Age Is Just A State of ~ Speed
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For
all its plusses and minuses as a stock car racing venue, Indianapolis Motor
Speedway definitely is the oldest race track on the Monster/NASCAR Cup tour,
dating all the way back to 1909.
The first race at Indy,
on the original dirt surface
In
fact, this year’s Big Machine Vodka 400 was run less than a month from 110
years after the first auto races at what wasn’t yet the Brickyard – bricks came
after multiple deaths, including two spectators, at the first race on the
original oiled/tarred dirt surface. Despite that inauspicious start, things
settled down (no more motorcycle or balloon races, which also had been held in
’09), and the first 500-miler was held two years later, starting the tradition
for which Indy became known.
NASCAR,
of course, was an afterthought, 85 years after the track’s founding (and a few
years before the U.S. Grand Prix and other road races), but it still can claim
a piece of the history, I guess.
All
that brings us to next weekend’s Richmond race, which takes place on what is
arguably the second-oldest track on the circuit. The “arguably” part, in
Richmond’s case, has several components, because the track can celebrate its
anniversary several ways:
Ted Horn Richmond’s 1946
opener, which he won
Opened in 1946 (after the state
fairgrounds moved to the Strawberry Hill land north of town), with Ted Horn
winning the first event, for Indy cars, on October 12, 1946.
First NASCAR race, for modifieds,
run in 1948 (won by Red Byron).
First Grand National (Cup) race run
in 1953 (won by Lee Petty). There was no GN race in ’54, so they really didn’t
become “annual” until 1955.
Two races per year run for first
time in 1959 (second race won by Cotton Owens).
Track paved in 1968 (first race on
pavement won by Richard Petty).
New (“reconfigured”) track opened in
1988 (first race won by Davey Allison).
Soooo . . . depending on how you want to scramble
the numbers, the Federated Auto Parts 400 is the 73rd, 71st,
66th, 64th, 60th, 51st or 31st
annual event. Got that?
Martinsville
correctly characterizes itself as the “oldest” GN/Cup track in the GN/Cup
series, the only one that was on the schedule when it was begun (as “Strictly
Stock”) in 1949, but that speedway was built in 1947, a year after Richmond,
which means age is relative and dependent upon criteria.
Watkins
Glen sneaks up in that discussion as well, because it ran its first race in
1948. However, there’s a major asterisk with this one, because the races were
run on public streets until the purpose-built raceway opened eight years later.
NASCAR, after a brief flirtation in the ‘60s, became an annual Glen event in
1986. Also, as a road course, the Glen has undergone multiple layout changes.
Early Watkins Glen
races on the village streets
If
NASCAR involvement isn’t necessary for your history to count (a reasonable
thought), Knoxville Raceway in Iowa – home of the Indy/Daytona-equivalent
Knoxville Nationals sprint car race – lays claim to being the oldest track in
the nation. Built for horses in the late 1800s, it held its first auto race in
1901.
Auto
races began more-or-less as soon as autos hit the ground, but the earliest ones
were on streets/roads, then migrated to fairgrounds and other tracks built for
the ponies. By one account, the first auto race on an “oval” took place at
Narragansett Trotting Park in Rhode Island on September 7, 1896 (a Labor Day
celebration, it would appear). The Milwaukee Mile, which may be on its way back
to active status, began in the 19th century for horses and held its
first auto race in 1903.
Here's Milwaukee in the
early days
Locally,
we have quite a bit of history in Pennsylvania. Williams Grove Speedway, one of
the closest tracks to me, is celebrating its 80th anniversary this
year, and it was purpose-built for auto racing, like Indy (although it shared ownership and parking spaces with an amusement
park). Recently, I visited Sharon Speedway, actually just across the line into
Ohio although named for a Pennsylvania locality, and it was celebrating 90
years of nearly continuous operation.
Stephen
Bubb, the dedicated historian at the Eastern Museum
of Motor Racing, has been looking for race advertisements as evidence of early
events, and he’s uncovered some dating way back for McKean County Speedway up
near the New York line. That fairgrounds track has been largely idle this year,
but Bubb’s evidence shows it going back – I believe –
to the first decade of the 20th century.
You’ll
notice that not all these tracks are an unqualified success story. Milwaukee
has been closed for several years, and it appears McKean County may only run
during the fair this year. Others are doing pretty well, but most have evolved
over the years, although perhaps none quite as much as Richmond.
Still,
if survival is an indicator of success, we should look at these, and in the
case of the NASCAR tracks, I think there’s a common denominator in that they
are distinctive:
Martinsville is the smallest Cup
track and has been for more than half its history. Richmond became distinctive
when it was rebuilt as a ¾-miler. Watkins Glen is a road course in a series of
ovals. Indy . . . well, there has to be an exception, and while Indy is
distinctive as a track, it seems the only distinction for NASCAR is that it doesn’t
work very well for race cars at their current state of technology. It seems to
me that either the rules have to change, or Indy has to change.
This just isn’t
sustainable, so something has to change at Indy
More
to the point for the overall success of NASCAR, maybe some other, newer tracks
need to change, too, or they’ll never make this list of “oldies.”
Frank’s
Loose Lug Nuts
Just
for fun, this year’s Federated Auto Parts 400 should be dedicated to Al Kent
and Ollie Olson. They were both drivers from Richmond who made their first and
only GN/Cup appearances in that first race in 1953. Kent’s Henry J finished the
race in 13th place, while Olson’s Hudson came home 24th
(or maybe got back home by the time the race was over).
On
the other hand, maybe the dedication should be to Speedy Thompson. Richmond ran
two races for the first time in 1959, but the year before, the track’s single
date had been moved from spring to September, and Thompson had come home the
winner in the first fall GN/Cup race at Richmond.
Al “Speedy” Thompson
knew how to get around the old dirt track at Richmond
Maybe
one reason Martinsville gets more “oldest” publicity these days is that it was
a NASCAR-loyal track pretty much from the beginning, while Richmond played the
field. It ran a AAA stock car race in 1952 and several URC sprint car races in
the ‘50s. There may well have been other non-NASCAR events that are buried in
history. I hope to make the URC races a future research project.