ClassicCar

Now that brings back some memories - particularly the early local track shots. Back then the pits were in the parking lot. Which lead to problems with fans trying to lift souvenirs off their favorite race cars. Things were a little rowdy back on those old bull ring tracks - you see a driver heading thru the parking lot/pit area with a lug wrench in his hand he probably wasn't looking for lug nuts!!!

Big Bill France may have been a tyrant but you got to give him credit for bringing some sanity to the stock car racing world. He did get rid of promoters who headed for the hills with the cash receipts during the race and a lot of other changes from the rowdy local track days. Of course, those local tracks didn't go away, but promoters quickly learned from NASCAR and started running local tracks in a fairly orderly manner. They began to see that families were coming to the tracks for the races and it didn't make sense to have a couple drivers beating the daylights out of each other after a race.

It was a lot more fun back in those days, tho - fans were known to toss beer and whiskey bottles at drivers they didn't like as they raced past. The cars I drove we put two sheets of 1/8" plexiglass with chicken wire in between the sheets for a windshield and we ran 8 or 10 ply truck tires because of the glass on the track.

Wild, but fun.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN