Racing History Minute - October 20, 1957
Stock Car Racing History
Unfortunately, 56 years later, fans are still being hurt and killed in the stands at motorsports events, though great strides have been made.
Forum Activity for @dave-fulton
Stock Car Racing History
Bad News
Stock Car Racing History
Sorry to hear the sad news, Jimmy. Thoughts to friends and family.
SHE IS ALL SMILES NOW
Stock Car Racing History
Johnny... I know you, I and Legend look at her car, but I'm not sure what that Jeff fellow is looking at!
SHE IS ALL SMILES NOW
Stock Car Racing History
Richard smiled 'cause he was counting all those $$$ in his head in Victory Lane!
SHE IS ALL SMILES NOW
Stock Car Racing History
Since when do real racers need fancy dental work to eat vienna sausage and sardines??!!
Sad news indeed, A great friend and fellow RR member has passed.
Stock Car Racing History
Some very interesting writeups and photos of Jim's racing exploits on the site maintained by he and his wife:
Sad news indeed, A great friend and fellow RR member has passed.
Stock Car Racing History
Thoughts and prayer to Jim Kaserman's family, friends and fellow racers. Sorry for the personal loss, Bill.
Update on Construction of Proposed New Motorsports Complex Near Fredericksburg, Virginia
Local and Regional Short Track Racing
This update appeared in the Richmond paper today regarding construction of the proposed Dominion Raceway motorsports complex on I-95 near Fredericksburg, Virginia:
Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013
Dominion Raceway Race, entertainment complex in works near I-95
Developers see 160-acre site in Spotsylvania as hosting hundreds of varied events
The view of the grandstand at Dominion Raceway.
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Dominion Raceway
Developers are ready to begin work on a 160-acre motor sports and entertainment complex along Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County.
Related Documents
Posted: Saturday, October 19, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 12:26 am, Sat Oct 19, 2013.
Developers are ready to begin work on a 160-acre motor sports and entertainment complex along Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County .
The projects plans include a 4/10-mile oval racetrack, a 1/8-mile drag strip, a 2-mile road course and a go-kart course.
Plans include a three-story, 36,000-square-foot building for spectator suites and race operations, and grandstands that seat 3,500 fans for oval track events and 1,200 for drag races.
The complex will have a 46-foot-by-26-foot jumbo video screen to be used during events and for drive-in movies. Plans include space for exhibitions, festivals, trade shows, concerts and other events. Developers anticipate concert crowds of up to 9,000.
Dominion Raceway Holdings , the company that owns the project, was formed by developers Steve Britt and Jerry D. Evans. The company recently closed on a $3.25 million deal to purchase the land for the complex east of I-95 at the Thornburg exit south of Fredericksburg, exit 118.
Britt said Friday that the complexs total cost is projected at about $16 million and that site work will start in a few days. He said he hopes construction at the complex will be finished in about a year and that it will be open for racing in 2015.
Britt has a longtime association with stock car racing. When he was in high school, he said, he was part of a crew of classmates that fielded a car in races at Old Dominion Speedway near Manassas. Decades later as a successful developer, he bought that 3/8-mile track.
After operating the track for about three years, he sold it to developers in a deal that closed in April, he said. Terms of that purchase were not disclosed. The track, which had been holding races since 1948, has been demolished, he said.
I love racing, and I wanted to see if I could do a new racetrack and do it differently, Britt said. I want this to be a great community-event place, a modern interpretation of a raceway.
The 4/10-mile Dominion Raceway oval will hold weekend races for several months each year. It will be smaller than the 3/4-mile Richmond International Raceway, which seats about 84,000 and is host to two major NASCAR annual events.
The new oval will be longer than the 1/3-mile Southside Speedway in Chesterfield County.
Britt said the complex could not support itself with racing events only. I feel sure well have several hundred events a year, he said. Its not going to be just a weekend venue.
He said cars running the oval-track races at the complex would run with mufflers as had been the case for decades at Old Dominion Speedway reducing the noise impact on neighbors.
Evans said that, unlike Britt, he is not a racing enthusiast.
Im into the project because I realized how good it can be for the community, he said. You can have just about any kind of event you can imagine there. You can have your wedding there.
About 40 acres of the site are available for other commercial development. Evans said businesses such as restaurants and auto service companies could locate there. I think that other development will follow, he said. That will be good for employment in the county.
Britt said the complex will have about a dozen permanent employees and that some events will swell the staff to nearly 100.
The Spotsylvania Board of Supervisors approved the necessary rezoning and special-use permits for the complex and is considering exceptions to a noise ordinance. The site plan for the complex is under review by the countys planning department.
The developers have been working with the Virginia Department of Transportation since January to deal with traffic issues. In a letter dated Thursday, VDOT detailed remaining concerns and asked for a revised plan to address those concerns.
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:09:31PM
Racing History Minute - October 19, 1952
Stock Car Racing History
Thanks, Dennis. It was interesting for me to learn about this driver.
Racing History Minute - October 19, 1952
Stock Car Racing History
Motorsports
Renna farewell comes home
Family and friends, including an ex-NASCAR driver from Tampa, see the 26-year-old buried in his town, DeLand.
By BRANT JAMES
Published November 1, 2003
DELAND - Ralph Liguori had the talk with his grandson again. This time it broke his heart.
In more than 50 years of racing, from stock cars on Daytona Beach to open-wheel machines at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the youthful 77-year-old Tampa resident has learned the danger of auto racing, personally felt the pain when speed mixes with disaster.
That was why he had a sober talk with his grandson, Joe, when he decided he, too, wanted to go fast. Now 17, Joe is starting to go faster than ever. Liguori was reminded on Oct. 22 how perilous it can really be.
Having just completed a long drive back from Indianapolis with a truckload of racing equipment, he was met at the front door by his wife, Jane, and told there was awful news.
Tony Renna, an aspiring Indy Racing League driver in his first official duties after signing just a month ago with the mighty Chip Ganassi Racing team, had died after his car went airborne during a tire test at IMS and crashed into a barrier.
Renna was a few months from beginning his dream job as a full-time IRL driver, a month from turning 27, less than a month from marrying his fiancee, Debbie Savini.
He was also like a son toLiguori, who had been close with Renna's parents for decades and watched Tony grow from an energetic child to the popular young man whose death drew almost 400 mourners to St. Peter's Catholic Church on Friday morning.
"The kid had a dream from when he was 8 years old. He was going to win the Indianapolis 500 one day, and let me tell you, if he'd stayed alive, he would have won it," Liguori said. "If I had a son like that, I'd thank the Lord. There couldn't have been a better ... I'm emotional about this ... as good a race driver as he was, he was even a better man."
"He always knew that the brightest day would be tomorrow," Renna's manager, Mark Coughlin, said. "There was a spring in his walk, his confidence at an all-time high, because he knew he belonged."
Renna had five top-10 finishes in seven races as a substitute driver for Kelley Racing in the IRL over the past two seasons. He finished seventh in his only race this year, the Indy 500.
"I left the morning he got killed not knowing it happened," Liguori said. "I don't play the radio when I'm driving and towing equipment because I concentrate on my driving. When I got home my wife told me she had bad news for me and I thought it was someone in my family. ... But that kid was like my family."
So he sat down with his son and daughter-in-law and Joe. The message: He couldn't bear the thought of something happening to Joe, so he didn't wish to support his career any longer.
"Before he ever started racing I said, "Listen, in this sport it's not a matter of if, but when you're going to get hurt,' " Liguori said. "If you stay in it long enough, you're going to get hurt. They accepted that. Then after Tony got killed, I came back and told them this is what can really happen and I didn't know if I was behind it anymore."
The response was as expected, likely what Liguori as a younger man would have told his family.
"He said, "Grandpa, whether you help me or not, I'm going to be a race driver,' " Liguori said. "So I have to help. This sport is like a drug, but it's legal."
Liguori moved to Florida in the 1950s to race stock cars - he raced in NASCAR's top circuit in its early days, before it was called Winston Cup - but the $65 local purses were insufficient to make a living.
He met his wife in Tampa and his father-in-law to be helped land him a job at Sunshine Park, now called Tampa Bay Downs. Liguori, who was eventually put in charge of admissions, parking and programs, met a jockey there named Joe Renna, who became a close friend and Tony's father. The Liguoris often drove from Tampa to DeLand for Tony's races once they retired, and had dinner with he and Savini a few weeks before Tony's death.
Liguori knows Renna won't be the last to die in this dangerous passion.
"Maybe we're crazy, but I don't think we're are," he said, sniffling. "I think we are dedicated to what we do and love what we do. It's like a jockey. When they get hurt, they get back on."
[Last modified November 1, 2003, 01:49:01]