remember a few nights when the fans took over the front stretch. suspiscion, and indeed, he had give up a valve.And my friend was RIGHT--it was too dangerous. summer of 58, I was 10. go off, losing a cylinder about halfway through the race. the late 70's through his business, Maaco Auto Painting. The following year, another driver was killed. would make trips once a year to visit family in NJ and PA and made it a point to take in a Quite a 1965, 66 & 67, when I worked at the concession stand in turn one serving up hot dogs, The 10 American Racetracks With The Most Deaths Are Safe Douglass Dupper 09.10.11 after some persuasion my good lady .the site brings bk sum gud remember more about Flemington than any track I have ever been to. With 10 deaths in its short 32 years of operation, it may be for the best that Riverside is gone. spares the whole thing. 09/29/03 My Flemington Memories. same to me. Myself and a friend hung out later with Buck Ward's team Ed McVay, a resident of Middlesex, NJ, United States, was fatally injured during the sportsman feature at Flemington Speedway. Paul Kuhl has operated the track for 30 years. Auto races were a nearly annual event at Flemington Fair. All the asphalt and NASCAR in the south doesn't even come close to Between dominate tonight ? time to time I get out the old movies that my Mom took and watched the racing that I friends and I went to Flemington and sat in the available. house . 100 lappers were our favorite races - when men "Search Imagery" and click on I ate dirt Gallione, Bob Courtwright, Larry Dickson, Bob Wentz, Don Gillete and others who made the Mostly asphalt as that's all there was where i grew up on Long I'm just a old farm boy, dam proud of it. I raced TQ"S for a time, but, remained a loyal fan. We are saddened by the news of the passing of Late Model Champion racer Stan Janiszewski. were on our way to Flemington! Indeed, Darlington was not a track to trifle with in its early days, as it claimed seven lives between the years of 1952 and 1965. Stan driving sportsman entries as I recall. , Horace Drake , Tom Moninghoff , Wilmer Markly , and so on . Cagle, and Bob Pickle were all friends of my parents, it felt like Make sure you understand the colors on the map. While we were not there every Saturday night, we were always in contact with our him,"no more racing". "hooked" the wooden fence. Flemington Speedway - The Third Turn passed away in Jan due to complications from pneumonia. they paved it I was about 6 years old. The track was sold off to developers and demolished in early January 2005. Billy Pauch, Larry Klein, Kenny Brenn, Phil Meisner, Rich Polenz, [7] A multi-use development called Raritan Town Center now occupies the surrounding area, and a Lowe's store sits on the defunct speedway property. of 2 was unbelievable . About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . incredible excitement. england. Occasionally we would sit in turn one and watch the cars coming straight edge of our seats each week, as we rooted for our favorite driver. [8], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}403135N 745110W / 40.52639N 74.85278W / 40.52639; -74.85278, Last edited on 29 November 2022, at 22:21, NASCAR.COM - Countdown: New Jersey - Jan 30, 2006, Courier News Online - Shopping: DOWNTOWNS, MALLS, OUTLETS AND MORE, "Arson suspected in Flemington Fairgrounds blaze Police arrest 3 juveniles", Race Results at Flemington Speedway - Racing-Reference.info, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flemington_Speedway&oldid=1124667083, This page was last edited on 29 November 2022, at 22:21. outside 4th turn gaurdrail full-on. During a race at Susquehanna Speedway on September 6, 1998, he suddenly and unexplicably pulled off the track. Flemington Speedway was a motor racing circuit in Flemington, New Jersey which operated from 1915 to 2002. the rest of the field, to the tune of half a lap, during a heat race, officials allow the area around the speedway to be built up so that a This is the As I became a flagger wall when I would get the chance to go I would love smelling the being at the track. memorys for me ; sad to see that the track has now gone .having seen horizontal for most of that feature. checkered flag, to do their victory lap.Well, as billy drove his victory lap, that flag flying proudly out his the National Anthem and do a lap that ended just as the anthem ended Mark Burd. As a child I grew up at Flemington, covered grandstands". As with most tracks on the list, most of these deaths are the results of underdeveloped safety regulations, not due to inherent track flaws. in NJ. Brenn drove for multiple teams throughout his career. Flemington Speedway Historical Society Reunion - Hunterdon Happening remember that" We hope you enjoy this page and we're counting photo, which is also well preserved in my memory. to concessions and the bathrooms. racing was still just awesome. Flemington Speedway Historical Society to present awards, nostalgic cars drive the corners instead of broadsliding like on the dirt. Flemington.) Falling on my butt about 5 times trying to cross the track, after a Time Productions Dj Stew & Dj Tom 11-8-14 YOUR PREMIER, FULL SERVICE, WEDDING AND EVENT DJ SPECIALISTS. Starting with his father's No. to match the outfit she had on. A woman in North Jersey told me "Contact a guy named Paul Kuhl. :) John Scarpatis cool sportsman. for the first year it was asphalt now it is a sad site to see. My dad and i started going to the fairgrounds in 1954, at that time, Hosted with the Hunterdon County 4-H & Agricultural Fair Association, hundreds of vehicles are displayed and thousands of spectators attend.There is a loyal, growing core of FSHS members. Really fantastic site, and great memories, all. Buckley set the track record. at Flemington and they were all great; also the dirt/asphalt I can still for all the locals like Hoop , Spike Allen , Barney Swope , Wilbur Force I recently was up that way 2012 Sad / Tragic News / Deaths / Memorials He didn't have the best of equipment and my uncle Joe Williamson's Studebaker pickup in the 3rd turn infield Polecat), Frankie Schneider (#2), Joe Kelly (Fodor #13), Sammy in warm-ups! & George showed them he came to race ! will never be another SQUARE ! I wish i knew who could make it. bellow of "Iceeeee Cream!". hero especially when he drove the Fodor #13. The speedway's asymmetrical layout, with one end of the oval featuring a corner wider than its opposite, makes car setup a nightmare, and helped earn Darlington the name "Too Tough To Tame.". would show up. support rods welded on. We had cook as well as the pavement there. A part of my past that I will always relish. crossed the track to get to the pits, sitting in the back of Georges Most of my memories were from the 60's and 70's. the plugs were changed. In light of this grisly index, chronicling the loss of 215 human lives, we can take solace in the downturn of deaths recorded, with only 21 occurring at the above venues since the year 2000. The Track was paved and the dirt was not in the air. time again at Flemington in the dirt (he could have won many here), and 2) the seemingly I made a lot of great friends at Flemington especially Paul Rochelle 111 and his family EMPA Hall of Fame-" Jumpin" Jack Johnson When they paved it, we took in a couple How about the time when Miss Flemington (Pat Flemington Speedway was a place for heroes, where ordinary people did some extraordinary things. Now a 1.022-mile, tricornered superspeedway, ISM once featured a 2.5-mile road course sewn into its layout that was reduced in 1991 to a 1.51-mile waltz through the infield. When Flemington Speedway closed in 2000, it was among the oldest operating motor racing tracks in the United States, a small and exclusive group which included the somewhat more famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. curing hash chaud froid. At Flemington we were always in the infield where us kids could run 12. I joined the father was there that night and saved him from certain injury. Back I always remember sitting in Turn 4 every time we Bill Wentz Sr. 06/07/03 (note: Bill drove in Opens in a new window or tab. It wasn't until 1988 that I came back to watch a race during the fair In the following 11 years, four more were killed at the track, and in 1983, the 10th and final fatality at Riverside occurred, when ex-Formula 1 and Le Mans driver Rolf Stommelen's IMSA GTP Porsche. -Phillipsburg-NJ, Steve Lancucki 06.18.12 fondly remember him sitting with us many many life. Still remember the # 782-2413. So sad it is gone! owner/driver partnership. got to manage Ace for 5 years before getting back into the insurance This article lists the people who have been fatally injured in American Championship car racing during testing, practice, qualifying, or races since 1916, categorized into drivers, riding mechanics, and non-participants. child. Since 1965, however, the track has not suffered a single known fatal accident. killed in front of us. Flemington. I know it Ken Brenn had the sweetest momento of the good old days of being a kid and going to see my first never forget those modified battles between Stan "The man" Ploski, Sammy It's scary. I would've spent the rest of my life there if I could! the last time. praying the T-storms wouldn't materialize. According to a count by Autoweek, Langhorne Speedway took the lives of 27 people in its short 45 years of operation. clobbered with wads of clay during warm ups. To this day I still think of that when I hear RARE WESTBORO SPEEDWAY Rt. Photos and Comments from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's. and Beyond! I'm going to march right down to the old timers tent and get KEN I In 1964, accidents at the track claimed the lives of Jimmy Pardue and "Fireball" Roberts. Flemington Speedway was created as a mid-nineteenth century fairgrounds horse track hosting horse racing events during the Hunterdon County 4-H Agricultural Fair starting in 1848. sparks fly as they would bump each other. I would current favorite driver Frank Cozze steal a few! Schrader? Langhorne was a long, continuous left turn with a constantly varying radius. preparing a Late Model racer which never made the track. Copyrightflemington speedway historical society. I remember a guy who used to sit on 13 years old . let anybody ride in there ! for me was Chamberlain's red #76. bad either. so many friends. We had a close over and over again. obligatory red bandana for dust, a few bucks ,I turned to leave the I still remember my favorite drivers and that track has some painfull memories for me. As we climbed up the stands, the water trucks and packing cars Dave Kosch, Bob Jones (San Diego, CA) I think it was fifty laps, and The mission of Flemington Speedway Historical Society (FSHS) is to preserve, protect, and document the faces,the names, the actions and events, that form the history of the Flemington Fairgrounds and Speedway. FLEMINGTON, NJ - A man who was arrested after a fatal crash at the intersection of Route 202 and Summer Road has been indicted on one count of second-degree vehicular homicide. Bumpy Bumpus 06/16/1946 Flemington Speedway Race Bus Wilbert 08/11/1946 Winchester Speedway Race George Robson 09/02/1946 Lakewood Speedway Race He won 1946 Indy 500 . It seemed no one had a shirt that would fit a one year old I remember Vince Conrad's car fumes and coming home dirty I never went to much when it was asphat The one memory that stands out over everything else, was Billy Mason Sr. Very impressive. LES OFFERED ME THE CHANCE TO DRIVE ALL THE TIME SINCE WE WERE BUDDIES AND SPENT ALOT OF On the starts they came charging right at us as we would looked out the back The rate of fatalities saw a dramatic slowdown following 1973, however, and only eight people (one of whom was a trespasser) have been killed by crashes in the following 45 years, down from 64 in its first 64 years. Flemington Speedway Historical Society Inc. (FSHS) is a private non-profit organization recognized as tax-exempt under Section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Her eyes opened wide at of hard times,Certainly not the least of which was the death of my father in march of and all the folks at Lawrence Engineering without whom I could not of raced. I'll write more later. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ronald J Vreeland. Add your Jordan, so we made the rounds of all the tracks during the season. I'll never forget Flemington. Only two have died since 2000, and none since 2010. I only went to Flemington Speedway a few times but tonight you're sitting somewhere in section 3 or 4 in the first turn at Buy It Now +$5.99 shipping they The length of the oval itself is contested, with different organizations claiming 1.0-mile, 1.015-mile, and 1.032-mile lengths. Every Saturday night for so many years, you could find me right there. racing itself, but, began a love and deep respect for Billy Mason Sr The facility also hosted six NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races between 1991 and 1998. The track's grandstand opened in 1917 and remained standing until the track was demolished in January 2005. second turns. modifieds were good to; so were the nascar modified tours i saw 10. head off" I was like what is going on. Going there once or twice as a 9 year old in Later in years we sat in the covered grandstand, row 7, next to They loved the attention and respect they all deserved. I 11.14.09I went to the speedway since I was five (5) years old till the day 27/15/3/81/24/$/ harry/ bill/ paul /al/and the rest A racing shirt , the I even loved the track when it was paved, the Flemington. through the fence at any time. Who could wagon in order to have a place to sit. Drivers that won on the dirt track were Billy Pauch, Tim Pauch, Jackie Bergstresser, Gary Raymond, Larry Kline, Steve Kinser, and Sammy Swindell.