Back in Time to Excitement
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If
I had a time machine, I really, honestly think I’d make my first racing-related
time travel to Islip Speedway to see one of the NASCAR Grand National races
held there between 1964 and ‘71.
I
know it seems an odd choice, but I really love racing on shorter tracks, and at
one-FIFTH of a mile, Islip is about as short as NASCAR has ever gotten. I’d
just love to see it.
Grand National racing at Islip in 1966.
I’ve
seen a regular weekly show at Bowman Gray and would love to see the “big boys”
run there, too, but Islip was even shorter, and it was banked - what a place to
race!
There
are other great short tracks - South Boston always comes to mind - and for the
ones that remain in business (or have successors, like Dominion Raceway in
Virginia, down the road from the former Old Dominion Speedway), I’d go even
farther and suggest a return engagement for NASCAR’s traveling show. But how
can I make suggestions like this when others are calling for fewer races, not
more?
Let
me start my response to that apparent dilemma by reiterating a suggestion made
a couple of years ago to have races at “classic” NASCAR venues (or their modern
replacements) a couple of days prior to Cup races. That’s where my Islip would
show up.
Here’s
the plan:
First
of all, you dumb down current rules big-time, so that teams wouldn’t need the
resources currently required for the single weekend events of today. Then you
take a little of what isn’t needed anymore and devote it to these “NASCAR
Classic” races, which would be supported by TV revenue, since the “gate”
attendance wouldn’t be sufficient, even by NASCAR’s ever-shrinking “new
normal.”
Putting Cup cars at places like this might just
unlock the a way to reverse the sport’s decline
With
“old school” racing, you could restore some of the excitement currently lacking
at many NASCAR venues, and the “classic” races would add an element of interest
- maybe points for the weekend could be tied to finishes on both Thursday (the
“classic” race) and Saturday/Sunday (the “regular” Cup event).
I
know there are lots of people who think I’m nuts to beat this drum of setting
back the clock on NASCAR rules; they say it can’t be done. But all the current
rules do is (1) make those with the most money rise to the top, and (2) create an
ever more unenforceable set of rules, raising costs that much more.
The
heart of the matter, though, is how to make the races themselves better for the
fans, and the current approach is failing; a crisis I believe is caused in part
by fans rejecting the kind of car being raced in NASCAR today. So why not try
something dramatically different now, rather than waiting until things are even
more desperate?
Frank’s
Loose Lug Nuts
Before
I got off on my high-horse/rant above, I was going to talk about one-mile tracks, which also are a good
length for exciting NASCAR racing. These days we have two races each at Dover
and Phoenix, plus just one at Loudon (where the modifieds have proven that
awesome racing is possible with the right cars and rules). Of course, we used
to have Rockingham, but in much earlier days, there were lots of other mile
tracks on the circuit.
All
the way back in the beginning, there were two on NASCAR’s 1949 Strictly Stock
schedule, Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro (later considered nine-tenths of a
mile) and the dangerous circle at Langhorne. The latter paid the highest purse
of that year.
Hillsboro was still considered a mile track
when these racers were there
Two
years later, the circuit (renamed Grand National) made its first tour of the
west, and the second race out the Eastern and Central time zones was at the old
fairgrounds in Phoenix (where the grandstands still exist, but the track is
gone). 1951 also marked Bill France’s first effort to impress the auto
manufacturers with his racing by holding an event at the Michigan State
Fairgrounds in Detroit.
Like
Phoenix and Detroit, many of the older mile tracks were fairgrounds facilities originally
built for horse racing, but the early days also included the paved mile in
Raleigh, N.C.
My
quick-and-dirty research shouldn’t be considered the last word, but the miles
might have reached their zenith in 1955 when 11 of the tour’s 45 stops were on
tracks that length. Included were old reliables like
Hillsboro, Langhorne and Raleigh, as well as the ill-fated Last Vegas mile and
the horse track at San Mateo, Calif., which only shut down in that capacity
about a decade ago. Oddly, Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, which hosted 11 GN
events in the ‘50s, wasn’t on that season’s schedule.
Here’s Lakewood - instead of SAFER Barriers,
you needed inner tubes.
By
the early ‘60s, the fairgrounds tracks were fading as GN venues, and we
eventually settled on our current crop (sans Rockingham, sadly). They’re still
good tracks, and I think we could shrink a mile-and-a-half track or two and
come out ahead in the excitement department. Agreed?
Paul Goldsmith
1964 Daytona 500 pole-winner
The
other day I came across a wonderful interview with one of racing’s most
underrated/underappreciated competitors, Paul Goldsmith. Well over 90 now, he
seems to be going strong still, and his recollections are gold for anyone interested
in this sport’s history. Check
it out here.
Here’s
another story about Goldsmith, which has more good history and makes a good
case for this guy’s status as one of the best ever.
Because
he didn’t regularly run the full Grand National schedule, and because he was a
Yankee, Goldsmith just didn’t get the recognition on the circuit, but Smokey
Yunick thought he was good enough to drive for the “Best Damn Garage in Town,”
both in NASCAR and at Indy.
In
fact, nobody else can match this record: Paul Goldsmith won the Daytona 200
motorcycle race; he won the last big NASCAR race on the old Daytona Beach-Road
Course, and he finished third in the 1960 Indy 500.
Hang
in there, Paul. You mean too much to us.
Here’s Paul Goldsmith winning the 1965 spring
race at Rockingham. One of the fans lining the fence is this writer.