SPEEDWAY OBITUARY

     (I was given a newspaper clippping written and published when the Dayton Speedway was irretrievably gone.  I have no information on who wrote it or where or when it was printed, but it clearly reflects the sadness we all feel at the loss of a grand old speedway. 

Mickey --  January 3, 2009)

     UPDATE:  We've discovered that the article was written by Dayton sportswriter Bucky Albers and published on June 21, 1986 in either the Journal Herald or Daily News.  (Bucky is reasonably sure that it was the Journal Herald.  I've updated the heading to include Bucky's by-line.  Mickey -- November 6, 2009)

SPEEEDWAY HAS CROSSED THE FINISH LINE

By Bucky Albers

Dayton Journal Herald

June 21, 1986

     They are burying an old friend in West Dayton.

     Don't bother to send flowers.

     There won't be any funeral.  There is no casket.

     The body is badly decomposed, so there will be no visitation.  Do yourself a favor.  Don't try to sneak a glimpse.  You'll be better off remembering the Dayton Speedway the way it was when it was alive -- when it was trimmed in red paint, decorated with beer signs and had alcohol on its breath.

     Bulldozers are covering up the old track on Soldiers Home - West Carrollton Road.  If there had been the slightest doubt, it is certain that an era has come to an end.

     Never again will the roar of racing engines rise out of that cavern.  Never again will thousands spend Sunday afternoons on the hillside watching grown men risk their lives going around in circles.

     A generation of Daytonians knows nothing of the Dayton Speedway, but those of us with even a sprinkling of gray hair remember when it was a beehive of activity.

     Many of the great ones raced there in the days when they wore nothing on their heads but goggles and had no roll bars or seat belts.

     Mauri Rose, Rex Mays and Everett Saylor all put the pedal to the metal.

     Dayton Speedway had a dirt surface at first but when I came to know the track 35 years ago it was a high-banked. half-mile asphalt oval where the speeds sometimes exceeded a driver's ability to handle the steering wheel.

     Such was the case in April 1952 when a 29-year-old Californian named Gordon Reid lost control of the Dayton-owned Engle-Stanko sprint car in the fourth turn while in hot pursuit of Joey James and Troy Ruttman.

     Reid's car went over the cement retaining wall and into the end of the grandstand, killing the driver, a security guard and two spectators.

     Later in the same year, Jim Rigsby catapulted high over the wall and died.

     In spite of such tragic accidents, my memories of Dayton Speedway are mostly fond ones.

     Such as seeing Lee Petty, father of King Richard, running in NASCAR races that included Tim and Fonty Flock.  That's when the Hudson Hornet was a hot item.

     Later Iggy Katona, Jack Bowsher and Benny Parson would take turns dominating the long distance late model races.  Nobody ever won the annual Dayton 500.  They survived it.

     I remember when Briar Johnson from Richmond and Jack Farris from New Paris were the scourge of the weekly stock car showns on the quarter-mile track.

     Which is not to slight Dick Freeman, Harold Smith, Dick Dunlevy, Red Harvey, Ed Benedict, Arnold Dunaway, Neal Sceva, Levi Dunaway and the man who dominated the weekly shows in the '60s -- Buster Blackford.

     The speedway offered sportsman stocks, convertibles, roaring roadsters, midgets, sprint cars, late models and beauty queens.

     The beauty queens weren't always pretty.  That's why the sprint cars were my favorite attraction.

     Until he was severely injured in a race in Iowa after his 1952 victory in the Indianapolis 500, Troy Ruttman got around the Dayton Speedway like nobody else.  Driving J. C. Agajanian's No. 98Jr., Ruttman was the king of the Midwest's high banked tracks. -- Dayton, Salem (Ind.) and Winchester (Ind.).

     Remember Iron Mike Nazaruk?  How about Pat O'Connor, Bob Sweikert, Jimmy Daywalt, Eddie Sachs, Johnny Thomson, Duane Carter and Andy Linden.  They were regulars in the 1950s.

     The 1960s brought Parnelli Jones and Jim Hurtubise from the West Coast with Chevrolet-powered sprinters that blew everybody away.

     A.J.Foyt was on Jones' tail for 30 laps one Sunday afternoon in what was one of the most breathtaking races I can recall.

     It should be mentioned that Hurtubise was an excellent dirt track driver but never mastered the high banks.

     One Sunday he got his red No. 56 out of shape in Turn 2, put his tail against the rail, flew out of the ball park backwards and disappeared from the spectators' view.

     There was a murmur in the crowd as the fans pondered Hurtubise's fate.  Finally the fun-loving Herk climbed up to the guardrail and waved to signal that he was OK.

     His car had landed in a tree, which cushioned the impact.  Considering himself lucky to be alive, Herk never raced in Dayton after that.

     Like many of us, though, he will never forget Dayton Speedway.