Forum: Oklahomatidbits.com General Forum (go)
Moderators:  /  David Smith Jr

With the Chili Bowl in sight, thought a look at a simpler time was appropriate, when midget racing wasn't unusual at all in OKC.....

That's COOL!

It's not HOW fast you go, but how you GO fast.

www.myspace.com/bucky65c

all this talk of a new ascs midget series is good to hear ------

hell i always thought the closest thing we would have to midget racing is Lanny rounding up some folks same size as him and settin em about on golf carts....

oh... wait a second

How much would could a wouldchuck chuck if a 
wouldchuck could chuck would

I went to goto play John Marshall in football there one year and I told my teammates that they use to race cars there. They also did not beleive me. If you know what you are looking for you can tell that there might have been a track there once.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen 

This should be a good start...http://users.icnet.net/~robertb/okcrace.htm. Pictures..http://winfield.50megs.com/Seago/Floyd_Seago.htm Some of my favorite pictures in just these few. The Jud and Lloyd pictures are classic..http://winfield.50megs.com/Seago/Midgets/OKC/Taft_Stadium_2.htm

Kenny

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

They started racing midgets at Taft in the fall of 1946. A land developer got them kicked out for two years in 1949, so the show moved to the old Fairgrounds. It came back to Taft just in time for the midget boom to die out, to be replaced by stock cars. What eventually became the Hutchinson Nationals was run there for the first time, after which Ray Lavely simply disappeared and Bud Carson had to come in and take over. I think the last show was in 1967, after several years of races being run at both Taft and the Fairgrounds. The whole story is in the Summer, 2007 edition of the Chronicles of Oklahoma, which you can borrow from the Metropolitan Library system if you're really interested. Among a great many racing legends who ran there was a young Air Force pilot from the base in Wichita Falls, who came up in a Jeep-powered rail frame midget. Name of Rodger Ward. About the only big name of that era who didn't run there was Bill Vukovich, who came in twice and was rained out both times.....he did, however, run at the old Fairgrounds.

1946: The Oklahoma City school board approves Lavely Racing to promote/operate midget races at Taft Stadium.

1947: A clay surface is applied to the running track surface at Taft to reduce dust.

1948: The Oklahoma City school board denies new contract to allow midget racing to continue at Taft.

1948: Lavely Racing moves midget racing program to the old Fairgrounds at the current Douglass High School site.

1949: Due to needed revenue the Oklahoma City school board approves midget races at Taft Stadium - again.

1951: Full body race cars (Jalopies) begin racing at Taft Stadium.

1953: With delays due to steelworkers strike and the Korean War conflict, groundbreaking finally begins on the new State Fairgrounds at the old Sandlot Baseball Park - N.W. 10th & May - with funds provided by a 1950 $ 4.7 million dollar Bond issue. The old Fairgrounds site - at N.E. 10th & Eastern - will provide the land neccessary for the new Douglass High School.

1954: The new Fairgrounds is complete. The Grandstand has a seating capacity of 10000 people, a 5/8 mile horse track, a 1/2 mile race track, and a 1/4 mile oval track.

1955: Micro-Midgets begin racing at the Stockyards Coliseum and Taft.

1956: Defending NASCAR Champion Tim Flock, along with the other stars on the NASCAR Grand National Race circuit compete against the top Taft drivers at the Fairgrounds Speedway in a 100 mile NASCAR points event.

Convertibles are banned at Taft.

1957: Bud Carson forms Mar-Car (after wife Mary Carson) to promote and coordinate auto racing operations at the new Fairgrounds Speedway. In a dispute primarily over gate share 57 members of the Oklahoma City Auto Racing Association, led by President Ray Copeland and with assistance and support from Fairgrounds director Bud Carson-along with 64 Tulsa drivers and car-owners- Oklahoma City drivers severe their ties with Lavely Racing Promotions and choose Mar-Car as the primary Oklahoma City racing venue. President Ray Copeland stated that any driver, who signs the agreement to associate only with Mar-Car and breaks that agreement, would be banned at the Fairgrounds.

1957: Ray Lavely and racing promoters from Enid, Dodge City, Wichita, and Hutchinson conceive the first National Jalopy Championship that is to be held at Taft. Frankie Lies wins the inaugural event with Garland Newsom and Harold Leep finishing 2^nd & 3^rd, and Charles Hiner winning the semi-final. With Ray Lavely�s departure to California the event moves to Hutchinson in 1958 and evolves into the Hutchinson Nationals.

1958: Mar-Car promotes/operates racing at both the Fairgrounds Speedway and Taft.

1961: Race scenes for the 1962 movie State Fair is shot with cast at Fairgrounds Speedway.

1963: Last year of Taft Stadium Mar-Car events.

1964: All Mar-Car events are held at Fairgrounds Speedway.

Half the lies they tell about me aren't true. 

Not a racing history topic but then again sort of that can, in a way relate to this, but best describes "history" no matter what your preference.

I am a huge baseball fan, played it all through school years since 1st grade until I graduated, had a drivers license and found dirt track racing again. January 1st, Cox added the new MLB Network which covers baseball 24/7 and they have had several different documentaries already.

One of them was on Don Larsons perfect game in the 1946 World Series with Yogi Berra catching. Bob Costas, who is a huge baseball fan and one of the best interviewers I have ever heard, watched that complete game with both Larson and Yogi and they analysed the whole game. To hear the history of that game, what Larson was feeling at the time and the little things that occured throughout that game, caught me smiling throughout and learned things I never knew about the game. HA, he didn't know he pitched a perfect game, he just thought he pitched a no hitter until he read the paper next morning.

What I am trying to say is, listen and learn from the people like Galen who brings our Oklahoma history to life and talk and listen to the racing veterans (that are still around) and talk racing from "back in the day" and listen to the stories.

Mike Pogue, who like Paul Martens and Brian26 buys and restores old supers and such, told me that twice a month in Tulsa at one of the Casino's restraunts, have an old timer breakfast with at least 80 people who show up and talk shop. Harold Leep, Jackie and Angelo Howerton, Emmett Hahn, Buddy Cagle, "Wahoo" McDanial, are just a few that are there most every time. Regular fans are invited and encouraged and all they do is sit and talk about the time that was.

Whether your over 50, under 50 or in your teen age years, take time and learn about the history of racing in our state and you might learn to appreciate what this state once contributed to the sport of dirt track auto racing. I have learned alot from reading Galens stories (er tidbits) and get a smile on my face when reading all those who post on Warren Vincents "Racing From the Past" message board. You learn not only some special racing moments from this area but stories on the cars that were. I highly recommend everybody take a break during this off season and just sit and enjoy reading some old stories.

Once I get me a DVD player and can switch my '59 Taft Stadium, 72-73 MARCAR Fairgrounds and 1969 Muskogee/Tulsa videos over to DVD's then I will try to master loading them onto this site for viewing.

Now if we can get Galen and others to write a long novel about the history of dirt track racing here in Oklahoma, with stories and pictures, we will have it made.

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

And the question I ask is this, was the 5/8th mile horse track ever used for horses?

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

I started watching stock cars at Taft in 1955 or so, and would go two or three times a year.  I remember in 1957 watching sputnik cross the sky while I was at Taft.  I rode my bike to the fairgrounds for the movie and was in the grandstands as  they filmed.  Saw Pat Boone and some others, but I don't remember the names anymore.  I quit going to the races until the early 70's at the SFS, and haven't missed many shows since.  I've been to a LOT of race tracks over the years, and not many are as nice or better the the facilities we have at the fairgrounds.

The movie that they flimed at the fairgrounds was the movie "State Fair". They story I have heard was that the producers of the movie could not find a nice enough track around Dallas so they came up here to flim the race sceen. If you watch carefully during the race sceen the coke plant is not in the background.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen 

Yes, David, they did race horses on the 5/8ths during the fair. Shane Carson talks about helping convert the track back from the horses during the day to race cars at night. The front stretch wall was lined with straw bales, I think, and of course the dirt was loosened up for the horses....mostly trotters and pacers, for those who care. I've always thought it must have been awfully narrow.