CONCORD, N.C. – With the return of historic North Wilkesboro Speedway to the NASCAR landscape, it got me thinking: What other tracks deserve a comeback?
Of course, this endeavor is fraught with a few problems … namely the fact that the ones I’d most like to see again are now shopping malls, subdivisions or have been absorbed into the landscape. However, it’s an interesting thought exercise.
Digging into the memory banks, the first place I would go to revive an absolutely fantastic track of yesteryear would be New Jersey — specifically, Flemington Speedway.
That grand old fairgrounds track was racy, more so as a dirt track than the paved oval it was when it was shuttered to build yet another multi-use development. The square shape of the track lent itself to great racing, though the bottom was the preferred line most of the time as I remember.
The greatest race I ever saw there was a weekly modified show that boiled down to a side-by-side battle between Skip Turyonis and Ray Bateman. Can’t remember the year — that’s happening a bit more of late — but it was an absolute battle. The two cars were never more than a car length apart the entire 30 laps, and Turyonis pulled it out on the final lap.
I always left there covered in dirt and usually forgot to bring the goggles I needed, but it was a blast every time.
The return to North Wilkesboro also kicked up a memory of the old Muncie Motor Speedway in my Indiana hometown. The tiny little track located on Ind. 67 — the entrance to the track was on the far side of a hard right-hand turn called, and not euphemistically, Dead Man’s Curve — was a technical nightmare for setups and ate tires.
Despite that, it was a blast to watch a race there, and some pretty tough drivers lost out to the tight confines. Muncie Dragway, last I checked, was still operating, and it was located just to the east of the oval.
It’s also on my mind because, on the day I was born, my mother could not reach my father, who was watching a USAC midget race there that evening. That fact still comes up in conversation with mom, too.
It is a fact of nature — and progress — that the lands once occupied by race tracks are more valuable today as housing developments and multi-use properties. It’s just the way things are. As the population swells and the building boom continues, more tracks will be swallowed up.
That is sad in a lot of ways, because things we remember for most of our lives often happen at such places.
Back when most of these race tracks were built — and Flemington was one of the older tracks in the country — there was no significant encroachment envisioned. Much of the pressure to get rid of perfectly good tracks comes from people in houses built close to them that don’t like the noise and the traffic.
I can understand that, but the chances are slim that people didn’t see the track or know about it when they bought houses within a mile or two of the speedway. That’s what happened to tracks like Warsaw Speedway in my home state and countless others around the country, especially on the West Coast.
One wonders, with this push toward electric vehicles, how many of our venues will be shuttered for that reason rather than better land use. It will be interesting to see how this shakes out down the road.
For the nonce, as a certain former editor used to say, we’ll take it as it comes and hope that the tide is stemmed and some form of compromise can be reached.
If not … well, the events and memories will live on among those of us who were lucky enough to have been present when the knights of the roaring road were plying their trade.
This story appeared in the June 7, 2023 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
