Like Old Race Cars?

PAUL161 · Nov 23, 2007

The Atlantic City Speedway or as the locals called it, The Amatol Race Track, was situated just east of Hammonton N.J. from 1926 to 1928. Only three years. It was a 1.5 mile wooden board track with 45 degree banked turns. The record was set at the track in 1927 by Frank Lockhart at the tremendous speed of 147.727 mph.

Frank Lockhart, the big guy.

Amatol Race Track

I just like this stuff. Cool huh!

aeronca65t · Nov 23, 2007

So very cool.

It's sad to think of the number of tracks that have been closed.

Here in my area, we actually had a road course at Lake Mohawk (NJ) in the late 1940s.

Also, a race track in Morristown, NJ, near Washinton's Headquarters.

Also in NJ:

Newark Raceway-an old board track

Trenton Fairgrounds Speedway- now a musuem, the backstech inner dogleg is still visable and now is a public street

Vineland Speedway,- still there - last raced in 1965, on the grounds of the cumberland county college

Flemington Fairgrounds - off of Route 31, last raced in the late 1990s as nascar sanctioned, as we speak its being converted into a mall

Velodrome in old Nutley, New Jersey

NY:

Bridgehampton Road Course - now a golf course with local water well pollution from all the chemicals used to make the weak, sand LI soil grow <span style="color: #33FF33">GREEN</span> grass for the golf course.

Islip Speedway - 1/5 mile last raced in 1984, got turned into a cookie factory

Tioga Speedway - 1/2 mile being used as a gravel pit or a mine- last used a couple of years ago

PA:

Adirondack Speedway- We (EMRA) rented it a few yeara ago...I've heard it's closed.

Langhore Speedway - perfect circle 1 mile racetrack, the 1st turn was known as puke hollow

Nazereth - its still there but is closed down for all races purposes, grandstands where taken down and brought to Watkins Glen in 2005

Reading Fairgrounds - now a mall

In Conn:

Thompson Raceway - still there, some of the roads in the parking lot were used for the old road race course. The parts of the road course that you don't see are in the south end of the property in the woods and in the back sections of the current 5/8ths mile oval - road course went out of operation in the late 60s

West Haven Speedway- was also a site of a amusement park called Savin Rock, small business and open lot, closed in 1967

Plainville Speedway- was connected to the old drive inn movie theater as well, now a Loews movie theater and a Home Depot

Danbury Race Arena - now the fairgrounds mall

MD:

Marlboro Motor Raceway

...lots of others too.

There is a list of closed Canadian tracks here:

https://www.canadianracer.com/track-select.asp

Brooklands · Nov 23, 2007

Other PA tracks that no longer operate would have to include Dorney Park Speedway, Hershey Park Speedway, Yellow Jacket Speedway (Frankford section of Philly) and Allentown Fairgrounds (although most of the track is there and part is used for parking). There is a wonderful book on lost tracks named (of course) "Lost Race Tracks: Treasure of Automobile Racing" by Gordan Eliot White. They are listed by state. One of my favorites is Jungle Park in Indiana.

coldplugs · Nov 23, 2007

aeronca65t said:
So very cool.

It's sad to think of the number of tracks that have been closed.....Thompson Raceway ...West Haven Speedway- was also a site of a amusement park called Savin Rock, ...Plainville Speedway- ...

True. I remember Savin Rock but not the track. I raced my kart at Plainville and my father raced there when I was 0-3 years old. One track not mentioned was Cherry Park in Canton CT - I went to my first race there at about age 3. Cherry Park was one of the birthplaces of the SCCA. I'm sure others have lots of similar stories.

Some photos of Thompson taken last month here, down at the bottom of the page.

(Nice shots in the original post - thank you.)

Steve_S · Nov 23, 2007

https://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/OldRaceTracks.html

AngliaGT · Nov 23, 2007

Steve,

Thanks!One of my junior High school teachers gave
me a folder with some old pictures taken when he raced
at Cotati (even a pit pass),& McKinleyville Airport.
I always wondered where the track was in Cotati.
If you ever get up this way,I have a lot of photos
from the McKinleyville races in '56 &'57 I'd be happy to show you. The'57 race was the "Lou Brero Memorial Race",
named after a local racer,who was killed in Hawaii earlier
that year.In '56 Snell was killed,which started the Snell-
-Foundation.

- Doug

PAUL161 · Nov 24, 2007

aeronca65t said:
So very cool.

It's sad to think of the number of tracks that have been closed.

Here in my area, we actually had a road course at Lake Mohawk (NJ) in the late 1940s.

Also, a race track in Morristown, NJ, near Washinton's Headquarters.

Also in NJ:

Newark Raceway-an old board track

Trenton Fairgrounds Speedway- now a musuem, the backstech inner dogleg is still visable and now is a public street

Vineland Speedway,- still there - last raced in 1965, on the grounds of the cumberland county college

Flemington Fairgrounds - off of Route 31, last raced in the late 1990s as nascar sanctioned, as we speak its being converted into a mall

Velodrome in old Nutley, New Jersey

NY:

Bridgehampton Road Course - now a golf course with local water well pollution from all the chemicals used to make the weak, sand LI soil grow <span style="color: #33FF33">GREEN</span> grass for the golf course.

Islip Speedway - 1/5 mile last raced in 1984, got turned into a cookie factory

Tioga Speedway - 1/2 mile being used as a gravel pit or a mine- last used a couple of years ago

PA:

Adirondack Speedway- We (EMRA) rented it a few yeara ago...I've heard it's closed.

Langhore Speedway - perfect circle 1 mile racetrack, the 1st turn was known as puke hollow

Nazereth - its still there but is closed down for all races purposes, grandstands where taken down and brought to Watkins Glen in 2005

Reading Fairgrounds - now a mall

In Conn:

Thompson Raceway - still there, some of the roads in the parking lot were used for the old road race course. The parts of the road course that you don't see are in the south end of the property in the woods and in the back sections of the current 5/8ths mile oval - road course went out of operation in the late 60s

West Haven Speedway- was also a site of a amusement park called Savin Rock, small business and open lot, closed in 1967

Plainville Speedway- was connected to the old drive inn movie theater as well, now a Loews movie theater and a Home Depot

Danbury Race Arena - now the fairgrounds mall

MD:

Marlboro Motor Raceway

...lots of others too.

There is a list of closed Canadian tracks here:

https://www.canadianracer.com/track-select.asp

A couple other N.J. tracks were the old Atco oval speedway,(Not the drag strip!), outside of Atco, N.J. and the Manahawkin speedway, (spelling?), owned by John Erlin Chevrolet of Browns Mills, N.J. If you won any money at Atco, you had to stop in the bar along side the entrance road and pick it up. That was an all night affair for some. The Manahawkin track was a beautiful 1/2 mile oval asphalt track with fairly high banked turns. I guess the money wasn't there as it only lasted a couple of years. There were remnants of it still there in the late 70s. I'm sure it's all gone now. How about New Egypt Speedway? It was only 1/8 of a mile as I recollect. A popular driver there was, Parker Bone, who had and drove a 37 or 38 Chevy coupe with a hopped up GMC truck engine in it. Every time he would let off the throttle, fire would fly out the pipes coming out the trunk lid. Quite a crowd pleaser.

Sherlock · Nov 24, 2007

One of the greatest losses in western Canada was the closure of the Westwood race track a number of years ago.

I only know a sketchy history. But it essentially fell victim to urban expansion, but prior to that was a major race track that was well regarded. Ever since then there have been no major facilities to replace it. To my understanding, in the western provinces of Canada there are very few road courses today (as compared to the 1950's when there were many of them). Of course there are lots of drag strips, for all the prairie guys to show off their muscle cars /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/rolleyes.gif but very little for the sports car crowd.

Supposedly there is a high quality race track being built near Merritt, B.C. in the British Columbia interior, but thus far it seems like a white elephant.

AngliaGT · Nov 24, 2007

I've been to Westwood a couple of times.
The first time,the gate was open,& we drove right in.
We did get out & walk the track.
The last time that I was there was during the World's-
-Fair when the Lotus Club of BC held a track day.I took a video of about 3 laps around the track in a Super 7.
I'm really sorry to see it go.

- Doug

MGAdams · Nov 25, 2007

vping · Nov 25, 2007

Needs a login name and password.

Brooklands · Nov 25, 2007

There is no shortage of old race tracks that exist no more. Here is the story of Bigelow Field in Grand Rapids, MI built for midget racing inside a minor league baseball stadium. Every area his a similar story somewhere in the past...

coldplugs · Nov 25, 2007

Brooklands said:
There is no shortage of old race tracks that exist no more. ... Every area his a similar story somewhere in the past...

Even that little-known old banked and bent oval called, um, Brooklands.

Brooklands · Nov 25, 2007

coldplugs said:
Even that little-known old banked and bent oval called, um, Brooklands.

Although my HO Slot car track has no resemblance to Brooklands, I named it in honor of the track. I tried to find it back in 1976 on vacation, but I could not find out how to get in and there were no listings for it on the tourist brochures. Now there is the Brooklands Society and museum at the remains of the track...

PAUL161 · Nov 26, 2007

Ah,Brooklands! The start of Motor Racing in England, June, 17th, 1907 and filtering out to other parts of the world after that.

In it's glorious days!

Fastest lap time was set in 1933 by a Napier Railton at 143 MPH. Crazy as it might sound, supposedly, that time still stands today.

And the track Today, how sad.

It's amazing that some of the track is still there. That's probably due to the Brooklands Museum retaining a piece of it for posterity. Thank goodness.

coldplugs · Nov 26, 2007

PAUL161 said:
Ah,Brooklands! The start of Motor Racing in England, June, 17th, 1907 and filtering out to other parts of the world after that......

Good photos.

Interesting track layout in that the diagonal that cuts across the track (shown highlighted w/ the checkered flag in your diagram) is where the pits and SF line were. Cars (& bikes) would cut across there for pit stops and at the finish.

Brooklands also had a hillclimb road that is still used.

The organizers were very particular about who attended - the motto was "The right crowd and no crowding".

PAUL161 · Nov 27, 2007

I just found this photo of Brooklands in the 30s with John Cobbs Napier Railton in action.

This is the car today at the museum. It's not a small car, with a 12 cylinder Lion aircraft engine producing over 500 hp at around 2300 RPM.

coldplugs · Nov 27, 2007

Amazing car. I think that's Doug Nye standing next to it, at the front. I have about a minute of video footage of him driving it a few years back so it was probably the same day.

Some major bumps at that track!

Steve_S · Nov 27, 2007

One of my favorite Brooklands scenes

PAUL161 · Nov 27, 2007

coldplugs said:
Amazing car. I think that's Doug Nye standing next to it, at the front. I have about a minute of video footage of him driving it a few years back so it was probably the same day.

Some major bumps at that track!

John, is that video still available somewhere? Or is it from your personal collection?

Steve, That's a great picture! Wouldn't that be great hanging in the den! I'm just a nut about antique race cars. I used to own a "Yellow Jacket Speedway" full midget. It was old then, but still ran great. I was going to run it in the old timers day in Pennsylvania, But to keep peace in the family, I sold it. She was afraid I'd kill my self. I think I owe her a debt of gratitude, as she was probably right.

Would have been a lot of fun though.

Like Old Race Cars?

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