I'm WAY out of my jurisdiction on this one, but a good friend, Eddie Samples, whose dad was racing legend, Ed Samples, found an old trophy from 1952, but could not find any information on the track itself. According to the note on the bottom of the trophy, the track was located in Saugerties New York.
Any help would be appriciated!
-Cody
Thanks!
Good suggestion PK. Back in the day they ran a lot of midget cars on flat horse tracks. I will see some of my NY friends this week end like Ford Easton, Ed Ortiz, Billy Wimble so I will ask around.
Another place to look Cody is this... Victory Speedway fairgrounds park is located at the Orange Co. New York Fairgrounds in Middletown N.Y. which is only 60 miles from Saugerties. This dirt track is the oldest dirt track in the nation and started before the civil war. The long time announcer that was there back in the 60's was Ray Martin. He wrote a book called "The hard clay in Orange County- 50 years of Speed" It has a bunch of info of all the 50-60's guys around there.. Theres also a well known fellow up there called Dt. Dirt , his name is Bill Boyle... This should get you started digging til I can look around some more... Bill
Yeah, those look like "Late Models."
From the OKCupid dating Site:
Hot_Darin
35 / M / Straight / Single
Saugerties, New York
home or stock car racing love going to races
Seriously, I found a driver from Saugerties, NY who was winning races in the 50s-60s at Lebanon Valley, Pine Bowl and Catamount Stadium. His name was "Stretch" van Steenburg . That sounds more Dutch than "Dutch" Hoag.
Here are a couple of Arnie Ainsworth photos of Stretch from Saugerties:
Stretch van Steenburg of Saugerties, NY driving #38 at Pine Bowl Speedway - 1953
Q&A with Hollis 'Stretch' Van Steenburgh: Life behind the wheel now put to good cause
Monday chat
By Joe Crankshaw
Posted October 15, 2007 at 12:39 p.m.
Hollis "Stretch" Van Steenburgh, 85, a native of Saugerties, N.Y., drives a van from Fort Pierce to Vero Beach to Stuart every day, and twice a week he adds Okeechobee to the list. Stretch, as he likes to be called, loves driving as a courier for New Horizons of the Treasure Coast. He loves driving so much that in his younger life, he raced on the stock car tracks on New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, earning the World War II veteran of Army service in the South Pacific spots in the New York State Stock Car Racing Association Hall of Fame, as well as the Lebanon Valley Speedway Hall of Fame and the Sports Hall of Fame in his hometown. If pushed, he will admit he is in those halls to honor a winning record. He also says he is honored that New Horizons' workers selected him as the outstanding employee of the month.
Q. What do you deliver on those long trips?
A. Inter-office mail, medical records, pharmaceutical stuff, anything that needs to be moved from one office or clinic to the other.
Q. How did you get into racing cars?
A. I was following a friend of mine around, while he raced midgets. The stock cars came in. A friend and I built a stock car, and started racing.
Q. What is the difference between a stock car and other races?
A. Stock cars are more modern, like those they race at Daytona. The other cars are smaller and have open wheels, like midget and sprint cars and have open cockpits.
Q. Do you know how many races you ran?
A. I raced for 20 years during the season.
Q. How fast did you drive in those races?
A. It depended on the track, but well over 100 mph.
Q. Now you drive for New Horizons, how do the speeds compare?
A. You have to maintain the speed limit pretty much. Sometimes you go over it when you are late, but you try to stay at the limit. It's not like a race track.
Q. How do you do all that driving and not wear yourself out?
A. I get to see a lot of people, nice people, and things. It is not a boring job.
Q. In general, what do you think of the average drivers on the Treasure Coast? How would you classify them?
A. The average driver around here is pretty reckless. They seem to have little concern for anyone else. You have to be ready to dodge somebody else. You have to pay attention. They all want to be first.
Q. What is the worst example of driving you have seen?
A. Well, I have seen so many, I can't pick one out as the worst. People have run red lights on me when I had the green. I have to do emergency stops in intersections. I was sideswiped by a dump truck.
Q. What makes a good driver?
A. A good driver is one that pay absolute attention to what he is doing and is courteous.
Q. What do you think about people who drive along talking on a cell phone, messing with the radio and drinking coffee?
A. I see that. In my home state, it is against the law to drive and talk on the cell phone. It is very distracting. I find that is true for myself when I get a call while I am driving.
Q. Are men or women better drivers, or they about the same?
A. A lot of women are good drivers, men, too, but a lot are inconsiderate. Young people are often inconsiderate.
Q. What do you enjoy most about this job?
A. The people. They work hard with people who have problems, and that makes me think they are good people.
Oh, I understand what we are looking for.
I did check and see that the fellow is in the NY State hall of Fame, fyi.
Saugerties, NY Sports Hall of Fame:
http://www.saugertieshof.com/Pages/default.aspx
Mr. Hollis van Steenburg inducted 1985.
Stretch was my favorite driver at Lebanon Valley Speedway in the early 60's. He drove a cross fired Chevy V-8 in a '55 Chevy #99. He was a "COOL" guy.
Doug Garrision "X"and Rebel Harris "AAA"were other "hot shoes".
Stretch is the only survivor.
Stretch sounds like the kind of guy we'd all like to see drive.
Maybe we need some more clues. I've looked at all horse and auto race tracks in New York and even included Historic tracks with no luck so far. Might be better if we saw a photo of the trophy, Is there a car on the trophy, If so ,open wheel or coupe style. Is the note on the bottom or the front of the base plate. To me there's 2 possibilities, The trophy was from a shop in Saugerties and won at a local track or it was from an open wheel car and won at the old horse track in Saugerties. Interesting data hunt Mr. Dinsmore has thrown at us eh?
Or maybe Cody's friend's dad met Stretch from Saugerties at that race and jotted down the name of the town where he lived on that scrap of paper on the base of the trophy.
In my search of tracks and towns in New York I did come across Fultonville so that confirms that Dave is more well known than we thought, lol....
It's tough when you're famous (infamous), lol!
Whenever people asked how to spell my name... I said, "Like the steamboat guy, Robert Fulton - Fulton's Folly."
In New York there's a dirt track, Fonda,in Fultonville, located between Albany and Utica,and a dirt track in Fulton (was originally asphalt), Fulton Speedway, located north of Syracuse and south of Oswego (where I went tocollege).
So there's all kinds of Fultons in NY besides the the "Folly".
Frank, I was up there in 1961 when Fulton opened but never knew about it until after I shipped out. Utica-Rome in Vernon and Fonda Speedway in Fonda was the only two tracks I got to run at. Went to Oswego one time and they wouldnt let me run for a safety issue on the car. I came to like that area very much. Did get to see a fantastic super modified race at Oswegp .
Bill, Part of the year, especially during racing season, it's real nice up there.
BUT, during most of the school year the weather sucks. January 1966 I endured a 2 1/2 dayblizzard that deposited 109" of snow in ONE storm in Oswego. Look it up, it's on the record books. It was a "Perfect Storm". The warm water from Lake Ontario kept feeding it. 35 miles south in Syracuse I was toldthey never got a snow flake!!!!!!!!
A saw more snow in ONE storm than most folks in South Carolina will see in their ENTIRE life. I snarl at folks that tell me snow is pretty!!!
Racing and snowmobiling are the only things that kept me up there as long as it did.
I've never seen a race at Fulton on the dirt. I've driven at Fonda many times. It was a real drivers track.
Frank, If you ran at Fonda I might have got to see you and might have even waved as you went by. lol....Did you ever get to run against Ed Ortiz or Billy Wimble? I see them all the time here in central Florida... Maybe you could come down to Florida for a few days in Feb. and take in a couple of the modified reunion races I get invited to., Lots of guys from your area are there.
Thanks for the responses from everyone...I just haven't been on the internet lately since Jimmy Mosteller passed on. But anyway, thanks for helping me out. I'll get back to Eddie and let him see all this stuff.
BTW, the note on the bottom of the trophy was a handwritten note from Ed.
So we have something in common besides racing. We both dislike @*!#^% snow !!!
I tell folks about it snowing sideways foe 2 1/2 days and they can't believe it. Drifts 20-30 feet deep on on side of a building and no snow on the otherside. My college dormitory, Scales Hall,was right on the lake shore, so we got the full force of the storm.
Now, here's a funny one for ya'. I moved south to go to work for Michelin Tirein '77 and to get away from snow and rust. I transfer into the test driving group in '79 and guess what part of the job is?? We have to test tires in the snow, which means I have to go up there for a month or so to testin that "stuff" every year. Over the years we would go to Vermont, Canada and eventually the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I did that for 9-10 years. Again, I don't care to see another snow flake.
I checked all my sources and could not find any record of a track in Saugerties.
But, as already mentioned here, "Stretch" was from that town.
That pic of Pine Bowl Speedwaybrings back some memories. The first year I raced, we ran Lebanon Valley on Sat and several times at Pine Bowl Sunday afternoon. That was the last year Pine Bowl ran. Think that was 1966 or '67. From what I remember, Pine Bowl was the first paved oval track in New York State. As a kid I remember Kenny Goodermote #62jr, Gene Bergin M-6, the Sharkey Bros.#44 and a host of other GOOD cars running there. They also had midgets and real late model "new" car races there. I remember Goodermote winning in a new '55 Chevrolet. Pretty sure the big races were run under the UNITED scanction, with Harvey Tattersall as the promoter.
I started racing around about the time Wimble got hurt at Lebanon Valley, which ended his career. I ran Fonda several times from '73-'76, but wasn't a regular there.
Here's a pic of the #7 'Cuda I ran '73-'75. This pic was taken at Lebanon Valley.
Frank, I had the pleasure of getting to know Gene Bergin very well after we both moved to Florida. I remember him telling me he started racing at Pine Bowl in 1956. Most folks dont know he was an all state football player and all state in baseball in Connecticut as well as a great race car driver. We lost Gene in March 2011 in Palm Coast, Fl. Here's a pic of him,myself and Ed Ortiz at the Modified Racers Re-union at New Smyrna Speedway a few years ago.
Bill,
Great pic.
Most folks associate the Pinto RevoIution with the Judkins 2x and Flemke, but if my memory serves me correctly Bergin drove the Pinto before Flemke. Bob said that Gene was a great driver.
Every November when I head to Ponce Inlet, FL for vacation I stop by and see Judkins in Edgewater. Sometimes we sharespaces at the Turkey Rod Run swap meet at the Speedway. He's a way "COOL" guy and about as sharp a mechanical mind as you'll find.
He has his daily afternoon coffee meeting north of his place at the "Dunkin' Donuts". A great bunch of guys/gals show up.
Frank
Maybe you and I can meet up this Nov. when you come down...Bill
Yeah, that would be neat. Keep in touch so we'll remember.
Always good to BS old racing stories.
