Wonderful article on short-track racing

[BobPalma]

Excellent writing and a good topic. Long may it live! BP

https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/short-track-long-game-america-small-town-speedway-community/?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_content=MED_UN_NA_EML_UN_SaturdayRoadTrip_NoDynamicNoDOTW&hashed_email=d66f5c52210298eb121a63a63ffa96de53c6d20cf75e413a369e006fc15e7e11

[Bob Andrews]

As you know, Bob, I have been involved in short track racing my whole life, mostly dirt, but asphalt as well. The first car I ever drove was Charlie Fletcher Street star, in hot laps, at Brewerton speedway, in 1972. I was 11 years of age. Me and my buddies built my first race car, out of our junkyard, five years later. I retired from racing in 2006 due to too many concussions, but I did come out of retirement for one very special race, the last super dirt week on the Moody Mile at the Syracuse New York fairgrounds, in 2015. Since that time I have been involved in many capacities; car owner, crew chief, team manager, track announcer, tow truck driver. Today mostly all I do is promotion and sponsorships. I did not go to a single race in person this year, because my advancing already makes it extremely difficult to sit in the bleachers.

I did have to scratch my head a little at the author’s statement of technology being ‘put aside’. I don’t know if I could crew chief one of today’s modern dirt cars, Technology has come so far. One example is shock absorbers. When I started racing we just went and bought heavy duty shocks from the parts store. From there it evolved to shocks made for racing. The top teams used to buy 4 or 5 shocks for each corner, send them out to have them run on a shock dyno, kept the ones for each corner that gave them the best numbers, and returned the rest. From there it went to the top teams buying their own shock dynos; now the top teams have their shock building bench and dyno right in their stacker enclosed hauler. The latest thing is a ‘spring smasher’, that tests the dynamic rate of the springs. It’s just another thing you have to have if you want to keep up.

Another fun thing with dirt racing is tires. When I started, we would buy 50 Series street tires because they were 12 inches wide, and we would get them from whoever would give us the best deal, and make her own wheels out of junkyard wheels. Today they are racing tires that are not only hand grooved and siped to each driver’s specifications, they are placed on a machine that slowly rotates them while they are ground with a special grinding disc before they go on the track, and then wrapped in plastic until it’s time to go out. It’s crazy.

Obviously I could go on all day on the subject. I still love the racing, but it has passed me by, both in technology and cost. Today’s top teams have a lot of money invested; 40 years ago you could get most everything to build a car out of a junkyard. I won a lot of races with no money to spend, just a lot of hard work.

While the technology has mostly passed me by, there is one thing that has been great for me; streaming subscriptions. I subscribe to Flo racing. For $150 a year, I saw a live stream of every race at Oswego speedway, and during the breaks I switched over to my friends at Fonda speedway on the dirt. For your subscription you get literally hundreds of races per year. It was a blessing to me. While I couldn’t sit in the stands, I still get to see every race and stay connected. The other two subscription channels are DirtVision and Speed51 TV. Two weeks ago, when my teams went to Louisiana for a five day race series at four different tracks down there, I got to watch them all from the comfort of my office, for no extra charge, it was part of my Flo subscription.

I miss the days when racing technology was simpler. I miss the days when I was younger and healthier, with unlimited strength and abilities. But life is about playing the cards you’re dealt. So I still have fun coming up with race cars, and equipment, and sponsorship money, and turning the younger guys loose with it. And I am very thankful that the technology lets me watch. The powers that be in government, at all levels, are always looking for ways to kill racing and race tracks. Someday they may win. But until then, I’ll be involved as long as I can! It’s been good enough for 50 years, it’s going to be good enough for as long as I get to see it.

[BobPalma]

I knew you'd enjoy that article, Bob; I sure did. That locale seems to embrace the track even though it is surrounded by development, which nearly always seems to kill tracks like that. Bully for them!

A quote from your post: "I did not go to a single race in person this year, because my advancing already makes it extremely difficult to sit in the bleachers."

What is "advancing?" (Yes, I do wish we could edit our own posts; it is ridiculous that we can't just because, as usual, one or two members are getting the whole class punished. ) BP

[Bob Andrews]

A quote from your post: "I did not go to a single race in person this year, because my advancing already makes it extremely difficult to sit in the bleachers."

What is "advancing?" (Yes, I do wish we could edit our own posts; it is ridiculous that we can't just because, as usual, one or two members are getting the whole class punished. ) BP

Yes, bitten again by the inability to edit on this forum.

It should have said, ‘advancing rheumatoid arthritis’. I mostly function normally, at a diminished rate, day to day. Thankfully it has not affected my driving, at least not yet, so I do a lot of driving, transporting cars around the country. I planned for my retirement to be building hot rods and restoring cars, but I’m limited in how much my hands can do, and my feet have problems. It absolutely could be worse though! Next week I’m going to Colorado to pick up George Bailey’s (Jimmy Stewart) car from the movie, it’s a wonderful life, 1919 dodge touring car. I still have a lot of fun playing with old cars, I just can’t work on them much anymore.

Back to the subject, I wish our good friend Jerry Kurtz could chime in here. A lot of people don’t know that Jerry drove sprint cars in PA, back in the days when it took a lot more skill and courage to wheel them. What is happening to him is sad for sure, but nothing can take away the fact that he was a legitimate old-school bad ass on the race track

[studegary]

In general, a nice article. I never drove in that type of race. I did assist in building the race cars. I did attend races at the local tracks, but not lately at the one remaining track.

[paul shuffleburg]

Back in the 70s when I was living in Miami, FL I would drive 200 miles to watch the sprint Cars run at either East Bay Raceway ,a 3/8 mile high banked dirt track in

Gibsonton, or Desoto Speedway, a 3/8 mile paved track in Bradenton. Back then the sprints ran a 318 CI SBC (350 block and a 302 crank). When the green flag
dropped it was pedal to the metal because you only had 30 laps to get the job done. That was some great racing. The best pavement racing is the ISMA supers.

[lark55]

Thank you for the article, Bob Palma. I really enjoyed it. My dad took me to my first dirt track race when I was about 5 years old. I saw two cars touch wheels launching one car in the air as the other car drove under him. I could see the flames from the exhaust pipes as the guy came down and continued racing. After that I was hooked. I built a few stock cars in the mid-70's that I drove with a little success. I also worked at the local dirt track for about 19 years doing various jobs, ending up as the pit steward for the last six years. Great times and I made a lot of friends.

[skyway]

Bob A,
Curious just now the Bailey family’s Dodge Bros. touring has held up. Any chance you could share a couple of pics/details?
Gary K

[Bob Andrews]

Bob A,
Curious just now the Bailey family’s Dodge Bros. touring has held up. Any chance you could share a couple of pics/details?
Gary K

Hi Gary –

I will try to keep this brief because it is way off topic.

The car is owned by the gentleman that did the restoration on it about 20 years ago and said that if it ever came up for sale he would buy it, which he did, in 2010. Now they are getting older and want to sell the car. I was commissioned to go to Colorado and bring the car to the Seneca Falls (NY) Museum, where they have a festival every year based on the movie. After that I am working with a couple clients who have interest in buying it.

Here is a picture of her as she sits today. She currently runs and drives properly. As you can see, she remains in pretty good shape. An expert eye can see that the left front wheel is slightly different, being a truck wheel to replace the one that was damaged when Jimmy Stewart drove it into the tree.

The unveiling of the car in Seneca Falls will be on December 8. It is my understanding that Good Morning America will be there to record the event. I will be doing a whole series on this trip, and the event, on my Facebook page.

[ddub]

Bob, I am a Face Book user but don't know enough to ind your page. Can you enlighten me?

[Bob Andrews]

Bob, I am a Face Book user but don't know enough to ind your page. Can you enlighten me?

Just send me a Friend request: Bob Andrews | Facebook

[skyway]

Thanks Bob! Wondered if there’d be a Seneca Falls connection; we spent the night there just before Labor Day.