Your first race...

[Axel]

What are your recollections of your first race or first few races? Where was it? What do you remember of it? What made it such an impactful experience?

My story is this… I lived near Flemington as a kid and I would always hear the races on Saturday nights. One of my neighbors was really into racing (they owned a rooster named Ploski) and they took me once. I can't remember if that was first, or my father taking me was first. It was probably 1974 or 1975.

I was into Indy Cars as a little kid. My mom was from Indiana and Indy cars were the only kind of racing I knew of. I remember going to Flemington Speedway the first time and being a little disappointed. The cars were not as slick as the cars at the Indy 500. Plus they drove on dirt, not asphalt. The cars were beat up and dented? And many of them were really old-fashioned looking (they were the coupes and coaches). What was this, I thought?

But even though I was disappointed, I was thrilled at the same time, and after subsequent trips, I really began to follow the drivers. My buddy, Joey Kennedy, was a big Ploski fan, but I liked the #10 Gremlin of Ray Liss. One definitive memory I have of the first race I was at with my dad was we sat in the short shoot between turns 1 and 2. Once I was over my initial disappointment, I remember being addicted to racing. Subsequent visits simply grew my passion for racing higher. I really got into it, used to get AARN at the Higgins Newsstand on Main St. and follow what was happening and stare at the wreck pictures.

[W. J.]

Ah mine's sort of easy. I went to Freeport sporadically as a kid, 1 or 2 times a year if I could catch a ride. But when I moved into my house in 1973, one Saturday I was asked if I'd be interested in going to the races at Islip. I went that night, mid season, July I think, and never missed a Saturday night race since without a VERY good reason. What caught me was simple; from my trips to Freeport, the cars were old jalopies and spun way too often. At Islip, there were Vega's, Pinto's and Gremlin's, all sleekly decked out with lots of chrome, and faster than I ever remember seeing Modifieds do a lap. That's all it took....

[Tooner]

Wall Stadium, early 70's.

First race we went to, I remember Gil Hearne in a red and gold #9 with injectors blasting off the corners, I've been hooked ever since!

[gnatt66]

Claremont Speedway some time in 82.

We had just moved from Hollywood Florida (near Miami) to Claremont, NH...(dont ask). I was 10 and my uncle wanted to show us what everyone did on Sat nights. I remember liking the races, but as my parents could care less, I didn't go back until I was 18.

[LongIslandJam]

I stumbled upon it at the age of 12... My father, my grandfather, and I went grocery shopping up in Elmira, NY and we saw these cars with decals on them. Upon further investigation, they were racecars (Winston Cup)! I watched the Glen race on TV and I was hooked! I would go every year, and then I told my father I just wanted to check out a Riverhead once, then once grew to twice, then to the biggest lie I told my father. LOL

[Jaws]

Had to be about 1968 or 1969 at Riverhead.

A few laps into the race a huge rain shower kicked in and there was about a 15 car pile up on the front straight. Coupes and coaches all over the place!!!

[Linda]

Stafford, early 60's with the coupes when it was a dirt track. We lived next to the track before we moved when I was 7. My dad worked on one of the race cars and he knew Rene Charland, Ernie Gahan and Ed Flemke. He says he can remember Rene with his cigars. Back then if you wrecked the car you could go to the junk yard to get some parts. I also remember hearing the races while I was trying to sleep when my mom didn't go and we stayed home. It was a big thrill for my brother and I when we did go watch the races.

[Precision Auto]

1977 - Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, Massachusetts. I went with two friends of mine and was in total awe watching the races unfold. At that time there were no women in the pits, so we were in the grandstands during the 1977 and 1978 season.

As I recall, we were partaking in a beer or two!, standing above the top row of seats in turns 1 and 2. We had picked out a car to win (I can't remember which driver), and got so excited when he started passing cars that I threw my beer in the air..........it landed on the three guys sitting in the seats directly in front of us! I figured I was doomed.

Not so........I went to The Park from 1977 until it closed, never missed one Saturday night's race, and sat with the same three guys who were baptized by my beer. Great people.........

Axel: Thanks for starting this thread, brings back lots of memories. Linda

[Howie]

Don't remember the year, but Ben Hur won.

OK, Probably mid 50's on the dirt at Stafford. It was the fair weekend, an afternoon show, probably what is the Fall Final now. I wasn't old enough to drive, but went with my brother and his friends. Only thing I remember was someone flipping over the wall in the first turn and knocking a light pole down. Guess it peaked my interest, I have been to a lot of races there and elsewhere since then.

[JED]

Like Linda, I too was raised in Stafford. I also remember hearing the races as a kid. The first visit to the track I can't remember though. It just was always there. I do remember races, maybe before the track ran regularly, during the old Stafford Fair. I can remember the old coverd grandstands also.
The early sixties with Slater, Bergin, Janowski and the names mentioned by Linda were my first regular visits. They ran the Sportsman and Modifides together then.
The M3 was housed in Staffordville in a small garage owned by, I believe, a Harvey Smith. We would hang out there looking at the car talking to the guys working on it.
The good times we had.

[BlingxBling]

It was back in the summer of 1988 as I was approaching the ripe age of 7. The boys that I grew up with from down the street were at our house. We all were out in the backyard when it was time that they had to leave to go to these "races" with their parents. The track was about 15 minutes up the street in Drums, PA. At the time it was known as Evergreen, now known as Mountain Speedway. While we (me and my sisters) were in fear of boredom once the boys would leave, we convinced our parents to go. Sure enough that is all it took.

Gosh, I can remember pulling up the dirt driveway and seeing the racecars pull in. Being 6 3/4 years old, you picked your driver based upon color and the more fancy it looked, the better odds that driver was bound to be your favorite. While my memory fades, I can't really recall who my driver of the evening was, but I can just remember this smell that would fill your nose as you walked through the pits at the end of the evening. A mixture of race fuel, burned rubber, and any other smell associated with racing.

There are just certain things from that era that stand out clear as day. Magee Miller in the famous number 28 Modified, Tony Siscone dominating the open comp shows, Richie Jensen, Charlie Klatt in the 28k from Catawissa. I can go on and on and on. This season will be my 19th season attending race tracks as a fan, and I have met so many different people, with the opportunity to meet more and more each weekend the passes by.

[ModTourMan]

Old Bridge Stadium in NJ - about 1967 (or so). I was way too young to remember too many details but I do remember my grandfather taking me by the hand and leading me trackside, where we talked to some of the drivers before the feature! I also remember that from that night on, I wanted to spend as many nights as possible watching Modifieds race...and I have!

[MandyB]

I can't remember how long ago this was, but I remember going to Riverside regularly, as my cousins raced there. I'd sit in the same seats for every event -- next to the wife of the cousin -- around the start/finish line and right next to the aisle.

Good times, as back then you were allowed to walk across the track after the event and walk through the pits. I remember that moment very clearly.

[grumpyyank]

I don't remember my first race because I was probably an infant, but the first race that I can still remember was Waterford Speedbowl when I was about 5. I don't remember any details, but I do remember my father leaving my brother, who was 7, and I in the stands and he went into the pits. It would have been around 1971. Wow, is that why I am so emotionally scarred today?

[StevePro]

Riverside Park in Agawam in the early 80's. Me and a friend couldn't afford the back gate price. We were 19 years old. We stood in the parking lot and heard the motors and we had to get in somehow. We stood there drinking a six pack of Miller beer in cans and I got an idea. I told my buddy that one side of the pits was where the river banks are. So...... we decided to swim for it. We walked way down the road toward CT and jumped in along the shore. We swam for what seem liked 45 minutes. Sure enough, we walked up through the back of the pits.....soaking wet. Didn't bother us. We were in, baby. Modifieds and loud cars. We walked around and pretended like we belonged there, but inside we were shaking for 2 reasons. We were wet and very nervous. Then I noticed that people had hand stamps and bracelets. I'll never forget that sinking feeling. We came so far and now what are we going to do. We found the small pit grandstands on the back stretch and sat there the rest of the night with our hands in our pockets. And we didn't move. Seeing the full grandstands from that angle was awesome. The following week, we saved our money all week so we didn't have to swim. We would have if we had to after we saw those modifieds the week before. We were going back no matter what it took.