Visit SUPER MODIFIEDS OF THE 70'S for more pictures and information |
To get a different view of the Vallejo track please visit Don Martin's Vallejo Speedway Memorial page. It is a look at Don's visit to what once was a regular Saturday night stop for race fans. |
TRACKS LONG AGO |
A STORY OF THREE TRACKS... TWO ARE NOW GONE BUT ONE LIVES ON |
Vallejo Speedway 1975 |
This is what you might have seen in one of Vallejo's programs in 1975. The hardtop divsion was still going strong but the times were changing. |
Though the years the names heard at Vallejo were like a who's who of bayarea racing. Names like Larry Damitz, Phil Pedlar, Del Quinn, Steve Mentch, Gene, Lee, and Darrell Dudley to name a few. Some of these guys still are active drivers and or car owners . |
Toward the end of the tracks life the hobby stocks were a regular attraction at the track. Here's a photo of a car my dad owned but let a friend drive I believe it was in 1977. |
To get a different view of the Vallejo track please visit Don Martin's Vallejo Speedway Memorial page. It is a look at Don's visit to what once was a regular Saturday night stop for race fans. |
San Jose Speedway 1975 (Tully Rd.) |
The Super Modifieds and Stock cars line up to qualifiy some time during the 1975 season. I had never been to San Jose before that, but I was so hooked I found a car to crew for. The driver's name was Russ Milbauer out of Hayward. It was only 8 shows for me but I enjoyed every minute of it. |
The up-right Super Mods where something to see flying around the fast 1/3 mile paved oval located on the east end of Tully road. Sad that it to died in the name of progress. |
Antioch Speedway 1975 |
Howard Kaeding at speed in the Flyers Body Shop #3 |
Some of the drivers who graced the pavement here were, Howard Kaeding, Quick Nick Rescino, the Sargent family of Marshall, Mike and Mark and many others .When the track closed some quit while others tried the |
dirt at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. A new tradition had begun. But as it seems now the fairgrounds track is about to meet the same fate as the Tully Road track.... Progress is knocking once again. |
Antioch Speedway began with the old $99 claimer division way back in 1961. In 1975 the two clases that ran were the Sportsman (a cross between a super and a modifed) and the Stock car division. Both classes averaged over 30 cars a night and put on some great races. Some of the drivers in the Sportsman class were: Darryl Shirk, J.D. Willis, Dennis Close, present Antioch promotor John Soares, Larry Schlee, and Dennis Furia. The Stock cars had Dean Cline, Willie Myatt, Tom Clymens, lady drivers Gloria Johnson and Leslie Green, as well as many others. |
Darryl Shirk (3) battles Jim Kathen (20) in the old Sportsman Division. (They were also called Skinny cars) |
Leslie Green (53), Tom Goforth (16) and Ron Wadsworth (55) during Stock car action |
Well most of you know Antioch Speedway is the only track of these 3 that is still in operation today. Sadly progress as they call it, forced Vallejo and San Jose to close once and forever. The strange thing is Antioch was and is surrounded by the town and homes. Maybe it's because it's at the fairgrounds it stays open or maybe, just maybe it's become part of the way of life people in Antioch and the bayarea won't let progress take. |
Visit SUPER MODIFIEDS OF THE 70'S for more pictures and information |
Dean Cline (66) runs inside of John Van Hoosher (10) and Tom Chapman |
All kinds of different looking cars raced in the sportsman division during their time at the track |
A page of memories of the Old San Jose Speedway by Al Drake |