WHAT'S NEW?
ARCHIVE 6
UPDATE:
LLOYD MOORE CORRECTION
Many of you across the FODS Nation have read the story of Lloyd Moore here. Though Lloyd’s career was short he was clearly a champion, in more ways than one. I recently received this note from Reggie Houghwot:
Hi There,
My name is Reggie Houghwot. I was good friends with Lloyd Moore.
I just wanted to point out to you that you have Lloyd's date of death wrong
on your site in "The People" section.
Lloyd died May 18, 2008 ,3:35pm. I know because I was there at his side minutes after his passing.
Just wanted to point this out to you.
Reggie Houghwot
Thanks, Reggie! I’ve made the necessary correction. And Reggie provided a number of links to stories about Lloyd Moore, so I’ve added those to the Lloyd Moore page here also.
Reggie also sent along some photos that were not yet posted on Moore’s DSL page, and I’ve posted them here. Included is a photo of Moore being honored in a home town parade. Moore rides in the back seat of a vintage convertible while Reggie rides in the front seat supporting…you’ve probably already guessed it…Moore’s beloved 1954 Dayton Speedway trophy!
FODS BOB JENKINS CHECKS IN
One of the most recognizable television racing journalists, veteran Bob Jenkins (bojen5111@yahoo.com), turns out to be just another FODS like the rest of us! Here’s what Bob wrote in his note to me:
Your website is awesome! Having grown up in Liberty, Indiana (just across the state line from Oxford), I attended the Dayton Speedway many times.
My fondest auto racing memory of all time was attending the "Championship" race on August 12, 1956. I was 8 years old, but there are so many things I remember about that day. I was a Pat O'Connor fan, and on the way home by mom said "his pit crew must have gone to sleep and didn't show him how close Elisian was getting". I actually believed that Pat's pit crew put their feet up and went to sleep during the feature. I was also there the day Hurtubise went over the third turn wall.
When I was doing "SpeedWeek" on ESPN, I came to Dayton to find the track in much the same condition as shown in one of your pictures. I just stood and flashed back to the many races and memories I have of the place.
Anyway, I've spent hours looking at the pictures and reading the stories on your website. Keep up the good work, and never let the memory of the Dayton Speedway die.
Unfortunately I can't come to your re-union, but please tell everyone how much the track will always mean to me.
Bob Jenkins
(now of Versus)
Thanks Bob! It was great to hear from someone who is among the most respected television guys in the sport of auto racing. I’ve also posted Bob’s remembrances here on The Stories page.
The “reunion” that Bob mentions is actually our birthday pizza party for DSL who is officially one year old and still in diapers. If you would like to be a part of this brouhaha, check out the details here. We’d love to see you there!
PIC OF THE WEEK
This week I’ve selected a photo of Les Adair, a driver who competed at Dayton Speedway in the ‘30s and early ‘40s. The photo is taken from behind the car with Les looking over his shoulder, a pose that I have always found appealing. I hope you like it, too. Check it out here. My thanks to loyal FODS Terry Barnett (kntbarnetts@yahoo.com) of Arcanum who was kind enough to bring his photos to the Piqua Race Car Show for me to scan.
There are more photos on the way from Terry’s collection.
A DAYTON FAN SPEAKS OUT IN NSSN
The April 8, 2009 issue of National Speed Sport News features a letter from Paul Weisenbach, of Fairview Park, Ohio, a fan of Dayton Speedway. Here’s what he said under the heading It Could Be Worse:
“To the fans lamenting the fate of Manzanita Speedway, don’t be too depressed. The famous high banked, half-mile Dayton (Ohio) Speedway is now a garbage dump.”
Well, not exactly a garbage dump, but Paul’s heart is in the right place. For those who haven’t been paying attention, Manzanita, one of the most famous dirt tracks in the Southwest, has been sold and will no longer be a race track. Instead, a crane company will use the land to store cranes and related equipment.
It’s unbelievable to me that in the great Southwest there is no better place to store this sort of equipment. It’s even harder to believe that Manzanita, the track that never seemed to suffer from car counts or spectators, would generate more money for the owners as a storage lot than as a race track.
I’ve been to Manzy a number of times and the racing was always good, though the sight lines were not, but then I blame myself for not getting there early enough to get a good seat.
Sad. Another plot of land that used to be a race track.
OUR JOB MADE EASIER
The single hardest part of running DSL is trying to identify drivers in old photographs. Running a close second to photo identification is our struggle to figure out the finishing order of big races, along with qualifying times and records set at Dayton and the other two tracks that comprised “the hills,” Salem and Winchester in Indiana.
We’ll still have problems identifying drivers and others in the old photographs, but Rocky and Diane (Beck) Lane (rockyl159@comcast.net) have made the rest of our job a lot easier by lending me their collection of annual USAC Record Books for the years 1956 – 1966.
Included in the package from the Lanes (it was almost like Christmas here at the plush DSL office) was the Official Competition Rules for USAC as of April 1, 1964 (does April Fools’ Day seem like a bad choice for a day to publish racing rules?), and the First Annual Year Book for the Tri-State Auto Racing Alliance, dated 1948.
The final item in the package was an original USAC Car Owner water decal, presumably the type that would have gone on one of the Beck Construction sprint cars. (Check it out on the right.)
Needless to say, I very much appreciate the Lane’s continued support of the DSL site. Thanks Rocky and Diane!
And don’t forget to check out the page dedicated to Diane’s father’s and brother’s racing exploits here.
BIRTHDAY PARTY GUEST LIST GROWING
I’m pleased to say that the guest list for little DSL’s first birthday party on April 21 is growing. It would be great if YOU could join us to help celebrate DSL’s first year of existence. You’ll find all the details here and don’t forget to RSVP by e-mail to me here or by calling (937) 550-4067.
I hope to see you there!
CHICK HALE TRIVIA
The best benefit of putting up the DSL display/booth/exhibit/whatever at the two race car shows was that I got to spend two whole weekends with my hero and real racing legend Chick Hale.
During his career Chick has logged more racing miles in more types of race cars on more tracks than anyone I can think of. For a time he truly owned Eldora Speedway, even though Earl Baltes’ name was on the deed.
Having had the opportunity to chat with Chick for something like 30 hours I’ve learned a few things about Chick that I didn’t know before. Now here’s your chance to play the “So You Think You Know Chick Hale” trivia game.
Click here and a .pdf file will open with the trivia questions. (Give it a minute; depending on the horsepower of your computer it might take a minute to appear.)
Prizes for those who manage to guess every question correctly? Maybe. Send me your answers and we'll see. But don’t get your heart set on a prize; we waste all our money here in the plush DSL offices on flat screen TVs and expensive European espresso makers.
TOMMY DILL
Every male worth his salt has built a plastic car model, and many of us assembled a fleet of them in our youth. Most of those completed models would now be referred to as “glue bombs” by those few of us who stayed with the hobby and became real craftsmen and artists.
One of those craftsmen is our very own Tommy Dill and I was fortunate to get to stage the DSL booth/exhibit/whatever at the DARF Charity Race Car Show near Dill’s display of his amazing work.
At first glance, Tom’s models appear to be just clean and straightforward. It’s not until you realize that the particular make and model of the model car was never produced by any model manufacturer, nor any decals made that match the ones on Tom’s model that the extent of his modeling skills are understood. Tom’s search for perfection extends to purchasing and using automobile paints mixed to the formula used on the full-sized car!
I made an effort to photograph some of Tom’s work at the DARF show, but my attempts, and my camera, fell short of accurately capturing Dills’ abilities. You can check my photos out at www.public.fotki.com/foggygoggles. Look for the album with the appropriate DARF car show name.
And if you ever get a chance to study any one of Tommy Dill’s amazing tiny masterpieces and listen to his explanation of how he researched and then built it, take the time!
DICK FREEMAN
Dick Freeman was one of the giants in local auto racing from the late ‘50s through the early ‘70s until he was felled by cancer. We’ve collected enough information and photos to give Dick his own page here at DSL, but we could always use more of both information and photos.
Contact me here if you can help.
HURTUBISE CRASH REVISITED
We’ve discussed the July 17, 1960 incident where Jim Hurtubise sailed over the Dayton Speedway wall during his qualifying attempt. (You can see photos of the incident here.)
Remarkably, Hurtubise’s bright red Sterling Plumbing Special appeared none the worse for wear once it was dragged back to the track surface. The USAC officials, however, refused to let Herk run the car for the rest of the afternoon because of safety issues, namely the officials wanted the car’s vital bits and pieces Magnafluxed before he raced the car again. (Magnafluxing is a process that detects cracks in metal otherwise invisible to the naked eye.)
Herk, so the story goes, was irate and filed a protest and thereby became a hero to all those race fans who have heard the story.
Well…I’ve been reading that USAC Rule Book that Rocky and Diane (Beck) Lane loaned me (yes, we all have our issues and I am no different) and right there at Official Rule #914, paragraph 4, it lays it out:
“Any car which overturns during practice, qualifications, or during the race will be excluded from participation in the remainder of the day’s events. New Magnaflux papers may be required prior to participation in subsequent events.”
Now I know what you’re thinking. If only Herk had a lawyer on his crew, the lawyer would have argued that the car never actually overturned, but merely slipped over the guardrail and rolled down the embankment on its wheels. Nice try, Perry Mason.
Official Rule #914, paragraph 5, says “Cars which have left the course may not re-enter the competition,” and then defines “the course” as being the area between the inner and outer guardrails. Gotcha’!
HALF-MILE FLAT DIRT TRACK/HALF-MILE HIGH-BANKED PAVED TRACK
Most of you know that for a few years Dayton Speedway had a quarter-mile banked track that used the front straight and then looped through the infield. But did you know that for a single season, 1959, Dayton Speedway had both the familiar high-banked paved track AND a half-mile flat dirt track?
It’s true. The dirt track used the apron of the paved track! Talk about a split personality! The apron at the time was dirt and maybe running races on the flat apron gave the promoter an excuse for not paving it.
I’ve seen literally thousands of photographs from Dayton Speedway since I started DSL and the one below, provided courtesy of former official MARC/ARCA photographer Tom Davidson, is the first I’ve seen showing racing action on the apron half-mile. Even given the casual approach to safety in those earlier times, the apron racing looks particularly lethal.
On the left, unprotected light poles. On the right, the paved banking. What must those drivers have thought while rocketing down the backstretch? If something breaks you are either into a light pole or you will be flying up the banking.
DSL staffer Jerry Wahl (jlwahl1@hotmail.com) vividly remembers racing on the apron.
“Guys it was in 1959 that the dirt track was used but only for that season. Unfortunately, or perhaps I should say fortunately I attended most of them but as I recall not many events were run on the dirt...
One does stand out in my mind though... If I remember correctly Harold Smith was leading in one of Bob Korn's #72 and Dick Dunlevy Sr. was right behind him.
As they entered turn one Smith spun into the infield and Dunlevy followed. I guess Dunlevy perhaps thought Smith knew a shortcut so he was going to follow. I know the crowd chuckled as the two looped....
That was in the good ole days of build what ya’ want modifieds with quite a variation in looks.
Jerry”
Believe it or not, Jerry is actually able to identify many of the drivers in the photo. I’ve posted the photo here under the 1950s – 1960s Gallery on its own page "1959 Dirt Track" along with Jerry’s identifications and more photos provided by Al Wolford.
A GOOD QUESTION
FODS Garry Poindexter, one of the two guys who correctly identified the mystery driver in car #30 (here) asks a darn good question:
"Why have all the drivers removed their names from their fire suits? It seems to me that when archivists in the future are trying to identify some of the drivers now and in the future, it would be a lot easier if their names were on the suits."
Speaking as someone who spends hours each work staring at fading photographs of bygone drivers and cars trying to figure out who is who, I second Garry’s concern.
I have a similar concern. Back in the day, as they say, drivers had their names neatly lettered above the door of their race car, or on the cowl. Then vinyl was invented (I’m speaking broadly here) and someone discovered that you could actually reproduce the driver’s signature and paste it on the race car. Unfortunately, most of the drivers have terrible handwriting and now you don’t know who is driving the car even after you see his (or her) name.
OVER THE WALL CLUB MEMBER FOUND
I got to meet lots of nice FODS at the recent Piqua car show and among them were Brian Brandyberry and Rob Bryant (shown here). According to Brian he had just found DSL the morning of the car 
show and while surfing the site found the Over the Wall club page (here). And on the OTW page he found…his uncle, Max McIntire!
According to Brian, he had called his uncle and his uncle was as surprised as the rest of us that his OTW adventure had been memorialized at DSL.
Shortly thereafter I received this e-mail from Max’s wife, Janie (jcm@loganrec.com):
“Just got word about the website of Dayton Speedway. The correct spelling of the name is Max McIntire.
The trophy is still in Max's curio cabinet. Max would like to get a copy of the home movie if possible. We will look for pictures, not sure if we have them or if our son has them who now lives in North Carolina. Will e-mail you again when we find pictures. If you have more questions, please e-mail us!
Thanks
Janie”
The trophy that Janie references is the trophy that the Dayton Speedway management decided to create for the next driver to go over the wall at the track. They’d scarcely finished describing the trophy and its purpose and unwrapping the packing paper when Max slipped over the backstretch wall just out of the second corner.
We’re hoping that Max and Janie can come up with some photos to share with the rest of us! Thanks to Brian, Rob (one of Max’s co-workers), Janie and Max.
INTERESTING THEORY
Here’s a note I received from new FODS J. L. Thrush (ipwastorm1@gmail.com) with an interesting rumor/theory:
Good Afternoon,
I just recently learned that Dayton had a Speedway at one time.
Where was this track located? How did the track compare to tracks like Shady Bowl, Kil-Kare, and ElDora?
My understanding because of this track, we received a GM plant that is now closed as well.
Is there any truth to this?
Thank You for your time,
J.L. Thrush
IPWA
www.ipwawrestling.com
I sent J. L. a response in which I told him that Dayton Speedway was nothing like any of the tracks he mentioned.
The idea that the Dayton area got a GM plant because of the existence of Dayton Speedway seems far-fetched to me. This was the first time I’d ever even heard of such a connection.
How about it FODS: does anyone have any information that would suggest some connection between GM and the Dayton track? You can contact me here if you’ve got something.
A FODS IN FLORIDA
I received this note from a new FODS in Florida, Russ George, Jr. (rgeorge777@yahoo.com):
Hi Mickey,
I love your Dayton speedway lives web site. Even though I have been here in Florida for 30yrs. now, Dayton is still my home. I run into a lot of people from Dayton and one of the first things I ask them is have you seen the web site, Dayton speedway Lives?
You’re gaining more fans all of the time. I have a couple of old pictures that I want to send you, please E-Mail me your office address in Springboro so I can get these to you.
Thanks Russ George,Jr.
I forwarded my mailing address to Russ and I anxiously await, along with the rest of the FODS around the globe, the photos that Russ has to share.
Thanks Russ for doing a great job of advertising DSL down there in sunny Florida!
A JACK FARRIS POSTSCRIPT
Remember the story of Jack Farris and the brand new Mercury race car provided by Middletown Mercury? They rolled the beauty right off the showroom floor, welded in the rudimentary roll cage, and took it straight to Dayton Speedway where Jack had the misfortune of flinging the car over the guardrail in the North end of the track. The car was completely destroyed. Have you ever wondered, as I have, what Middletown Mercury’s reaction to that chain of events was?
A veteran FODS who stopped by the DSL booth/exhibit/whatever at one of the two car shows had the answer and I must admit that it surprised me a bit.
Middletown Mercury responded to the unfortunate, and expensive, experience by giving Farris another brand new Mercury!
Now that’s what I call a sponsor!
TALK ABOUT A SLOW RESPONSE
This is really embarrassing. I get something like 6 – 10 e-mails here everyday from FODS around the world. I try to answer them all in some fashion as quickly as I can, if only to say I will try to get back to the sender at some point in the future. But sometimes I fail pretty miserably.
Consider the case of FODS Gus Lewis (GLewis@gcpl.lib.oh.us). As we approach the first birthday of this site I’m making an effort to see if I’ve missed anything over the past year. Gus was one of the first FODS to contact me back in April 2008. And I never responded!
So for what it’s worth, a year late, I am finally giving a nod to Gus. Gus sent me the entire time trial results for the Late Model race run at Dayton Speedway on May 23, 1976. The speed chart is interesting. Besides the qualifying times there are a lot of names on the list that I had forgotten in the 30+ year interval between then and now.
Here’s the list and my thanks (and apologies) to Gus Lewis!
Mickey,
Here’s a race ran at Dayton Speedway
May 23,1976 Late Models:
#70 Joe Ruttman 17.43-17.55
#28 John Vallo 17.60-17.69
#77 Dave Brandenburg 18.94-18.78
#02 Jim Brandenburg 18.96-18.95
#12 Denny Dean 20.37-20.26
#99 Rodney Combs 17.65-17.48
#7 Don Gregory 18.02- 17.74
#82 Lennie Waldo 18.42- 18.19
#0 Ron Dolen 19.26-19.00
#80 Darrell Dick 20.23-20.17
#1 Don Seaborn 18.02- 17.97
#84 Bob Senneker 17.74- 17.47
#2 Tom Alexander 19.50- 19.43
#60 Bobby Jacks No time
#27 Larry Moore 17.35- 17.36 (New track record)
#29 John Anderson wrecked
#6 Bruce Gould 18.48-18.40
#47 George Falkuer 19.32-19.18
#29 Red Harvey 19.82-19.78
#25 Mike Hinkle no time
#11 Mike Alfery 21.11-21.37
#02 Butch Majors 18.63- 19.28
#77 Wayne Watercutter 20.99-20.86
#91 Curt Upton 20.74-20.48
#3 George Glick 20.33- 19.69
I think Joe Ruttman won that race and Larry Moore
Second ,Rodney Combs third.
I have a book that has lot’s different tracks that I went to that Time Trials back in the GOOD OLD DAYS.
GUS
THE DOCTOR IS “IN”
One of the names that pops up frequently here at DSL is “Doc” Ashbaugh, a well-known driver from the ‘40s. Up until FODS staffer Gene Ingram (harleygene@comcast.net) sent along this photo I’d never seen 
what Doc looked like. He’s shown here in his midget sometime in the ‘40s, and I’ve also posted the photo here on the 1930’s – 1940’s gallery.
Thanks Geno!
CURTIS TURNER
Everyone involved in our sport has a good time, even those who suffer serious impacts to their bank account. But I doubt that anyone since the dawn of time has had as much fun as Curtis Turner.
“Pops” was a sometime visitor to Dayton Speedway and scored a win there.
There’s always room on the this site for another photo of Pops cranking a stock car through a Dayton 
Speedway turn. This one was provided courtesy of the collection of the former official MARC/ARCA photographer Tom Davidson. I’ve also posted the photo here on the 1950’s – 1960’s gallery.
It’s worth noting that the Barney’s Body Shop car had a long and illustrious list of drivers over the years. And I can’t help but think that since the car was owned by a body shop it was probably a lot straighter before Pops took it out on the Dayton Speedway banking!
ANOTHER DS PROGRAM
FODS Bart Mantia (lupo73@woh.rr.com) sent along another program for our collection of program covers. This one is from 1961 and I’ve posted it here on the Programs page.
Thanks Bart!
A GREAT DAYTON DRIVER REMEMBERED
Chuck Stapleton was one of those drivers who came up in the sport in the 1950’s. His face adorns the Shorty Miller poster that salutes the “Stock Car Boys” who raced at Kil-Kare near Xenia, Ohio; Shady Bowl near DeGraf, Ohio; and Frankie’s Forest Park and Dayton Speedway in Dayton, among other tracks.
In 1954, Chuck finally got his big break, a full AAA season in the sprint car owned by Bill Cowgill. It was the same car that had been driven by Len Sutton in the 1953 season and by all accounts it was a good one.
Tragically, on May 2, Chuck Stapleton tangled with driver Curly Boyd at Winchester Speedway in Indiana, flipped, and was killed. He left behind a wife and three children. One of those children, Dianne Stapleton Robinson recently contacted us. Here’s what she said in several e-mail exchanges with DSL’s hardworking researcher Rick Patterson (elvis334@att.net):
Jerry, Gene, Dick and Mickey,
Rick Patterson recently emailed me, offering to email me a photo of my dad, Chuck Stapleton, which I guess came from Shorty Miller's collection. I appreciate the offer, but I do have several copies of that particular photo.
However, LOVED the Dayton Speedway website. I don't think I ever seen it in all the "googles" I've done over the years. Thank you for so many memories....I just wish I had known about last weekend's event. I would love to have had the chance to talk to guys who just might remember my father, who was killed at Winchester, IN, on May 2, 1954. My dad raced at Kil-Kare, Shady Bowl, Dayton Speedway, and Forest Park in Dayton.
I would appreciate email addresses for any of the drivers who raced during that period. I was only 5 when he was killed, and I really would like to fill in the gaps -- what was he like as a driver, a competitor, a man....I just knew him as Daddy....
I also have photos of my dad and his cars, etc., if you would like to copy them.
If you can send me the addresses, that would be great; or you may give them mine mamajet@earthlink.net.
Thank you,
Dianne Stapleton Robinson
She also wrote:
I went to your website; it's amazing! Talk about flashin' back!! I still haven't been through all the links....but I'm working on it (instead of writing the paper I came here to work on....)
BTW, Dad was a member of the Dayton Pleasure Car Club. I know he has one trophy for being the third place driver of the year (in points,) but I don't know for which organization off the top of my head. There's also a cute newspaper photo/article showing him w/ a couple of other drivers getting ready to play baseball for a charity function.
I'm forwarding your note to my brother , Chuck , who is Alabama. Our brother, Dave, born a few months after Daddy died, died in December 2006. My uncle, Bob Hufford, now living in FL used to work with my dad on his car and he's still interested in the sport. Huffordsr@aol.com
I'm a retired English teacher; 35 years and out! Lovin' every minute of this. Thanks for your thoughtfulness. Feel free to send anything of interest about my dad.
Dianne Stapleton Robinson
How about it FODS? Does anyone out there have any first-hand remembrances of Diane’s dad? If you do, please contact her directly or you can contact me here.
MORE PHOTOS OF A SLEEPING DAYTON SPEEDWAY
New FODS contributor Al Wolford (al.wolford@barkerclaims.com) has provided four photos of Dayton Speedway during one of the periods when the track slept. The photos date to sometime in 1974 or 1975, shortly before Don Flory purchased the speedway and attempted to bring it back to life.
My thanks to Al for providing the photos. I’ve posted them on the home page here down in the left hand column. They have bright green borders to help you find them.
THE REID ACCIDENT REVISITED
By any measure, the accident that took the life of driver Gordon “Flash” Reid and others was a horrific racing accident. The accident, and others like it, certainly played into the decision by AAA to get out of the race sanctioning business. A similar accident today would have ended racing at the track and had repercussions that would have impacted in one way or the other all of motor racing.
But 1952 was a different time as evidenced by the opinion expressed by columnist John Gahagan, “The Railbird,” in the April 30, 1952 issue of National Speed Sport News. His view, in a nutshell, was “let’s forget about it and move on.” Read it for yourself:
LOOKING FOR INFO ON ANOTHER DAYTON DRIVER
FODS David Sorrell (buck9688@aol.com) has written seeking information about his father’s driving career that included events at Dayton Speedway.
His father’s name was also David Sorrell and he competed between 1953 and 1957 at Dayton and possibly other tracks.
If you have information about David Sorrell’s racing career or photos please contact David directly, or you can contact me here.
A NEW MEMBER OF THE SOCAL FODS CHAPTER
New FODS Jerry Santibanes (santifamily@gmail.com) has checked in with a question:
Hi: Do you have a complete listing of midget feature winners for Dayton Speedway? Would like to add this info. to my records. I've followed the midgets for many years and am always looking for feature results for my collection. Thanks, Jerry Santibanes, San Jose, CA
Needless to say, I wasn’t able to help Jerry. Our goal here at DSL is to eventually document the results of every race run at the Dayton track, but we are still working on the races that were supposed to have been run in the 1934 – 1938 timeframe.
If you can assist Jerry with information about Dayton Speedway midget feature winners, please get in touch with him, or contact me here.
FINALLY
Jimmie Kneisley, 34, was the first driver to lose his life at Dayton Speedway when his car spilled on October 4, 1936. You’ll find the details here on the Memoriam page.
Up until this Update we had absolutely nothing to memorialize Jimmie’s sacrifice, other than a blurry newspaper clipping.
Now, thanks to Steve Estes (restes@woh.rr.com) of Troy, Ohio, we can at least post a photo of Kneisley’s marker. See it here.
Thanks Steve!
REID FRONT PAGE PHOTO
The April 30, 1952 issue of National Speed Sport News carried a front page photo of the start of the race in which Gordon “Flash” Reid lost his life at Dayton Speedway.
I’ve posted it here on the Memoriam page in the section devoted to Gordon.
BEAUTIFUL RHONDA BACK IN UPDATE
Loyal FODS will remember when a lovely mystery lady showed up in a stack of Dayton Speedway photos provided by Ron Titus. We didn’t know who she was so we posted her photo on the Help! page as one of our mysteries. Eventually she was identified as actress Rhonda Fleming. We were happy to be able to identify her and we didn’t go any farther, although the next obvious question would have been what the heck was she doing with Dayton Speedway promoter Blair Ratliff.
Unbelievably, I stumbled across the answer when I was putting together the page for the one and only champ car event ever held at Dayton Speedway. It turns out that Fleming was in town to present the trophy and kiss the winner, in this case it was Ed Elisian. You can read all about it here.
And it gave me an excuse to run another photo of Fleming.
JUNGLE PARK ON OUR BOOKSHELF
Has there ever been a track as unusual as Jungle Park in Indiana? Long after the track ceased to function, it’s legend lives on.
That odd track is the subject of this week’s book review by our BookMaster Rand Thompson (caprirand@comcast.net). Check it out here on our Bookshelf page under the author’s name, Williams.
1956 CHAMP CARS AT DAYTON SPEEDWAY
Once and once only the USAC Championship Division cars visited Dayton Speedway for a non-points race. Not only was it the only visit to Dayton for the champ cars, but it was the only visit by the champ cars to a high-banked half-mile track. Horsing those big cars around the track was a real struggle and even Eddie Sachs admitted to falling off the pace simple because he ran out of strength needed to turn left.
It’s a great story, and since there were something like 14,600 fans in the stands that day, chances are good that, like Bob Jenkins, you or someone in your family was there.
Read all about it here.
A NEW USAC SPRINT PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
FODS Steve Estes (restes@woh.rr.com) of Troy, Ohio, sent along some great photos taken on July 25, 1961 at a Dayton Speedway USAC sprint car race. I liked them so much I decided to start a page for that particular race. I don’t have the story yet to go with the photos, but you can check out the photos now here.
Thanks Steve!
HAPPY TRAILS
That’s it for this Update. If you’ve provided items for this site and you haven’t seen them posted yet, take heart. The fact that I am just now posting items from April of LAST YEAR ought to give you some idea of how far behind I am. Eventually all of your contributions will be recognized.
As always, I thank you for your continued contributions and support of the Dayton Speedway Lives! website where, with your help, we are working hard to keep alive the memory of that magical 55 acres of Dayton that was once the greatest track in the world.
Please RSVP if you will be attending our birthday party on April 21. I’m working to make it possible for every attendee to get an aerial photo of the track as a remembrance. More details are here.
I close this Update with a photo showing, among others, the amazing Chick Hale on the high-banked Winchester Speedway in a sprint car. Notice that all the drivers seem to be giving each other plenty of room except for Hale who is almost climbing into the car in front of him. Give ‘em Hale, Chick!
Mickey
April 13, 2009
UPDATE:
AW…LITTLE DSL IS ONE YEAR OLD!
Yeah, it’s hard for me to believe, too, but this website will soon be one year old. Sometimes I feel like I have been working on the site my whole life, but I can’t complain. I’ve gotten to meet lots of new friends and meet again lots of old friends with a common interest, that 55 acres in West Dayton that used to be the world’s greatest speedway.
So little DSL is one year old, still in diapers, but with a bright future ahead of it, thanks to all you kind FODS who continue to support the site and participate in our fun and games.
To show my appreciation and to properly mark this special occasion, it’s only right that we stage a birthday party!
On Tuesday evening, April 21st, please join me at Campioni’s Pizza. I’ll supply the pizza and the soft drinks, but adult drinks are also available if you want to dip into your own purses and wallets.
Campioni’s is just north of Springboro and about 5 miles south of the Dayton Mall. The address is 92 Edgebrook, but it is visible from St Rt 741.
Visit the Birthday Pizza Party page here for more information and driving directions that are foolproof.
Besides the free pizza and soft drinks, we might also have a few special guests and maybe a slide show or movie or some such. I’m still working on the details.
I will also be announcing the names of the first inductees into the Dayton Speedway Hall of Fame. The formal induction celebration will be in the fall of this year.
PLEASE, RSVP! The pizza house is a pretty good sized place and we ought to be able to get in at least 100 FODS without any trouble, but at the same time I want to make sure that we don’t disappoint any FODS. You can e-mail me here or call me at (937) 219-5851. All I need is a last name and the number of folks you are bringing with you. No obligation. No commitment.
Check this page out for more information and watch for additional news about the birthday party.
If you miss it, you’ll be sorry and little DSL will be disappointed. We’ll see you there!
DS HALL OF FAME
And speaking of the Hall of Fame, I’ve had to change my plans for the HOF because of conflicts in my own schedule. Here’s the current plan.
At the birthday pizza party on April 21st I will reveal the names of the first inductees into the DS HOF. The list will be published here at DSL in the very next Update after the party.
The formal induction ceremony will take place in the Fall, 2009, after or near the end of the racing season.
Voting for the second annual class of inductees will begin August 1, 2009 and run through January 31, 2010. And I will announce the second group of inductees at the DSL 2nd birthday celebration sometime in April, 2010.
And so on.
Thanks for your patience and support of our HOF project.
DARF CAR SHOW PIX POSTED
What’s that you say? You wanted to get out to the DARF Toys for Kids charity race car show but you didn’t make it? Not to worry.
I’ve posted my photos from that event at www.public.fotki.com/foggygoggles. Once you’ve reached my collections, simply click on the appropriately named album. You are free to order photos from the folks there at fotki or you can download the photos and use them as you wish at no charge.
If you run into problems, please contact me here.
SHACKLEFORD CLIPPINGS
When Daytonian Johnny Shackleford smashed through the Dayton Speedway fencing on June 14, 1948, he became the fourth man to die at the west Dayton speed plant. According to contemporary reports, Shackleford was known as “Bolts” to the rest of the racing fraternity because of his enduring streak of hard luck, a streak that ended at the bottom of the 40-foot embankment outside the speedway’s South turn.
Thanks to loyal FODS Gene Ingram (harleygene@comcast.net) who loaned me an old scrapbook he had acquired, I’ve been able to scan some clippings reporting on Shackleford’s death. You can see them here.
A LUCKY MAN
Paul Walker was one lucky fellow. On the 68th lap of a 100 lap “pleasure car” car event at Dayton Speedway in 1947, Walker’s car flipped and, as is the case so frequently in accidents from that era, Walker was tossed out onto the track. Cars spun all around him, but all managed to avoid the prone driver.
According to newspaper accounts, Walker suffered “only” back injuries.
You can see the photos and read the caption here in the 1930’s – 1940’s Gallery.
DRAMATIC CHANGES IN 1955
The year 1955 was a watershed year for Dayton Speedway and for auto racing in the United States. AAA, the organization that had been sanctioning auto racing events for over 50 years, including the top events at the Dayton track, decided to withdraw from racing at the end of the 1955 season. Why? A simple answer: they could no longer stand to be associated with the carnage that auto racing had become.
Drivers, and sometimes others including spectators, had always risked life and limb in racing events, and many had died, but in the first five months of 1955 several American drivers were killed, including Larry Crockett in Charlie Engle’s car at Langhorne, and Mike Nazaruk, one of Charlie’s former drivers.
Then in June came the worst accident in auto racing history, and to this day it is still the worst accident ever.
You can read the National Speed Sport News article, part of their review of their 75 years reporting on auto racing here on the 1950’s – 1960’s Gallery.
PIQUA SHOW A GREAT SUCCESS
Wow! The DSL booth at the Piqua Mall Race Car Show was a great success. For two days, FODS gathered in front of the DSL display to talk about Dayton Speedway and a host of other subjects related to racing and to racing seasons long past.
I’d like to think that DSL was the reason for the huge crowds around our display, but legendary driver Chick Hale was our very special guest for the entire weekend and I have to admit that most of our visitors stopped to see Chick and not to see me or Jerry Wahl, Rick Patterson, or Rand Thompson.
Lots of FODS brought photos and memorabilia for me to scan and I hope to be able to share those with you soon.
And I learned something over the weekend: there used to be two speedways in Troy, Ohio. They were Boone’s Hill and Trojan Speedway. Both, like Dayton Speedway, are gone now.
We had a new autograph card for Chick to sign for his fans (and we went through a ton of them!). Here’s what the card looked like:
A MYSTERY SOLVED
It looks like someone has finally stepped up and solved Mystery Number Thirteen here. I posted the photo several weeks ago and the silence was deafening. I was beginning to think that this would linger as a mystery here at DSL forever. I should have had more faith.
FODS Steve McKee (sbmckee@mchsi.com) didn’t know who it was, but he tracked down a racing buddy, Garry Poindexter, who not only knew the driver but had a great story about a particular night at Mt. Lawn Speedway.
FODS Keith Koether (kkoether@cinci.rr.com), a former crew member for Don Wilbur’s #27 and Lee Raymond’s #99, took a slightly different approach. He called his old buddy FODS Scott Solem (kb8zcb@netzero.net), the guy who provided the mystery photo to begin with, and harassed him about Scott’s inability to identify the mystery driver. Really, I mean what are friends for? Scott turned Keith in to me as the guy with the right answer, and Keith finally got around to sending me an e-mail, too.
So, I consider Mystery Number Thirteen thoroughly solved. Visit the Help! page here to find out who Steve, Garry, Scott and Keith finally named as the mystery driver.
A NEW MYSTERY
FODS Craig Shaw (crudbro20@yahoo.com) recently sent along this note with three photos:
Foggy: I took these shots at the Speedway site in about 1998. Having never seen a race at Dayton, I wasn't sure of the layout of the track, so I was just pointing and shooting. I notice the TV tower and the electric towers in some of my photos and some of the photos on the DSL website. One of the pictures was taken from the parking lot of the TV station. (Ch.22?) which I thought was the backstretch or turn 4 area. Can anyone out there tell me what I shot that day? Thanks. Craig Shaw Portsmouth, Ohio
I’ve looked at the photos and I’ll be honest; I haven’t a clue as to which direction is which and I have no idea whether Craig shot photos of the backstretch or actually had his back to the track and was shooting in the wrong direction.
But I’ll bet there are some FODS out there that can look at the photos and the TV tower and know exactly where Craig was standing when he took these pix.
Accordingly, even though it is a bit out of the ordinary for our mystery photos, I’ve added Craig’s three photos here as Mystery Number Fourteen.
Come on, FODS! Jump in and tell us where the photos were taken! You can contact Craig directly or contact me here.
Thanks, Craig!
ANOTHER HERO GONE
Back in the day, when I used to listen to the Indy 500 every May on the radio, I used to pull for my favorite drivers, hoping that they would do well and possibly win the race. One of my drivers was Lloyd Ruby and I can remember just hoping, year to year, that he wouldn’t run into another problem, another odd and unforeseen failure that would once again drop him from the race. No driver ever experienced the incredible run of rotten luck at the May classic that Rube did. Even Mario who experienced every sort of problem that a driver could encounter eventually won the race.
So it came as quite a shock to learn that Lloyd Ruby had died. It was an even bigger shock to learn that he was 81 when he finally took life’s checkered flag. My racing heroes have always been ageless, forever the men they were when I watched them race.
Ruby’s obituary appears on the DSL homepage here. It was taken from an Indy Speedway press release.
In addition, Rand Thompson (caprirand@comcast.net) our BookMaster, who also admired Ruby a great deal, has taken the time to review the book Lloyd Ruby: The Greatest Driver Never to Win the Indy 500. Rand sent me a note that said:
“Lloyd Ruby was my first favorite driver when I became interested in racing. I finally had the pleasure to meet him a few years ago at the Indy 500 memorabilia collectors show and cherished the opportunity of being able to converse with him.
His passing is truly a personal loss for me.
He was considered one of the most humble and classy drivers of all time and was vastly under rated as a driver by many race fans.
Rand”
You can read Rand’s review of the Lloyd Ruby book here on our Bookshelf.
DANA CARTER PIC FOUND
Rick Patterson (elvis334@att.net) found a 1979 photo of Dana Carter’s #96 sprint car ride at Dayton Speedway. Carter was the terrific driver who died unexpectedly of a heart attack on May 5, 1983 just after finishing second in a midget race in Indy.
You can see the photo here midway down the 1970s – 1980s Gallery page at the top of the right hand column of pix.
Thanks, Rick!
NEVER TOO SOON TO BEGIN PLANNING
The Winchester Old Timers weekend will be October 3 – 4 this year, and it is never too soon to mark your calendars and make plans to spend the weekend with us. Not only will you get to see and talk to many of auto racing’s senior heroes, you’ll also get to check out some terrific vintage racing equipment.
And did we mention that the USAC sprints and midgets will be racing? You will kick yourself if you miss this event this year! Put a post-it right there on your refrigerator!
When you get a chance, bookmark the Winchester Old Timers site at www.winchesterot.webs.com and visit there often to keep abreast of plans for this year’s blow-out!
NOT JUST NAMES IN A BOOK OR ON A WEBSITE
So many names from racing’s dim and distant past float across this website that we sometimes lose track of the fact that these men and women were real, live human beings, just like us. Until someone sends us a note and calls one of the deceased drivers “daddy.”
Here’s the note that we received from Karen Reid (grouper007@aol.com):
Hello –
I don’t know if this is going to do me any good or maybe I might be able to get information on my father, Gordon McKenzie Reid who was killed at Dayton Speedway in 1952.
I was at the age of 17 days old and I have three older sisters.
If you have any information, pictures, it would mean the world to me to have any info on him, my daddy.
Thank You
Karen Denise Reid
(Gordon Reid and Bettie Marie Reid)
Rand Thompson (caprirand@comcast.net) has done a great job searching through his motorsports library to find photos for Karen of her father. Thanks, Rand. And Rick Patterson is collecting Karen’s father’s race results for his career. Thanks, Rick.
It’s a reminder that the heaviest burdens of those frequent racing tragedies in that earlier era were not always borne by the drivers alone.
EVER WONDER WHY…
Ever wonder why so many of those early race cars, particularly from the roadster era, sported those nice big whitewall tires?
When our own Gene Ingram (harleygene@comcast.net) provided the Pic of the Week last week showing champion Bob Sweikert at Dayton Speedway (you can see it here) with his whitewall shod car I finally had to ask. And Gene had a pretty good explanation.
Most of the racing tires of that bygone era were caps, and they used the biggest casings they could find to start the process. And the biggest casings they could find were those from the luxury cars of the period. Those cars sported…you guessed it…whitewall tires.
Makes sense to me. Let me here from some of our veterans if you have a different opinion. Contact me here.
EVEN MORE INDUCTEES INTO THE OVER THE WALL CLUB
As I’ve mentioned before, it might be easier to start a website page focusing on those drivers who did not sail out of Dayton Speedway over the years.
This week we recognize Jimmy Smith, Rex Mays, and Red Campbell.
Smith was at the controls of his roadster-style sprint car for the USAC event July 30, 1969, at Dayton Speedway. According to news reports of the time, Clair Lawicki spun and Jimmy Smith rode up over the wheel of Chuck Engel’s car and flew out of the ball park. His car cleared the guardrail upside down by inches before vaulting down the embankment into two feet of water. He climbed back up and over the guardrail, apparently none the worse for wear, and promptly announced that he was retiring from the sport since he had most assuredly used up all his luck.
Rex Mays cleared the fence sometime in 1949, and he too was able to walk away from his adventure.
Indianapolis driver Red Campbell joined the Over the Wall club on April 26, 1936, though his incident really qualifies him for the Through the Fence chapter of the Over the Wall club. Campbell was apparently leading the feature event at Dayton Speedway. In fact, he had a lap on every other competitor with just two laps remaining when he tangled with Johnny Wohlfield. Campbell’s car smashed through a fence and billboard, but he wasn’t seriously injured.
We have very little additional information at this point on Mays’ accident, but we do have information on Smith’s and Campbell’s. Check our Over the Wall page here to read all about it..
A sad postscript: Smith wasn’t able to stay out from behind the wheel of a race car. He returned to the driver’s seat and was killed a short time later.
PIC OF THE WEEK(S)
Once again, my Pic of the Week ended up being the Pic of Two Weeks. (Those car shows really take up a lot of time!) But I think that I’ve made up for it with the newest posting.
We very seldom get to see one of the Mutual roaring roadsters with the body shell removed. The photo supplied to me by Don Anderson shows just that.
I think you are going to be surprised…shocked, actually…by the absence of any sort of crash or rollover protection. It’s amazing that anyone survived racing in that era!
Check it out here.
ALREADY WORKING ON THE NEXT UPDATE
I’m already working on the next Update and I hope that I will finally be able to share some of the photos and other memorabilia that folks let me scan at the two shows DSL recently participated in.
Look for the next Update on or before April 12, 2009.
Don’t forget to mark your calendar and RSVP to me for the DSL birthday party on April 21st.
I close with a flyer advertising a 1969 ARCA race at Dayton Speedway. Notice that some “unlucky ticket holder” could win a barrel full of live monkeys! Unlucky indeed!
Mickey
April 6, 2009
