Got an e-mail last night from my friend, Frank, up in Pennsylvania. That is the same Frank I've often talked about accompanying me to 60s & 70s racing adventures via train and Greyhound bus to Darlington, Rockingham, Bristol, Charlotte, etc. We grew up together in Richmond and started attending dirt track races at Paul Sawyer's Richmond Fairgrounds track in the early 60s.
Since his note was about a revitalized ghost track, a motor racing museum, a fish fry and a blindfolded race and and included a couple of photos, I thought I'd share it here and hope you enjoy it.
If you are ever up around York Springs, Pennsylvania, that's the location of the restored Lattimore Valley Fairgrounds dirt track and the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing.
Here's the link to the museum: www.emmr.org
And here's Frank's note and two accompanying photos :
Made it up to the Gary Wolford Fish Fry and Silver Spring Speedway
Reunion yesterday (Sunday, 5/5) at the Latimore Valley Fairgrounds restored race track and the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing. High point of the day,
besides the fish & fries, which are free - you donate whatever you
want - is the annual blindfold race. It features three or four top
area drivers racing with blindfolds, while passengers direct them.
The passengers have been media members and others; this year they were
sons of the racers (except for Fred Rahmer, whose kids were racing, so
he had a friend step in). Last year they tore up the fence around the
track too much, so this year they had to stay behind a pace truck (and
with a $20 fine each time they hit said truck).
For some reason - price? - they used old minivans as the race cars this year. It was pretty calm until the last lap coming to the checkers, when the three
remaining vans decided that "no passing the pace truck" no longer
applied, nor apparently, did "don't spin out the pace truck." In the
attached photo, you can see the latter beginning to happen. After the
race they had an impromptu demo derby, made all the more lively when
the guy in the tractor/front-end loader joined them and started
picking up the vans in the rear.
Definitely worth the run up the road.
The museum has expanded again, too, so I stopped in there and - among
other things, got pix of this '57 Chevy. Got to a race Saturday and
saw my hero, Cowboy Jim Kennedy, who's back at the ripe young age of
78 even after cracking a vertebra in the final race of last year. He
didn't do much Saturday, but he's still trying for all he's worth, so
I guess there's hope for us.
Eastern Museum of Motor Racing - York Springs, Pennsylvania - Lattimore Valley Fairgrounds - photo by Frank Buhrman
Restored Lattimore Valley Fairgrounds Dirt Track "Blindfolded Race" in York Springs, PA on 5/5/2013 - photo by Frank Buhrman
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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
