I remember that as well . A crash…A mercury leak…and the races canceled for the night. Wow
Cope
No the 61 wasn’t owned by Leroy, it was one of his old cars. I am not sure but it may have been after Jimmy came back from Lawarre, when Garvey took over the #8. I remember that night @ OSW when Fox had the mercury come out of the car pretty crazy. Jimmy Cope got the win that night.
#61–
Burke Hammond drove the #61 for a bit.
This St. Augustine thread turned into a Lakeland thread, and to answer some questions; the drag-strip is still going strong, there is a mud-bog, mud dragway, an old dirt go-cart track, and gone are a cross-country dirt course, a moto-cross track, and the old 5/8 and 1/4 milers.
The asphalt road-course was used quite a bit, with the raceway using the long drag strip, a weaving return toward the ovals, the original old entrance to the ovals, a trip around the big 5/8 track, and out to the drag-strip again through an opening that was on the other side of the 1/4 mile grandstands, which most nobody knew had ever existed, because it had been closed-up and cemented over, before the re-opening of the 1/4 miler.
If you looked close enough, you could see where the other opening in the wall had once been.
It sounds like the Lakeland facility was a hell of a place at one time.Sheesh it sounds like all they needed was to move a NASA launch pad into it and they would have had all bases covered.St Augustine was a true half mile wasn’t it?I wasn’t down here before it closed its doors.Wish I could have seen them both along with Hialeah.I’ve never been to any of the Indiana tracks even though I’ve seen races on tv and many many pictures of Salem and Winchester.I did go to races at the old Dayton Ohio Speedway as a very young kid and then again for the last Dayton 500 race held there in 1981 before it was closed for good and turned into a landfill.The last Dayton 500 was a run what you brung race with no weight rulesetc. In effect and even had a couple sprint cars and hobby stocks in the field WITH the late models.Both 250 lap segments were won by Ed “Hillbilly” Duncan in a car owned by Ben Pelphrey and driven a year earlier by Don Gregory.Dayton was actually bigger than a half mile,a little closer to a 5/8 mile and even at that dilapidated point in its history,scary fast.A wicked wreck just past the start finish line towards the end of the second segment eliminated a number of the remaining field and tore the entire front clip from Columbus’s Larry Lahrmer’s car with it erupting into a ballof flames and leaving Larry visibly shaken,even an hour after the race ended.I read a story about Jim Hurtibese coming to race there for his first time in the late 50’s and arriving late so he requested a ride around the track to check it out and see where any bumps or dips were on the racing surface and after a ride around the track they asked him what he thought of it and he supposedly said well the tracks fine but why did they plant bushes around the outside the track in the turns?Supposedly they told him,Jim, those aren’t bushes those are tree tops.
Randy Allen (Deceased) owned the 61 cars that LeRoy drove. Burke Hammond worked on them (and the #7), but I don’t remember him driving them. I believe the car shown was the one that LeRoy got hurt in and Jimmy Cope rebuilt it and drove it on occassion. Me, Randy and LeRoy all rode to St. Pete together(LeRoy didn’t know what was up. Just thought we were going to the races) the nite they unvieled it after the rebuild. LeRoy was very emmotinal that nite.
[QUOTE=Jimmy McKinley;123553]Lakeland - the 3/4 mile “super-spee…”…sorry…“short track”…was HARD on equipment, especially the “local” classes. And not just by tearin’ stuff up. Mini stocks, street stocks, and sportsman cars - the “low-buck” classes…just couldn’t hardly afford to be turning 10,000 RPM at a big track like Lakeland. The races you saw on TV were probably the old Hooter’s Cup series, because they had the TV deal at the time. In my opinion, even the Late Models didn’t really belong at a track that big; Nashville, which is just under a 5/8ths officially measured at .597 mile), is plenty big.
Wish they woulda left Lakeland alone and left it a 1/4 mile. We ran a Florida Pro race there, and it wasn’t too bad 
Just needed to fill in the ditch inside of turn three…[/QUOTE]
Dont think it was a Florida Pro race Jimmy. The only FPrace ron there was on the 3/4 mile 1 time. Pete Ore wore them out that night.
U can see the roof of my house in one of those pic…
Boy the grass was greener on the other side.
Don62
Wow, what a crappy way to ruin the St. Augustine thread with all of this Lakeland crap…and who drove what…from you guys that are too old to correctly remember :thumbdown:. I was looking forward to hearing more about the St. Augustine track.
[QUOTE=Groundpounder;123830]Wow, what a crappy way to ruin the St. Augustine thread with all of this Lakeland crap…and who drove what…from you guys that are too old to correctly remember :thumbdown:. I was looking forward to hearing more about the St. Augustine track.[/QUOTE]Sorry for ruinin’ yer day… 
St. Augustine…ain’t really much to say, I don’t think. It was only open for a few years (1992-2001). They ran a few Hooter’s Pro Cup races there after it was paved. I don’t know what the situation was with it closing without much of a notice.
http://staugustine.com/stories/122101/spo_375300.shtml
http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/012802/spr_8454764.html
I went there the first year it opened as a dirt track. Packed house all around and the show was killer… The outside wall was goofy, but they fixed that and the WoO ran there at least once. They paved it and it was gorgeous, but I have no idea why it closed. I remember George Rudolf’s Grandson got into the fence in a TBARA race and got messed up real bad, and someone else got messed up real bad there in TBARA as well but his name escapes me at the moment.
Larry Tyler…he was ultra-fast at the time.
the owners went throu a bad drovice,with one of the inlaws living close to the track,that an inside with the ZONING BOARD. the pits would open at 1230. cars on the track at 1. You could not run a car from 5-630 because it upset her dinner. last race had to be done by 1100. if it went over, you would be fined. You had to load the cars by hand after 11. So as PAUL HARVEY would say it…NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!!! til that woman dies,there will be NO RACING ON THE PROP.
I was there for the ‘Grand Opening’ (but found out when I got there, they’d already had a local-division show the week before.
It was a Hav-A-Tampa Late Model show that Scott Bloomquist won. The track was outrageously dusty. The interior of my van had a red Georgia clay tint to it the rest of it’s life. I was parked in the ‘drive-in’ section outside turns 3-4, with the side doors open didnt realize how much dust had gotten in until it was too late. They eventually moved the drive-in section to the outside of turns 1-2
I went several times as a dirt track, always saw good fields and large fan count. I never did make it there once it was paved, and I knownthese car counts took a major nose-dive.
I stopped by the track a few years ago, and although we couldn’t get very close to it, it still appeared as if it could re-open in a week. Looked like it could have run last week. I was expecting a run-down rat trap of a track, but it looked nicer after 8 (or so) years of no usage, than most tracks that run every week.
As someone else mentioned (maybe Alaska54) the zoning laws have changed in St Johns County, and there is basically NO HOPE of it ever returning as a racetrack again.
[QUOTE=Frasson118;123861]I was there for the ‘Grand Opening’ (but found out when I got there, they’d already had a local-division show the week before.
It was a Hav-A-Tampa Late Model show that Scott Bloomquist won. The track was outrageously dusty. The interior of my van had a red Georgia clay tint to it the rest of it’s life. I was parked in the ‘drive-in’ section outside turns 3-4, with the side doors open didnt realize how much dust had gotten in until it was too late. They eventually moved the drive-in section to the outside of turns 1-2
I went several times as a dirt track, always saw good fields and large fan count. I never did make it there once it was paved, and I knownthese car counts took a major nose-dive.
I stopped by the track a few years ago, and although we couldn’t get very close to it, it still appeared as if it could re-open in a week. Looked like it could have run last week. I was expecting a run-down rat trap of a track, but it looked nicer after 8 (or so) years of no usage, than most tracks that run every week.
As someone else mentioned (maybe Alaska54) the zoning laws have changed in St Johns County, and there is basically NO HOPE of it ever returning as a racetrack again.[/QUOTE]
They have kept the track up and it could run next week. Great track and a great town full of race fans.
Mabee some day.
O yea frogon i killed that one also…
Don
screw those zoning laws if you actually own the place
Thanks guys on all the info on the St. Augustine track.I can tell there is still interest in the place.If anybody reading this cares to,and you really think zoning laws are the only thing standing in the way of it ever returning,go to the online site of the CORNELL LAW LIBRARY and look up a decision posted there about land use regulation.It went through the United States supreme court originating from a lawsuit filed by a church in Glendale California.Originally heard in the California supreme court and then later the U.S. supreme court.It was ruled on by unanimous decision in 1987 and has not been challenged or overturned since.It was EXTREMELY beneficial to me later that same year up in Ohio when the township tried to force me to move my mobile home I had just bought and moved onto my property and wanted me to do so in two weeks time.REMEMBER, this is a ruling that went through the U.S. supreme court so state,county,city governmental agencys be damned.Zoning laws and city plans for the area be damned as long as you actually OWN the property and aren’t just a renter or leaseholder,and as long as you aren’t doing illegal activities there or putting someone in harms way knowingly.I have a word for word copy of the decision as it was reported on in U.S. law week.The Cornell law site is simply a summary of the decision along with showing any related decisions.Which there has been none since then.All government agencys DO NOT WANT the general public to know about this ruling although it was a headline story on the front page of the Columbus (Ohio)Dispatch when ruled on in 1987.And it was promptly swept under the rug.Thanks again all.
I raced at Saint Augustine Speedway from opening day in 1993 thru 1999. I was born and raised here, and have known the owner V.J. Usina since I was about 10 years old. That goes back to 1970. He is a great guy, and built a first class track. VJ and Gwen aren’t divorced as far as I know, and I was told by some of his employees that the asphalt was pulled up due to DEP requirements.