28 replies to this topic

[Steve Deiters]

 
I saw this posted on a racing Facebook page and wanted to share it here if it hadn't been posted before. Time has marched on for Dan Gurney's "home track"...

[A. J. Hoyt]

I would have turned the track into the roadways of the subdivision... if it were up to me.
 
I got to see the final Can-Am race there 1984 when Can-Am cars were, mostly, single seater F5000 chassis with bodies draped over them. I watched Michael Roe's qualifying run in the purpose-built VDS Can-Am; they announced it was the fastest lap ever driven on Riverside, even in testing. And it looked like it, like a slot car coming up the esses straight towards the Turn 6 grandstands; just "glued to the road"! In the pits, that car had the "tightest" body lines (seams between the body panels) I had ever seen on any race car (making it look like a slot car body even up close standing still!) - fantastic attention to detail and an absolute minimum of sponsorship markings - just a beautiful (and fast) car.
 
This was after the classic 1982 season with Danny Sullivan, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal, Al Holbert, Jacques Villenueve, Geoff Brabham, Jim Trueman, Patrick Tambay, and Jim Crawford all in the field and at one point or another captured in a movie called "Circuit." There were 37 entries in the Riverside race in 1982!
 
It was a great old track and I recognized where it was every time I drove the highway past the spot and wept a small tear on the way by.
 
Thanks for posting, Steve.
 
Keep it in the slot,
 
AJ

[Tom Eatherly]

Damn, I do miss that track. Did Rusty Wallace win the last "Winston" Cup race there? A lot of great races on that track.

[Half Fast]

VDS Can-Am:


 
Cheers,

[Roy Lievanos]

I pass the area every so often and always seem to reminiscence like it is still there. My brother would take us to see the Indy cars at turn 9 by the fence. I got to see the STP Turbine car there. I think it was the Times Grand Prix?

Found some memorabilia at a swap meet in the area.

Also got to go to the Ontario track 1 time to watch some time trials. The large O sign was up for a long time after closing.

Thanks for posting.

[Markomatic]

As much as I hate to see the demise of racetracks I do enjoy seeing satellite images of their leftover footprints.

My favorite track where I raced cars and motorcycles is Bridgehampton in NY. It is now a golf course but the owner is a racer and has kept much of the track as a historical artifact.

[Markomatic]

Here are before and after photos of Mid-America Raceway in Wentzville, MO, near St. Louis

[MattD]

Sad, mostly all we are left with is Nascar and their sanitized cookie cutters and spec cars

[Markomatic]

Meadowdale International Raceway in Carpenterville, ILL last closed in 1969 and is now a county park and nature preserve called Raceway Woods. The track is still in it's natural state.

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[Markomatic]

Vineland Speedway. It had it all. a 1.5 mile road course, a few different ovals and a 1/4 mile drag strip. Operated until the late 50's

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[Markomatic]

It is also interesting on some of these tracks to see how they incorporated the old track into the new roadways

[Ramcatlarry]

Meadowdale's path is mostly there.  A lot of the asphalt has been recycled for county paving projects.  I, for one, would like to see it restored to a point of use as a National bicycle racing track.  It has lots of natural terrain elevation changes and property available for public parking.  It is very overgrown with trees and shrubbery in the summer months. That aerial shot must have been late fall or years ago.  The (MIRPA.org) raceway preservation association exists in Cary, IL with an open 'Coffee and Cars' discussion group the first Saturday morning of each month.  A three lane 1/32 club slot car track modeled of Meadowdale is there as well courtesy of the Great Lakes Slot Car Club.  Each Fall a race and street car show is held with over 300 cars on display on the old main straightaway.

[Mike Patterson]

Bill, thanks for posting the photo of the VDS car. I looks a lot like the Prophet that Bobby Rahal was driving. Somewhere I've got some photos...

[bbr]

The dirt, the dust, the bumpy esses... ran my first road race there 

[Steve Deiters]

 

Mike Patterson

[Ramcatlarry]

and who says slot cars do not look like real racecars?

[spudboy]

That's an interesting hobby you have Mark.

 

Cheers.

[Dave Crevie]

There was another track near Chicago that is no more, Wilmot Mountain. You have to be pretty old

to remember that one.

[MattD]

There is a vast history or motor racing in America that will be largely forgotten in the  next 30 years or so.  Here we have only ben talking of road course, but there are probably a thousand or more dragstrips that are no more.   they mostly exist only in the memories of drag racers that are 70 and older.   Many little dirt tracks around the country that are also just memories, along with the local guys that built and played with jalopies and stockers that never left their home county to race.

 

Who knows 30-50 years from now if somebody mentions auto racing, young people are likely to ask what that was and why they would do it!!

[Dave Crevie]

Well, in the Chicago area, drag strips I used to race at that are gone are U.S. 30 and Oswego. Oval tracks I raced

at that are no more are O'Hare Speedway and Santa Fe. I never raced at Meadowdale or Wilmot, but I did race at

Mid-America. My grandfather raced jalopies at Soldier Field while they were doing that to bolster income. 

[Markomatic]

Lyndale Farms Raceway just outside of Milwaukee operated from 1963 to 1967. It was made into Lyndale Farms subdivision

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[Markomatic]

Wilmot Hills had the race track around the roads around the parking lot in the summer. You can still make out the track but there are now some buildings covering parts.

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[Phil Hackett]

At one time there was a board track in Culver City. I think it was torn down in the early 20s... below is a Google satellite picture where you can see the arrangement of the streets where the track was and I'm guessing it extended into what is  now the Sony Pictures Studios (formerly MGM) property....

 

 

[Mike Patterson]

Steve, thanks for posting that picture of the Prophet. it doesn't bear as much resemblance to the VDS car as I thought it did.

[Half Fast]

NY National Speedway, a dragstrip, is now Greenwood Village in Manorville Long Island, an "over 55" community. Of course you have to be over 55 to remember it!

 

 

Now shown on Google maps as:

 

https://www.google.c...2!4d-72.7908558