Thought you might find this stuff interesting… These are the results from New Smyrna and the Deland dirt track from Speedweek 1971… Note that both tracks ran only Late Models, nothing else… Both had huge fields of cars from all over the country…
What, no Bandeleros? No wonder the DeLand track closed down.
Amazing how many names I recognized in the articles. Either I’m getting really old, really fast or short track racing had a ton of big stars back in the day. (or both!)
Cool articles!
I remember that Daredevil, Ken Carter too. He was a Canadian that made headlines for a few years in NY, preparing to jump across the St. Lawrence Seaway between NY and Canada, in a jet-powered “Funny Car”. There were many delays trying to work out the legalities, and his money-backers pulled the plug.
I’ve known of Doug Rose and his Green Mamba for about 35 years, and this is the very first time I’ve seen mentioned that he was leg-less. Never knew that.
Jim Santer, I think was actually Jim Sauter, former Nascar racer and father to (I believe) 9 kids, about 6 of whom followed him into racing, including Johnny who ran for Haas CNC last year.
The Deland shows sure had a bunch of Hall of Famers, like Darrell Dake, Ed Sanger, Floyd Gilbert, Don Hestor and Sam McQuagg.
The opening line really puts a perspective on how long ago this was… “Ed Sanger more than paid for his 1500 mile trip from Waterloo, Iowa, with a $500.00 victory”. Today, that wouldn’t have paid his tire bill for that one night!
Cool articles!
I remember that Daredevil, Ken Carter too. He was a Canadian that made headlines for a few years in NY, preparing to jump across the St. Lawrence Seaway between NY and Canada, in a jet-powered “Funny Car”. There were many delays trying to work out the legalities, and his money-backers pulled the plug.
I’ve known of Doug Rose and his Green Mamba for about 35 years, and this is the very first time I’ve seen mentioned that he was leg-less. Never knew that.
Jim Santer, I think was actually Jim Sauter, former Nascar racer and father to (I believe) 9 kids, about 6 of whom followed him into racing, including Johnny who ran for Haas CNC last year.
The Deland shows sure had a bunch of Hall of Famers, like Darrell Dake, Ed Sanger,
And not the last time we’d see “Gary Balough” and “Cops” in a headline in a newspaper…
Does anybody have any links to the old newspaper reports of his bust with Billie Harvey and the rest of the guys those guys who went to jail.
tire bill you are kidding
it would not even pay for fuel bill just for few pratice laps and feature now
…and cars towed from all over the country, not just the central Florida area. I didn’t see one mention of what appeared to be a New Smyrna “regular”. Balough and Tissot from down South, probably running Hialeah and Palm Beach on a weekly basis. Bickerstaff and Senneker towing in from up north, Tommy Colella…and more southern guys like Gene Johnson, Paul Conners, and Rogero. Not too many guys venture too far from their home tracks any more. I can remember seeing cars from the west coast at New Smyrna, with their home tracks as their sponsors for the upcoming season. Instead of maybe “Joe’s Radiator”, it was “Golden Gate Speedway, Tampa…season starts in April” to get fans to travel a little bit to see these “out of towners”. It was the same way when the Governor’s Cup rolled around.