Racing The Way It Used To Be!

by: PattyKay Lilley

Back in the stone age, when I was a teenager, there was (and still is, though it's paved now) a half-mile dirt track located some 30 miles east of Rochester NY, where I grew up. It's called Spencer Speedway, and many of you will remember folks such as Richie Evans, Geoff Bodine and Jimmy Spencer racing there, but they all came later.

At about age 15 or 16, I was "dragged" out there by an old boyfriend that was fascinated by drag racing. In those days, the dragsters were burning something that passed for high-powered fuel but reeked of ether, and it just made me sick. Anyone near my age that had a tonsillectomy back then knows exactly what I mean.

Ah, but one weekend night we stayed on after the stinky cars were through because there was scheduled to be a couple of feature races for something called "stockcars", and the rest, as they say, is history.