Small block modifieds, pictured above, and Empire Super Sprint Cars were running at the Orange County Speedway tonight, so with one of my daughters, Violet, and my son Lucian V visiting from Tennessee for the week, we drove over from Milford to take in the races.
Dirt tracks are tons of fun, and you are right 700 hp, staggered tires, do they even use a transmission?, or a clutch for that matter, it’s a crazy form of racing, but it is racing which is the key, I had no idea that you were a Motörhead as well, that’s another thing we have in common. BTW did you get to watch Monaco last week?, qualifying alone was reason to watch F1, and there is no place like Monte Carlo for qualifying. I have driven a lot of race cars so I have a feel for what they are doing but I have to say, that I have no idea how they do what I saw them do in quali, being young and fearless helps, I know what 150 mph feels like, and what I saw them do at that speed took my breath away. You couldn’t put a cigarette paper between the tires and the barriers at some of the apexes. My kids like it as well, I raised them right, I have been a fan for over 65 years and can count many world champions among friends and teachers. Zoom zoom 🏎️. This week they are in Barcelona which is ok but it’s not Monaco, nor is the abomination they put on in Miami, in the football stadium parking lot with boats on trailers surrounded by sheets of plywood painted to look like water. 🤷♂️ and that takes us to John Malone whose Liberty Media owns the broadcast rights to F1 worldwide, and whose idea of a good place to race is the aforementioned stadium parking lot. Sorry I couldn’t resist.....
Not a motorhead but I had the excellent experience of attending the Grand Prix de Monte Carlo (apparently, it's now called the Monaco Grand Prix) in the spring of 1964 where I met a German guy who was traveling on his BMW motorcycle and invited me aboard to go around to various viewing points for the race. It was truly exciting - those roads are incredibly challenging, narrow and extremely twisty. Have driven the roads myself (some of the course, at least) some years later so have some firsthand experience of the nature of the curves and gains/drops in elevation. I just looked and the diagrams of the race course I found don't begin to show just how tight a course it is.
Good for you Judith, the cars in those days were dainty compared to today, they might have weighed 1200lbs with the driver, today close to twice that, maybe a little less, everything about them is bigger, they have been racing there since the early 20’s with very few changes to the track, so when you add much larger and faster cars with a street track from the 1920’s, the degree of difficulty ramps up by an order of magnitude.
A very American evening, the sound of engines, the dirt track and what from afar looks like matchbox cars being raced for the pleasure of the children of the gods of speed. That your children shared this with you on a beautiful night renders it magic.
Great descriptions, love the pics -- and now I'm wondering if this might be a suitable venue for, say, the GOP presidential primary. Since 2016 we've been talking about the GOP clown car, but what if each of the clowns had his or her own car?
50 years ago "Dirty Jack" Rabold won many sprint car championships up that way, (also Super Vee) I worked for him one summer. We raced customers 911s all summer on the country backroads. He would tell me we were going somewhere to pick up a 911 and we would take a 911 off the lot to do so. He said just follow me on the way back to the shop. What fun! He was known as Dirty Jack not for his behavior on the track but for his jokes off the track. He was easily good enough to be picked up by a major team but was too independent by nature. I owe him for what I learned. Sorry for the personal stuff, but you took me back to a wonderful time. Thanks
I know absolutely nothing about car racing, but are these the "funny cars" they talked about in those AM radio ads for Raceway Park (the ones that began with the beginning of "What'd I Say?")?
Here’s a history of funny cars - they date back to the ‘60s (doesn’t everything?) - and a different beast. Used to watch them with Dad when home from college.
Check out artist Allen Christian's Funny Car, had some conversations with him years ago when I lived around the Seward Coop and Seward Cafe here in Mipples.
"For 33 years I have kept an open window to my life. It's called the House of Balls. Pressure cookers are plasma cut. Crankshafts are braised. Chicken feet are epoxied. They all become images of the human figure. But carved bowling balls are my distinction. I subtract the resin, revealing a face or full body within and sometimes feel as if I am removing the layers of my own psyche. This is the origin of the name House of Balls. I think it's come to mean something more as well– the idea that we all possess the creative impulse and owe ourselves the balls to express it."
So, did the visiting children request this outing because they thought their hearing was too perfect?
My only encounter with this kind of noise was at a distance -- and even then I longed to turn it off.
When I had a farm in Africa, sorry, northwestern Connecticut, if the wind was doing a certain thing I could hear the vroom-vroom from Lime Rock, a track favored by Paul Newman. And re the photos from your track, why do these, uh, cars appear to have a mini-dump truck on top? That is a rhetorical question.
Comments about the sound level reminds me of the Thunderboat (Hydroplane) races in September in San Diego (on Mission Bay). Very loud even a mile or so away and uphill (but downwind from the course) where the sounds are muted and remind me of summer trips on the family boat down the Intracoastal Waterway from Norfolk VA to Elizabeth City NC for the annual Potato Festival and hydroplane races. Just checked and EC no longer has hydroplane races (weren't called Thunderboats back then) but does still celebrate their Potato Festival.
Oh Margo. I had the same question! They resemble permanently disabled matchbox cars. Requested by Lucian’s children because their hearing was too perfect, is a wonderful line. If I am certain to note its provenance, may I use it? grew up in NYC and the traffic sounds were generally from the honking of a vehicle who wished to speed the 31.2 MPH to miss all of the lights on Madison Ave...or sanitation pick up at 6am...fortunately not on an EMS route so no emergency sirens. Then my parents moved to the country, and the damn crickets kept me up all night!
Help yourself, no attribution necessary. In re perfect hearing, I had it confirmed for me years ago that any unnaturally loud sounds were to be avoided when I interviewed Alice Cooper - who was *already* deaf.
And I am with you about city girls being kept awake by crickets. The first morning waking up at our farm in CT. I asked my then-husband to please turn off the birds. It was 6:00 in the a.m.
In the less than perfect hearing category, my husband, who had dementia was not only speaking in code, but whispering. My children and grandchildren were mumbling. Why could no one speak with clarity?! Oops...it was my hearing. She who had NEVER. I repeat, never, been to a rock concert: graduated college late ‘60s, married, babies. Was there ever an opportunity? (Obviously adroit at tuning city sounds out.) Hearing aids were the “bomb!” The extra special side is that if I’m in a too loud environment, I can turn those puppies off, and they act like ear plugs. They solved more than one issue.
Brought back sixth grade memories of being on a flag station at Marlboro Raceway watching the AC Bristols, Bird Cage Maseratis, Fiat Abarths and Ferraris scream by barely yards away. Was there when Sterling Moss flipped an Austin 850 full of reporters on a publicity day. Ever since have had a love for sports cars and am the owner of a money-pit 1964 MGB which I have named “Clark” after the great Scottish sheep farmer!
I’m pleasantly surprised to learn that this fave track that I first “discovered” as a youth growing up in northern New Jersey is still around. I believe it was an outing organized by my Boy Scout troop that introduced me to the visceral pleasure of being exposed to these wild and ‘rorty’ races in specialized un-muffled vehicles sliding around a hard-packed clay oval at great speed…spewing clods of dirt and blasting those of us up in the stands with a glorious wash of roaring engines and the smell of spent fuel. This would be in the 50’s when I went there. I absolutely loved it! The cars I saw then were called ‘Stock Cars,’ and of course they were anything but. They were essentially stripped-down old American coupes from the 30’s and 40’s, minus a lot of unnecessary extras like fenders and seats-except for the specialized one for the driver, of course, securely attached within the roll-cage….and I found the experience so intoxicating I couldn’t wait to return. I think I must have begged my father to take me, my brother, and a couple of our friends back there at least one time. I know that when I finally got my own first set of wheels at age 17 (a 1951 Studebaker Commander two door coupe that I named “Sebastian”) that I made several trips to this wonderful old track with friends or on “dates.” Thanks for the memories, Lucian. I’ve been thinking lately about going to the local ‘ Speedway’ here in SC. You have whetted my appetite to ‘Get it on!’
What a blast! There’s a great new Dirt Track documentary series on FS1 (Fox Sports - haha I’m not a Fox fan but - hey, it’s racing!) you MUST see if you’re a motor racing fan, it’s awesome!
Dirt tracks are tons of fun, and you are right 700 hp, staggered tires, do they even use a transmission?, or a clutch for that matter, it’s a crazy form of racing, but it is racing which is the key, I had no idea that you were a Motörhead as well, that’s another thing we have in common. BTW did you get to watch Monaco last week?, qualifying alone was reason to watch F1, and there is no place like Monte Carlo for qualifying. I have driven a lot of race cars so I have a feel for what they are doing but I have to say, that I have no idea how they do what I saw them do in quali, being young and fearless helps, I know what 150 mph feels like, and what I saw them do at that speed took my breath away. You couldn’t put a cigarette paper between the tires and the barriers at some of the apexes. My kids like it as well, I raised them right, I have been a fan for over 65 years and can count many world champions among friends and teachers. Zoom zoom 🏎️. This week they are in Barcelona which is ok but it’s not Monaco, nor is the abomination they put on in Miami, in the football stadium parking lot with boats on trailers surrounded by sheets of plywood painted to look like water. 🤷♂️ and that takes us to John Malone whose Liberty Media owns the broadcast rights to F1 worldwide, and whose idea of a good place to race is the aforementioned stadium parking lot. Sorry I couldn’t resist.....
Not a motorhead but I had the excellent experience of attending the Grand Prix de Monte Carlo (apparently, it's now called the Monaco Grand Prix) in the spring of 1964 where I met a German guy who was traveling on his BMW motorcycle and invited me aboard to go around to various viewing points for the race. It was truly exciting - those roads are incredibly challenging, narrow and extremely twisty. Have driven the roads myself (some of the course, at least) some years later so have some firsthand experience of the nature of the curves and gains/drops in elevation. I just looked and the diagrams of the race course I found don't begin to show just how tight a course it is.
Good for you Judith, the cars in those days were dainty compared to today, they might have weighed 1200lbs with the driver, today close to twice that, maybe a little less, everything about them is bigger, they have been racing there since the early 20’s with very few changes to the track, so when you add much larger and faster cars with a street track from the 1920’s, the degree of difficulty ramps up by an order of magnitude.
A very American evening, the sound of engines, the dirt track and what from afar looks like matchbox cars being raced for the pleasure of the children of the gods of speed. That your children shared this with you on a beautiful night renders it magic.
Great descriptions, love the pics -- and now I'm wondering if this might be a suitable venue for, say, the GOP presidential primary. Since 2016 we've been talking about the GOP clown car, but what if each of the clowns had his or her own car?
Not so much a racing fan but glad you had a fun day with your kids!
and i love the canted frames and suspension so they're already banked for the curves.
oh man i love the dirt tracks.
far, far better than the borrring indy and nascar paved and banked tracks..gostraightturngostraightturngostraight....yawwn.
OH WOW A CRASH!!!
50 years ago "Dirty Jack" Rabold won many sprint car championships up that way, (also Super Vee) I worked for him one summer. We raced customers 911s all summer on the country backroads. He would tell me we were going somewhere to pick up a 911 and we would take a 911 off the lot to do so. He said just follow me on the way back to the shop. What fun! He was known as Dirty Jack not for his behavior on the track but for his jokes off the track. He was easily good enough to be picked up by a major team but was too independent by nature. I owe him for what I learned. Sorry for the personal stuff, but you took me back to a wonderful time. Thanks
Sweeeeet! I love feeling the sound in my chest as they scream by. WHOOHOO BABY!
I know absolutely nothing about car racing, but are these the "funny cars" they talked about in those AM radio ads for Raceway Park (the ones that began with the beginning of "What'd I Say?")?
Here’s a history of funny cars - they date back to the ‘60s (doesn’t everything?) - and a different beast. Used to watch them with Dad when home from college.
www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g43323-d12827907-Reviews-House_of_Balls-Minneapolis_Minnesota.html
Check out artist Allen Christian's Funny Car, had some conversations with him years ago when I lived around the Seward Coop and Seward Cafe here in Mipples.
www.houseofballs.com
"For 33 years I have kept an open window to my life. It's called the House of Balls. Pressure cookers are plasma cut. Crankshafts are braised. Chicken feet are epoxied. They all become images of the human figure. But carved bowling balls are my distinction. I subtract the resin, revealing a face or full body within and sometimes feel as if I am removing the layers of my own psyche. This is the origin of the name House of Balls. I think it's come to mean something more as well– the idea that we all possess the creative impulse and owe ourselves the balls to express it."
And you dig dirt trackers too, Lucien. You da best!
So, did the visiting children request this outing because they thought their hearing was too perfect?
My only encounter with this kind of noise was at a distance -- and even then I longed to turn it off.
When I had a farm in Africa, sorry, northwestern Connecticut, if the wind was doing a certain thing I could hear the vroom-vroom from Lime Rock, a track favored by Paul Newman. And re the photos from your track, why do these, uh, cars appear to have a mini-dump truck on top? That is a rhetorical question.
Comments about the sound level reminds me of the Thunderboat (Hydroplane) races in September in San Diego (on Mission Bay). Very loud even a mile or so away and uphill (but downwind from the course) where the sounds are muted and remind me of summer trips on the family boat down the Intracoastal Waterway from Norfolk VA to Elizabeth City NC for the annual Potato Festival and hydroplane races. Just checked and EC no longer has hydroplane races (weren't called Thunderboats back then) but does still celebrate their Potato Festival.
Oh Margo. I had the same question! They resemble permanently disabled matchbox cars. Requested by Lucian’s children because their hearing was too perfect, is a wonderful line. If I am certain to note its provenance, may I use it? grew up in NYC and the traffic sounds were generally from the honking of a vehicle who wished to speed the 31.2 MPH to miss all of the lights on Madison Ave...or sanitation pick up at 6am...fortunately not on an EMS route so no emergency sirens. Then my parents moved to the country, and the damn crickets kept me up all night!
Help yourself, no attribution necessary. In re perfect hearing, I had it confirmed for me years ago that any unnaturally loud sounds were to be avoided when I interviewed Alice Cooper - who was *already* deaf.
And I am with you about city girls being kept awake by crickets. The first morning waking up at our farm in CT. I asked my then-husband to please turn off the birds. It was 6:00 in the a.m.
In the less than perfect hearing category, my husband, who had dementia was not only speaking in code, but whispering. My children and grandchildren were mumbling. Why could no one speak with clarity?! Oops...it was my hearing. She who had NEVER. I repeat, never, been to a rock concert: graduated college late ‘60s, married, babies. Was there ever an opportunity? (Obviously adroit at tuning city sounds out.) Hearing aids were the “bomb!” The extra special side is that if I’m in a too loud environment, I can turn those puppies off, and they act like ear plugs. They solved more than one issue.
Getting a new set of hearing aids on Tuesday, after the Mamo, Sono, bone density diagnostics.
Just getting spruced up for my 75th year!
Gotta keep the old engine in working order!!
You go gurl!
And you can listen to music direct from your i-phone into your hearing aids while turning off outside sounds of boring conversations or meetings 😊
Oh yes and as you smile and nod your head, you’re thought to be leaning on every word!
Brought back sixth grade memories of being on a flag station at Marlboro Raceway watching the AC Bristols, Bird Cage Maseratis, Fiat Abarths and Ferraris scream by barely yards away. Was there when Sterling Moss flipped an Austin 850 full of reporters on a publicity day. Ever since have had a love for sports cars and am the owner of a money-pit 1964 MGB which I have named “Clark” after the great Scottish sheep farmer!
I’m pleasantly surprised to learn that this fave track that I first “discovered” as a youth growing up in northern New Jersey is still around. I believe it was an outing organized by my Boy Scout troop that introduced me to the visceral pleasure of being exposed to these wild and ‘rorty’ races in specialized un-muffled vehicles sliding around a hard-packed clay oval at great speed…spewing clods of dirt and blasting those of us up in the stands with a glorious wash of roaring engines and the smell of spent fuel. This would be in the 50’s when I went there. I absolutely loved it! The cars I saw then were called ‘Stock Cars,’ and of course they were anything but. They were essentially stripped-down old American coupes from the 30’s and 40’s, minus a lot of unnecessary extras like fenders and seats-except for the specialized one for the driver, of course, securely attached within the roll-cage….and I found the experience so intoxicating I couldn’t wait to return. I think I must have begged my father to take me, my brother, and a couple of our friends back there at least one time. I know that when I finally got my own first set of wheels at age 17 (a 1951 Studebaker Commander two door coupe that I named “Sebastian”) that I made several trips to this wonderful old track with friends or on “dates.” Thanks for the memories, Lucian. I’ve been thinking lately about going to the local ‘ Speedway’ here in SC. You have whetted my appetite to ‘Get it on!’
Only in America, there are still some great things!
What a blast! There’s a great new Dirt Track documentary series on FS1 (Fox Sports - haha I’m not a Fox fan but - hey, it’s racing!) you MUST see if you’re a motor racing fan, it’s awesome!
Glad you're enjoying time with your kids!
It speaks volumes about a man ( or woman) who keeps contact with and shares fun times like these, with their children. Good on you Cobber!