Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

Shelby Star Profiles "W" and Historic Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

Race director excited about possibilities at Cleveland Fairgrounds Speedway

Clark Leonard/The Star
Track director Michael W. Smith poses with his 1933 Plymouth Coupe Modified racecar at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway. He is looking forward to the start of racing at the track on April 21.

The Shelby Star
Saturday, Mar 17 2012, 4:04 pm
Alan Ford

Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway:

3/8-mile Dirt Track

Initial Race, 1 p.m. on April 21

Good Old Days Series begins April 27

Racing every Friday night with pit gate open at 4 p.m. for Safety Tech inspections

Track opens at 5 p.m., hot laps at 6 p.m., qualifying at 6:30pm

Racing starts at 8 p.m.

When the Cleveland Country Fairgrounds brass went looking for someone to direct its return to automobile racing, they obviously wanted someone with lifelong ties to the sport.

Michael W. Smith fit the bill and landed the job of Speedway Director. He has shepherded the venerable fairgrounds track through a renovation getting ready for an April 21 (1 p.m.) start date. The first Good Old Days Series race premieres April 27.

When you first talk to Smith, you realize his roots run deep in racing.

My grandfather ran motorcycles and then my Dad was a welder who ran Modifieds back in the 50s, said Smith, a native of Toledo, Ohio. We always had race cars in the yard. From the time I was old enough to understand it, I was hooked on racing. Thats all I ever wanted to do.

Smith has been involved in the sport at almost every level driver, car owner, race promoter. His affinity for racing hasnt abated through the years, nor his interest in the sports past.

Early NASCAR was where it was at, he says plainly. I got to see guys (in Ohio growing up) racing against the Pettys, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough and get beat by some of the guys. I was around Joe Reuttman and you could see him fit in with the greats of Daytona.

At this stage of his life, Smith wrestled with the question: What would get me back (in racing)?

The challenge at the local fairgrounds was right down his alley.

I wanted to have something that was affordable and that you could take children to, Smith said. Were going to have a NASCAR legends race every Friday. And we want to get local people involved.

There are a lot of people around here who were associated with it. Youll even find a few engines in some old garages around that havent been out in a while. Were really wanted those local and older guys to get there cars out.

Smith feels many folks today dont realize what a hub of racing the Shelby area was in the 1950s & 60s.

There were a lot of drivers and people that came here from everywhere from Charlotte to Greenville (S.C.), Smith said. I think it will be fun for people to see them and those cars. And we want to have something for all ages.

The first question Smith gets, when people ask whats in store for racing fans here, is What kind of car will be running?

It has to be a vintage racing class, which is 1937-to-1989, he said. Those are cars from a time where you still recognized the brand. People pulled for Plymouth, or Ford or Dodge in those days. So many of these cars will be ones that could never qualify today.

We want people to run what you got! Theyre not going to spend thousands of dollars. As a fan, I cant wait.

Im really excited about what weve done and what well have. There have been no negatives. A lot of people have told me they cant wait either.

For more info on whats ahead at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds Speedway, check on line at http://www.goodolddaysseries.com/

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:08:38PM

Southern National Drew 22 NASCAR LMSC Teams for Grand Re-Opening Saturday/McCaskill Sweeps Twin Features

Local and Regional Short Track Racing

I am reading that the grand re-opening of the beautiful Southern National Motorsports Park in Kenly, NC after a multi-year shutdown drew 22 NASCAR Late Model Stock Car teams on Saturday night with 34 year old Deac McCaskill of Raleigh winning the twin features.

I am anxious to hear about car counts in other divisions and the attendance numbers.

Sounds like a great field of LMSC, though.

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:09:31PM

Bob Lutz on the Goat Rodeo!

-RacersReunion® RADIO

Excerpts from a recent Associated Press Article :

NASCAR cars among new Myrtle Beach attractions
By BRUCE SMITH

Associated Press Mon, Mar 12, 2012

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) Free falling from a 60-foot tower, slipping down an oceanfront zip line or fighting through a curve in a car once driven by a NASCAR great are among the new attractions that will greet visitors to Myrtle Beach during a new beach season.

The NASCAR Racing Experience comes this year to the Myrtle Beach Speedway just across the Intracoastal Waterway from downtown. Also opening next month, it will make it easier to get behind the wheel of a car that was once driven by a NASCAR driver like Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company offers its classroom training and track driving experience at 10 NASCAR tracks around the country. But because it now owns the Myrtle Beach track where NASCAR drivers drove decades ago, it will be more accessible to would-be stock car drivers.

"If you come off the beach and you want to drive a race car, you can come up here," said Bob Lutz, the president and CEO of the company. "We would like people to make reservations but we will accept walk-ups. In other locations like Charlotte, we fill up the experiences two or three months in advance. Here we will have a lot more flexibility."

Last year, about 70,000 people participated in the NASCAR Racing Experience at the other tracks. This year, in Myrtle Beach alone, Lutz expects 40,000. His company is planning several million dollars in upgrades to the track during the next three years and plans races and other events beyond the driving experience.

About 75 percent of those who sign up for the experience are men. But the Myrtle Beach Speedway is in an ideal location with the Tanger Outlets complex just across the street, Lutz said. Couples and families can split up and take their pick, with shoppers heading to the nearly 100 stores and thrill-seekers taking on the challenges of the speedway's half-mile oval.

NASCAR RACING EXPERIENCE: Located at Myrtle Beach Speedway off U.S. 501 north of Myrtle Beach; http://www.nascarracingexperience.com/NRE/ , Opening April 18.

Bob Lutz on the Goat Rodeo!

-RacersReunion® RADIO

Only after reading this post did I realize that we weren't talking about Bob Lutz, the long time player at General Motors/Chevrolet Division who was so instrumental for so many years in the GM NASCAR decision making.

When Jumping the Restart is Not Jumping the Restart

Stock Car Racing History

NASCAR spokesman says Brad didn't accelerate in the designated zone on several Bristol restarts Sunday so it was ok for second place Matt to take the green first on those restarts.

I remember way back when in the 60s before the restart zone stuff when Ray Hendrick would mash the gas at the end of the backstretch on restarts at Southside in his Tant/Mitchell Flying #11 Modified.

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

Prayers for Dale and Mary Inman

-RacersReunion® OUTREACH

Thoughts and prayers to some very nice folks.

Monkey Race Cars & Monkey Racing (Not about Tim Flock & Jocko Flocko)

Trivia

I was watching the television show "Oddities" last night on Science Channel or Discovery and they had something for sale at the Obscura Antiques & Oddities emporium in New York City that I had neither seen or thought about in a half century.

A Monkey Race Car.

I saw these deals several times in the early 50s as a carnival tent show attraction at the State Fair of Virginia in Richmond.

The monkeys rode in these cars on rails.

The PETA folks would have had a heart attack.

Did any of you ever see a monkey car race?

Here's a couple of photos gleaned from around the internet:

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:10:12PM

Hidden Camera - Jeff & New Race Car

General

updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

SUNDAY AT THE FIGHTS OOOOH YEAH

Stock Car Racing History

Regardless of who you pick, they better have a good corner man!

Zion XRoads Speedway, Hilltop Speedway & Central Va. Raceway Were All the Same Track on U.S. 250

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

Several years ago on another racing site I asked if anyone was familiar with Zion Crossroads Speedway in Virginia. I had heard Richmond drivers like Al Grinnan, Runt Harris, Eddie Crouse and Ted Hairfield talk about the dirt track which was between Richmond and Charlottesville off U.S. 250 and ran in the late 40s and into the 50s, maybe even 60s.

Wendell Scott had won races there.

One respondent posted that his father-in-law had raced there as well as several other Charlottesville, Virginia area tracks like Unionville and Ruckersville.

Our own Bobby Williamson also responded with a satellite shot of what remained of the 1/4-mile establishment. This is the photo Bobby posted on Local Race Chat:

Imagine my surprise a while ago when I was reading on a Virginia Historical Society website about a 1948 photo of an old drive in movie outside of Charlottesville named the Seven Pines.

Responding to that photo post was the son of the builder of the drive in movie, who also turned out to be the son of the builder of Zion Crossroads Speedway. Here is that photo and the post made by the respondent. Turns out the track was called by at least three different names.

"My father built this drive-in in the late forties when I was about 8 years old. We used to show movies and also had stage shows on occasion. I have numerous ads from the Charlottesville paper advertising the movies. Most of the time the entry price was $1.00 per car load. The largest crowd ever was probably about 200 cars for a country stage show. My father J.G. Pugh built the store, house and later the theater. He also built the Orange Drive-In with Jack Johnson, a neighbor. Jack Johnson operated the Orange Drive-In while my father operated Seven Pines. Soon after the demise of the theater (due in part I think to the opening of Ridge Drive-In in Charlottesville and the inability to get any late movies) my father built a stock car race track at Zion Crossroads. The raceway initially was known as Hilltop Speedway and later Central Virginia Raceway." -- Ken Pugh

updated by @dave-fulton: 05/19/18 04:20:55AM