1959 HALF-MILE DIRT TRACK

     For one season, 1959, the Dayton Speedway management ran racing events on a half-mile flat dirt track...the unpaved apron of the high-banked asphalt track!  We'd heard that this was the case, but until recently we had no photographs showing racing action on the dirt apron.  Now, thanks to former official MARC/ARCA photographer Tom Davidson, we can give you some idea what racing on the Dayton Speedway dirt half-mile was like!

     [Do you have additional photos or information regarding the 1959 dirt track events?  If so, please contact me here!  

     Mickey  --  April 10, 2009]

     Here's the start (above) of a supermodified feature event at Dayton Speedway on the half-mile dirt apron of the track.  It is hard to imagine a race course less safe!  The light poles on the inside were left unprotected and on the outside the transition from dirt to paving looks like a curb.  The guard shown standing in the infield is there to keep spectators from wandering too close to the racing action.

     Jerry Wahl (jlwahl1@hotmail.com) has been able to identify some of the drivers in this photograph.  The car with the wing in the middle of the photo is Jim Cushman.  Jim is recognized as being one of the first to use a wing on a race car.  Beside Cushman is Harold Smith.  Also in the photo are Elzie Whentenall and Emerson Sayre of Columbus.  Jerry used to help out on Sayre's car.  Bringing up the rear in #P6 is none other than Rollie Beale who would go on to fame in the USAC Sprint Division.

     (Above) That's Al Beale in the #7 modified.  The driver of #T3 is as yet unidentified.  (Below)  Two more photographs of Al Beale and his #7 supermodifieds.

     (Above)  Infield activity during one of the racing events on the Dayton Speedway dirt apron track.  That ambulance (left, above) doesn't instill a lot of confidence in the crew's ability to deal with an injury, does it?

     (Below)  Rollie Beale in the #P6 takes the outside line to pass the #20 as the #F40 charges up from behind.

     (Below)  Rollie Beale in his #P6 prepares for the start of an event on the Dayton Speedway flat half-mile dirt apron.

All photos this page courtesy of the former official MARC/ARCA photographer, Tom Davidson.