Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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I wrote a column about some of my early Syracuse memories at http://www.diversifiedracing.com/

That's for you SingleFile (appropriate for the narrow horse path),

Click on the Eck's Files artwork.

Kevin Eckert

Kevin,thanks for taking me back to my roots again. My first trip to Syracuse was on a bus from the Reading Fairgrounds the second year they ran it. Also that year my dad started another tradition. We would go to the Eastern States 100. An amazing race at the time. We would go every year after that, even sponsering a couple laps for a few years in the name of my dads garage in Fleetwood. I still have the thank you card sent to him by Walt Garrett and Carl VanHorn who led both laps one year. So tomorrow I'll make the solo trip to Middletown again. Because no matter how dirty I will be when it's over or how bad the race is or how decrepid the grounds are there will be a point when with tears in my eyes I will remember my dad and all those great races he took me to. Those were special trips.

Kevin, thanks so much for writing that column. I loved reading it. Even though Syracuse has always had substandard racing, I have felt depressed at DIRT Week the past few years because the race seems to be dying, both from a competitor and fan standpoint.

Regarding the Raiders, they may play better if they would also put a patch over the uncovered eye!!

I was wondering where you moved to. Thought it mighta been just right across the street.

Still in the neighborhood though

kevin,great piece about "THE MOODY MILE",AND THE OSWEGO SPEEDWAY". i have many memories going with my dad.how many times did you or anybody make "the double" on the bus up to oswego after the saturday show and then back for sunday??? i was in my teens but i still remember alll the bench racing on that trip.a lot of good times as i got older,but the last couple were not so great.time to move it to ROLLING WHEELS for the weekend and include a high dollar sprint car race.thanks again for the memories.

livin on the coast of n.carolina,no dirt to be 
found,thank god for hoseheads!!!!!

Yes, the Eastern States 200 was always a special day. It was older than the Syracuse classic and as a one-day show on a half-mile, more friendly to a weekend warrior. There would be seven or eight heat races of 18 cars or so for about two transfers. They were better than the 200! From turn four, dust was bearable during those heats but when 44 cars coated father and I on the first lap in 1974, we looked at each other with expressions that said, "We can't take 199 more laps like this" and bum-rushed the main grandstand. We were there in '73 when Fuzzy Van Horn dominated in the Carl Garrett Vega before breaking. He was always the Hard Charger of Sunday morning Last Chance races at Syracuse too.

Super DIRT Week '82 was my only bus ride from Syracuse to Oswego. I had hitched to Rolling Wheels with writer Bruce Ellis for a Thursday rain out, and hitched home with Nick Lombardi, a Pauch crewman from Piscataway, NJ. Oswego was bitterly cold that year, especially on the backstretch where the bus parked. Doug Heveron handled the supers and (I think) Greg Sacks won the modified race. On the way home, Lombardi revealed how I could've seen Van Halen at the Carrier Dome instead.

Though the Raiders have given me little to cheer since the '02 Super Bowl, as a historian, I can vividly recall all three wonderful Super Bowl victories, which makes me feel lucky.

hey kevin,i have been to oswego in july and it was bitterly cold!!! and those backstretch grandstands bring back a couple of bently warrens legendary parties well into the morning!!! great stuff .

livin on the coast of n.carolina,no dirt to be 
found,thank god for hoseheads!!!!!