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

Do not quote me on this, I do not consider myself a historian of the elite level, But here's what I have surmised thus far

I think the '4 wide salute' came from the NCRA in the 1970's. Ted Johnson was no stranger to the NCRA corridor since he was from Texas, and at one time he apparently lived in Wichita Falls. At one point or another, he must have seen a moment like the picture below. Lanny Edwards would have most likely been influential in getting the 4 wide thing into it as well. Actually, the cast of charactors that would have seen a 4 wide salute from the NCRA was quite substantial.

This picture is a 3 wide salute in Wichita Falls, 1970's, but I have one somewhere that is 4 wide in OkC 1979.

I'll ask Shane

You might want to post your question here as well.http://www.hoseheadforums.com/forum.cfm?forumId=13

Just for starters and I don't know where it started, but wearing white's in the pits was a long time tradition.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Wearing white in the pits used to be a safety requirement, not really a tradition. I started going to races around 1960 and at that time the rule was no women, no children (think 18 or 21 was the cutoff) and people had to wear white.

Stan Meissner

I talked to Shane Carson

He remembers the 4 wide salute coming in from the WoO. However this picture , and the fact Johnson lived in Texas much of his life, there could be a connection to seeing it first with the NCRA.

I'm not sure if the NCRA did the salute everytime, but somebody would know.

Sprint Car Traditions--If I'm not mistaken "The Action Track" in Terre Haute, IN still awards a really neat rifle to the winner of one of their big annual USAC Sprint Car Races or to the winner of their annual USAC Silver Crown Race.

At Williams Grove there has been a long standing tradition of the Fans on Beer Hill to Yell "INFIELD SUX", and for the Infield fan to yell back Beer Hill Swallows. It's been going on for as long as I can remember.

At the Armscamp Speedway near Alexandria, Indiana the midget feature lined up in a 4 abreast salute to the fans before the start in 1947. I was there.

ha, my favorite traditions happen off track, too bad most of them have faded away, like the "lighting of the red lamp"

I wasn't at Armscamp in '47, but I saw the USAC midgets do the 4-wide long before the WoO.

Posted By: SprintRacingAngel on October 13 2011 at 04:37:28 PM I have been around Sprint car racing all my life and am now in college having to write papers and give speeches. I have to do an informative speech and was thinking about doing it over Sprint car traditions. I know that the four wide fan salute is one but there arent any articles about it posted anywhere on the internet. (I asked this question two semesters ago and called all kinds of people and it still took a lot of research and them talking to more people for me to find out why it even started) So what i would like from yall is to post what are the biggest traditions to you and why. I would also like to know more about the Grove and the Ironman. Thanks for all the help to come

I remember doing a poem in high school about Steve and Sammy. Those two have certainly become a tradition. They are still right up there with the fastest in the country after 35 years.

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?

one tradition that has been around forever is that the PA pose never leaves the porch haa lol

Robert Bond    San Jose Ca

Nope sorry can't help you.....Not going to get me fired up with the stupid crap. You're just another one of these guys.

What were these known as, long wheelbase Supermodifieds with carburetors?

Stan Meissner

I'm not from PA, but I have it in my mind that during a time period the winner (possibly at W. Grove) had to automaticaly start the following Friday night "A" main is last place or at least very, very deep in the field. Is that memory correct for W. Grove or was it some other track??

Ted Johnson's racing roots were with midgets. That is were he come up with the four wide for sprinters. Midgets often did the four wide. Sprints did a four wide parade lap prior to the WOO in 1974 at a race in Minnesota.. This was written up by Race Promoter's Monthly. Looks like NCRA picture is three wide like ASCS today.

I watched a winged-sprint car race on the internet a month ago or so. This organization uses a three-wide salute to the fans. Can't remember which group it is, but a major group. I love the WoO, but I really thought this 3-wide looked better, it looked more natural, like it could almost (almost) happen, and it makes 24 cars at 3 by 3 a longer line and more impressive, IMHO.

 Lawlessness and liberalism equals Hell.  NY City, 
Detroit, Seattle, Chicago, Minnepolis, etc. We saw it. 
Burning hundreds of buildings, a thousand assaults and 
dozens of murders. Getting worser and worser.

Well maybe when I was going to the track as a baby in 48 it was for safety, but by the time you started going in 60 it was a tradition. (put a big grin right here) The last track that I know of to keep that tradition was Skagit, who were still wearing white into the eighty's.

Of couse peanuts in the pits was very bad luck, along with a green car.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true.