Tracks Inside Baseball Parks / Attn: Ed Sanseverino, Ray Lamm & Interested Parties

On the Racing Through History segment last night with the live feed to the Cleveland County, NC (Shelby) Fairgrounds, while talking about Asheville, the subject of racetracks inside baseball stadiums came up. I mentioned Mooers Field in Richmond, VA - Ed Sanseverino asked the location and Ray Lamm indicated he had been there when he was six years old. The asphalt track was located in what is known as the Scott's Addition section of Richmond. The aerial photo below wastaken by Richmond's Dementi Studios and donated to the Virginia Historical Society.

March 14, 1954 photo. Mooers Field Speedway - Richmond, Virginia. Off West Broad Street at end of Roseneath Road near WTVR-TV towerat Carlton in Richmond's near West End, just past Curles Neck Dairy and just before the Acca Railroad Yards (see background). The Richmond Colts of the Piedmont League, owned by former major leaguer Eddie Mooers, played baseball at Mooers Field from 1942-1953 before baseball in Richmond moved to Parker Field on The Boulevard in 1954. Paved weekly Richmond stock car racing eventually moved to Chesterfield County, Virginia's Southside Speedway, which originally opened as Royall Speedway. We used to sit in the dairy bar at Curles Neck Dairy (Roseneath Rd.) on Saturday afternoon and watch the parade of what my dad called "jalopies" lined up to enter the track. The grandstands seated approximately 4,300 spectators. The facility was leveled in 1958. I saw my first circus on the same grounds - the big tent show of Clyde Beatty/Cole Brothers sometime in the 50s. The original baseball grandstands are clearly visible in the racetrack photo. I worked a summer job just down the street for several years at Dave Cody Wholesale Auto Parts Warehouse who supplied all Richmond area wholesale parts dealers (you haven't lived until you've unloaded a tractor trailer load of intertwined tailpipes on a 100 degree day)!

You'll notice on the Maryland Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame site for Johnny Roberts http://www.mdscrhof.org/Johnny_Roberts.php , that he is listed as having finished 3rd in NASCAR Sportsman standings at Mooers Field for the 1954 season.

I guess that technically Mooers Field should be classified as a racetrack that replaced a baseball park, rather than a track inside a baseball park. How about other tracks inside baseball parks (not football stadiums)?

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

From Insider Racing News.com:

McCormick Field - Asheville, NC

Racing moved into Asheville at McCormick Field. McCormick had been the home to the Asheville Tourists Baseball team and saw such greats as Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Willie Stargell and a batboy named Cal Ripken. For three years in the 1950s, baseball abandoned McCormick Field. A quarter-mile race track was constructed around the baseball diamond and racing ensued. The NASCAR Grand National Division made one visit to McCormick Field in July 1958. Jim Paschal, driving Julian Pettys No. 49 Chevrolet won the 150-lap event on the quarter-mile asphalt track.



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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

In the summer of 1958, my family took its first vacation from Richmond to a North Carolina beach... Carolina Beach outside Wilmington. A wonderful summer, and it does indeed seem like a lifetime ago. The little flounder I am holding for the camera in a faded color picture taken on the Carolina Beach fishing pier seems so tiny when I see it now. The wonderful ocean cottage we stayed in was destroyed in 1959 by Hurricane Donna. Today, my younger daughter and her son vacation down the road at Kure Beach, but I haven't been to those parts for 53 years.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

I found a couple of proposals floating around for auto racing at closed baseball parks, one in Columbus, OH and one in Tulsa, OK:

Ohio officials OK stadium rezoning for auto racing
Published 07:08 a.m., Tuesday, June 28, 2011

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The city council in Columbus is waving a green go-ahead flag at a proposal to develop an auto racing track at the site of an old minor league baseball stadium.

Council members voted unanimously Monday night to rezone Cooper Stadium for the $40 million track project. The plans also include an automotive research and technology center.

The rezoning legislation includes provisions to address concerns about noise in the neighborhood. The track's sound walls must undergo periodic inspections, and racing will be prohibited from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

The project still requires a special permit from a city zoning panel, which could include further noise rules.

The Columbus Clippers played their last game at the nearly 80-year-old Cooper Stadium in September 2008.

Old Drillers baseball stadium could be site of car races
If so, they would likely not begin until later this summer or early fall.

By KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
Published: 4/23/2010 2:27 AM

The roar of race car engines could soon replace the sound of a baseball hitting a bat at old Drillers Stadium at Expo Square.

County officials are discussing with racing promoter Emmett Hahn the possibility of holding a few races inside the ballpark, which sits empty now that the Tulsa Drillers baseball team is playing downtown at ONEOK Field.

"We're just trying to work on a couple of dates when we can try a racing event here," Mark Andrus, Expo Square's president and CEO, said Thursday.

The races would likely not begin until later this summer, or early fall, with perhaps a race scheduled during the Tulsa State Fair, Andrus said.

Last week, Andrus, Hahn, County Commissioner Karen Keith and John Baker, a Tulsa City-County Health Department employee, met to listen and observe as three micro midget cars revved their engines inside the ballpark.

"We were testing things to be sure they were within acceptable noise levels and that it would work," Andrus said. "It was very acceptable."

Keith said the actual testing took place two blocks north of the ballpark on Winston Avenue, where she, Andrus and Baker used sound meters to test the noise levels.

"It didn't even make a blip on it," Keith said, "and that's with three of them running. We couldn't really hear anything."

Keith was quick to acknowledge, however, that the three-car sampling did not generate the same noise level an actual race would.

Baker, who lives near the fairgrounds, said last week's noon-hour test was just the first step in determining whether the noise level created by the cars would be acceptable.

The next step is to measure the noise level on a Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, which is when the fairgrounds is considering holding the races.

"Would it create a nuisance for the neighborhood, we can't determine at this time," he said.

Outdoor racing was a weekly event at the fairgrounds in the late 1970s and early '80s.

But in 1983, when the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority was created to oversee the fairgrounds, the members decided to get rid of outdoor races because of the problems it had caused.

Bill Weinrich, president of the Sunrise Terrace Neighborhood Association, said he doesn't know how neighborhood residents will respond to the latest proposal to hold outdoor auto races at the fairgrounds.

But he does recall how they responded in 2003, the last time races were held at the fairgrounds.

"It would be an unfavorable reaction, based on the poll we did," he said.

Baker said it was important to note that the races being contemplated inside the ballpark would involve much smaller cars than those used in 2003, and that the cars would have mufflers to limit the engine noise.

"It is encouraging at this point," Baker said.

Hahn, who puts on the annual Chili Bowl inside the QuikTrip Center at Expo Square, was not available for comment.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

So true. Those were wonderful days. We always vacationed with another great family who had a son 4 years older than me. I absolutely idolized him and he was great to me considering I was 4 years younger. He taught me how to be really aggressive in the bumper cars and how far you could push the envelope at the go kart track without being expelled for racing or wrecking! Kenneth grew up to manage a nuclear power station for Virginia Power. I was devastated some years back to hear of his death at age 41 from a massive heart attack while chopping wood for needy families with a church group. Things were simpler in those days. No fast food joints. My mom would cook a ham and we would transport it in a large metal cooler that took two people to lift when filled with ice. My kids and grandchildren can't understand it anymore than my dad telling me about walking 3 miles to school.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

I'm sure its the same team, PKL. They were the Columbus Jets back in the day.


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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

PKL, here's the 1958 International League AAA Baseball Teams and standings - as usual, my Richmond Virginians (Vees) were near the bottom of the heap - the hated New York Yankees having sold off all the talent they didn't call up to the "Show." Your Red Wings were still a St. Louis farm in 1958. The league was truly "international" with Havana, Montreal and Toronto as well as the 5 U.S. teams.

League Standings
Team Major League AffiliationW L W-L% GB
Montreal Royals LAD 90 63 .588 --
Toronto Maple Leafs 87 65 .572 2.5
Rochester Red Wings STL7775 .50712.5
Columbus Jets PIT 7777 .50013.5
Miami Marlins PHI 75 78 .49015
Richmond VirginiansNYY 7182 .46419
Buffalo BisonsKC 69 83 .454 20.5
Havana Sugar KingsCIN6588 .42525

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"