35 replies to this topic

[Wolfie29]

Yea Wolfie it was a fast track. Enjoyed watching the mods back in the day. Blackie would get that #1 of hemi joe's just haulin around that place. You crashed there, you felt it, and the car usually didn't fair to well either. Chuba's wreck scared the hell out of a lot of people, that thing was nearly bent in half. Hemi joe's coupe didn't fair to well one Saturday night also.

Awe yes,I seen Blackie run his coupe over there....That was fun times....I do remember the Chuba name...I know one thing,back 10 years ago when they last ran it was a normal to get hit with a stone sitting in the main grandstands !...lol...

[Wolfie29]

I remember the 'Good Old Days'. We would go to North Hills on Thursday, Lernerville on Friday, Mercer or Marion Center on Sat.
New Alex on Sunday afternoons then to Blanket Hill on Sunday night!! Food, gas, beer, tickets cost about $50.00 for the week!!!
Now, one of the above will cost almost that much!!!  Aaaah, the 'Good Old Days'!!!

That was a cheap weekend of racing for sure !

Edited by Wolfie29, 22 February 2017 - 10:55 AM.

[Wolfie29]

you no. you see today's racing and I gotta tell ya. I/we came up when racing was just fun. it was lernerville, schmucker's, then motordrome most weekends. you take those 3 tracks back then, lernerville had don martin and he kept making changes to that place year after year. in the size of the track to the grandstands that kept getting bigger and the concession stand that many waited to eat there on a Friday night. schmucker's as you said it was just a racy place, it had the speed. motordrome in my opinion was probably the best racing, and sitting on the hill. wow how stupid were we. I believe it was frannie gower that flipped coming down the backstretch and ended up landing just feet away from us. they ruined it all. both Latrobe and motordrome sit idle, 2 of the best dirt tracks in the state. ya you can toss Clearfield in that mix to. I believe the schmuckers family still holds that property, a few have tried but the place needs many updates, motordrome and Clearfield just need some good old clay put back on them. dream on.

Couldn't agree with you more !....My 3 tracks if I did a whole weekend would be Bedford,J-town and/or Motordrome or Hagerstown....Damn,I miss those fun days !..I only ever seen two races on the original Clearfield dirt track...Went to the 79 Yankee Doodle 50 and seen Chargin Charlie Cragan clean house in the #11 Cornell Racing Car....The other time was when they had their last dirt track stint before they took the dirt back off of it around 2008 in the innagural year for the UFO Super Lates...Maybe you was there jo73,the night when there was about 3 cars left in the feature because everyone was busting up cars left and right because the new clay didn't have time to set!...Never seen anything like it in my life,cars getting off the ground on all 4 wheels going into #1 !...I was sitting in the stands at Motordrome when Ed Feree took out the flagstand right in front of us!...That was scary !...Like you said it would be nice to see Clearfield and The Drome put clay back on and run but don't see it happening in the future although I think Clearfield would do it before Motordrome because they don't have the abundance of tracks in that area like where Motordrome is..

[FanJim24]

I remember the 'Good Old Days'. We would go to North Hills on Thursday, Lernerville on Friday, Mercer or Marion Center on Sat.

New Alex on Sunday afternoons then to Blanket Hill on Sunday night!! Food, gas, beer, tickets cost about $50.00 for the week!!!

Now, one of the above will cost almost that much!!!  Aaaah, the 'Good Old Days'!!!

We were North Hills, Butler, Mercer/Blanket Hill.

 

Dad wound up on his head in the creek at North Hills.  I miss that track.  I can still see Mt. Nebo Rd. from the stands in my mind.  It was more fun than business then, but you could see the momentum turning toward business.  Racers always want to be faster, and every edge became the norm, so someone else found another edge which became the norm, and on and on....  It seem like yesterday to me that the sportsman were stock boneyard specials, and now they're more advanced than our late model.  

[flash49]

Yea Wolfie it was a fast track. Enjoyed watching the mods back in the day. Blackie would get that #1 of hemi joe's just haulin around that place. You crashed there, you felt it, and the car usually didn't fair to well either. Chuba's wreck scared the hell out of a lot of people, that thing was nearly bent in half. Hemi joe's coupe didn't fair to well one Saturday night also.

I don't remember Harley Chuba's wreck at Schmucker's, but his wreck at Motordrome in 1972 was one of the worst I've ever seen, and while they rebuilt after that accident, his racing career was pretty much over after that.  But clearly, both Schmucker's and Motordrome were very fast race tracks.

[DavyLee2]

And Don Luffy would take home " About $90 " each night at those tracks you mentioned ..Quote Don Luffy

The Tax on gas for that weekend is $50 bucks now .

and the 700,000 factories that people worked at and had money to spend on racing have evacuated America . ... But America is the only place it can all happen Again !

Maybe Shatz success is from the people who wrench for him ... BUT they keep doing it ! So you can only call him the greatest Everything of the last 10 years and the best ever behind Kinser , Slamming .. and maybe Wolfgang if he did not get hurt  .. Wolgang called himself " the best of the rest " after kinser and swindell ... but Shatz owns that by now and still going ...  

[Walt Wimer]

Harley Chuba was the 1971 Western PA Rookie of the Year.   A good driver but a very short career!!    Back then drivers would start out in the top classes.  Today there is very little of that!!   The last time a driver in one of the top three classes won the annual award was in 2002 when Modified driver Jimmy Weller III won it!!   And for the past three years there hasn't even been a single driver in the top three classes nominated for the award. Times have really changed!!

 

GOOD RACING TO ALL!!!

 

Walt

[Wolfie29]

We were North Hills, Butler, Mercer/Blanket Hill.
 
Dad wound up on his head in the creek at North Hills.  I miss that track.  I can still see Mt. Nebo Rd. from the stands in my mind.  It was more fun than business then, but you could see the momentum turning toward business.  Racers always want to be faster, and every edge became the norm, so someone else found another edge which became the norm, and on and on....  It seem like yesterday to me that the sportsman were stock boneyard specials, and now they're more advanced than our late model.

Been to alot of tracks in my lifetime but never made it to North Hills,Blanket Hill and Butler tracks....

[racer67x]

you guys talking about the good old days... I have a childhood memory of being at the old "Greater Pgh Speedway" and the section of grandstands collapsed that we were sitting on.


can remember people screaming and Ambulances..I was pretty young then but have a pic I cherish of me sitting in Pete Casella's Sprintcar while his young son Billy is standing with us wearing a drivers suit.


photo was taken in the pits at Clinton,he was his Dad's warm up driver back then and then later at the wheel of "Boston Louie's" Sprinter became a USAC Champion.


few years ago I took a friend who never heard of the track down there and we walked a lap....still asphalt with trees starting to grow through it,walls and infield still had huge tires marking the figure 8 track..found the flagstand and the old track packer from when it was dirt...shame it had to end up that way.

[Wolfie29]

Harley Chuba was the 1971 Western PA Rookie of the Year.   A good driver but a very short career!!    Back then drivers would start out in the top classes.  Today there is very little of that!!   The last time a driver in one of the top three classes won the annual award was in 2002 when Modified driver Jimmy Weller III won it!!   And for the past three years there hasn't even been a single driver in the top three classes nominated for the award. Times have really changed!!
 
GOOD RACING TO ALL!!!
 
Walt

You ain't a kidding times have changed !

[Wolfie29]

you guys talking about the good old days... I have a childhood memory of being at the old "Greater Pgh Speedway" and the section of grandstands collapsed that we were sitting on.


can remember people screaming and Ambulances..I was pretty young then but have a pic I cherish of me sitting in Pete Casella's Sprintcar while his young son Billy is standing with us wearing a drivers suit.


photo was taken in the pits at Clinton,he was his Dad's warm up driver back then and then later at the wheel of "Boston Louie's" Sprinter became a USAC Champion.

Them are some awesome stories there you shared !...Where was the Greater Pittsburgh Speedway located at ?
few years ago I took a friend who never heard of the track down there and we walked a lap....still asphalt with trees starting to grow through it,walls and infield still had huge tires marking the figure 8 track..found the flagstand and the old track packer from when it was dirt...shame it had to end up that way.

[Don88]

I vaguely remember my first race at the Fairgrounds speedway in Ford City, Pa!!

Sprints and I don't know what else! It was 1948 or 49..

Damn, I'm old!!!..

[Walt Wimer]

 You must be!!   I went to the Fairgrounds in Ford City about 1952 when I was all of about 13.  NASCAR coupes...Mike Klapak, Dick Linder, Mike Little, Dick Bailey and many others.  Only time I ever got there!!

 

GOOD  RACING!!!

 

Walt

[jo73]

If you guys made it to ford city. Does anyone remember the track in new kensington ? I guess it was in the area of giant eagle/K mart. I never did, but it actually may have been there in my younger yrs.

Funny, but, every time I Tryed to make north hills or butler. It rained. A guy that was older than me were we used to hang playing pinball and fountain soda's. Nickle for the pinball and I think the fountain soda cost a quarter used to go to blanket hill every week. I used to ask him every week to take me to. Got my first black eye from him cause he was tired of me asking.

Boy, if I had 1 wish.

[Wolfie29]

If you guys made it to ford city. Does anyone remember the track in new kensington ? I guess it was in the area of giant eagle/K mart. I never did, but it actually may have been there in my younger yrs.

Funny, but, every time I Tryed to make north hills or butler. It rained. A guy that was older than me were we used to hang playing pinball and fountain soda's. Nickle for the pinball and I think the fountain soda cost a quarter used to go to blanket hill every week. I used to ask him every week to take me to. Got my first black eye from him cause he was tired of me asking.

Boy, if I had 1 wish.

[Wolfie29]

If you guys made it to ford city. Does anyone remember the track in new kensington ? I guess it was in the area of giant eagle/K mart. I never did, but it actually may have been there in my younger yrs.

Funny, but, every time I Tryed to make north hills or butler. It rained. A guy that was older than me were we used to hang playing pinball and fountain soda's. Nickle for the pinball and I think the fountain soda cost a quarter used to go to blanket hill every week. I used to ask him every week to take me to. Got my first black eye from him cause he was tired of me asking.

Boy, if I had 1 wish.

Great story jo73 !