Open Wheel Magazine further peaked my interest until I was old enough to go to the races by myself (15 years old, 1983).   I truely believe that grandma's heart was broken when I told her how much fun I had at the races.     

Seems like the common thread here is "dad took me." Kinda shows the importance of having one around that spends quality time with the family, doesn't it?  

305's are the herpes of sprint cars