3rd 4th turn walls.

Who here remembers the old Freeport Stadium??

Was it Kedenburg and Donaldson as the promotors?

They raced 3 nights a week. Tuesday Friday Sat. I have an old program somewhere that was from that era.

The best part of the track was the 3rd 4th turn with the plywood wall!!!

I remember one night the cars were having a hard time not hitting the wall and ending up in the ball field behind it!! The bombers sure had a hard time that night. They would just go out of the track in 3 and come back in 4.

That place was neat, stadium lights, those big old cement bleachers. Wooden wall and tons of the old bombers to fill the place and modifieds. I'm 37 so this has to be more than 35 years ago we were there.

My grandmother once told me a story of how the whole family went to the track in suits and dresses after a wedding. As the were walking up the the bleachers they got a coating of mud as they started warm ups. Freeport actually started as a dirt track and you used to go to the races all dressed up!

I remember those days very well!!! There were 6 x 6s around the 3rd and 4th turn. I remember one Friday night in the mid 60s when the ARDC midgets were running there, one of the cars went thru the 6x6s and out to the baseball field that was there. The announcer at the time was Duke Donaldson, He yelled "Safe on second base". Those were great days at Freeport. I'm sure Dwight Clock can spin some tales about the place!!!

There were also 6x6's around the infield, too, because it was the Freeport H.S. football field, and they were used to 'dissuade' the cars from going in too far and tearing up the turf. The wooden wall in turns 3 & 4 were moved and turned around when the baseball field was in use. It was only after Freeport built a new H.S. over on Sunrise Hwy. that allowed the conversion of the track from 1/5 to 1/4 mile status. Too bad the Village of Freeport didn't sell the track outright at the time, because who knows, it might have still been there today if they had.

Jake Kedenburg & Duke Donaldson were co-promoters at Freeport. Kedenburg was the brains and Donaldson the showman/B.S. artist. When Jake died in 1959 his widow Billie took over his end of the promotion. Although it took a few years to really be noticeable, it was then that Freeport started a downward spiral. By 1963 drivers were leaving en masse. Jim Lacy, George Peters, Butch Evento, and a couple others were the first to go, all to Islip. Eddie & George Brunnhoelzl, Billy Spade, and the rest left in the 1965 to 1969 time frame. Even Bruno Brackey tried dirt track racing at that time, running Reading, Pa. weekly. The reason everyone kept hitting those boards in turns 3 & 4 was because those turns had a reverse 2 degree bank. That was where Bruno won all of his races as he could get through there better than anyone. And the wildest race of all time on Long Island was on the 1/5 mile track when they ran the annual Novice 100 lapper. Every car in the pits started, usually about 70 or so! If a car spun or was involved in an accident the green stayed out unless the driver was injured or the track was completely blocked. 25 laps in and the track was a road course! Midgets and TQ's were great there as was the Non-Ford division, early 30's square top coupes with 6 cylinder engines of every variety but blue oval. For a time in the mid sixties they ran them topless. Lastly, the three night a week schedule consisted of Sedans and Novices on Tuesdays and Fridays and Non-Fords, Sedans, and Novices on Saturdays. If any of you get the chance talk to Marty Himes. He can tell you far more about Freeport than I can.

You mention the wooden wall in turns 3 and 4. Check out the photo I'll be posting in a few minutes in the general info part here. It was because of that wall that I took this photo, lol.