Post by The Observer on Jun 2, 2009 18:51:10 GMT 12
Hi All,
In May I was fortunate enough to visit the USA for work. My trip covered a weekend, and with no commitments on a Saturday, and being based in Iowa I wondered if there was a speedway nearby that I might attend. I asked via Macgor’s open wheel board, and was fortunate to get some excellent advice from Shane Walsh (sprint and midget Star Stevie Walsh senior), AJ Gullery, and a variety of other contributors on the open wheel forum macgor.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=openwheelers&action=display&thread=10863 .
And of course a big thanks to macgor for the great board, and giving us a spot to indulge our habit.
Little did I know in my naivety that my location in Perry, Iowa was a mere 35 minutes from Des Moine, which in turn was only 35 mins from the home of sprintcar racing, Knoxville Speedway and the National Sprintcar Museum and Hall of fame. Here’s a view of the facility from the track side.
I’m standing next to the fence that goes around the Knoxville track, at the exit of turn 2. The museum is at the bottom, there’s a conference hall and the hall of fame next floor up, and the rest are all corporate boxes.
A huge thanks goes to Bob Baker, Executive Director of the National Sprintcar Hall of fame and Museum – after wandering for a few hours, and chewing his ear off for 20 minutes he very kindly invited me to his corporate box, which is on the top floor, and in the middle of the crease where the buildings corners meet. Check out the museum at www.sprintcarhof.com and if your after any more details email bb at bbaker@sprintcarhof.com . They have a pretty cool address, One Sprint Capital Place – awesome aye!
Unfortunately the entrance photo I had was deleted in a fit of madness. There is a 50 car carpark at the entrance, which is next to the road where all the cars and crew drive down to enter the track. Across the road is a Pizza Hutt (who deliver to the corporate boxes mid race
) Subway, another pizza joint, and a local diner, where I stopped for a early dinner of ribs, fries and onion rings. Don’t ever order sides in the states, they come on dinner sized plates, and fill them handsomely. Good time tucker, that just about everyone who was eating there attested too, and filled up on before racing. Off course washed down with a Bud and finished with a Dr Pepper
One of the great things about this place is the information that’s available via so many different mediums. While a complete ignoramus about the history of open wheel racing, after a few hours in this place you can’t help but pick up some of the history and the culture around this great sport. At the entrance to the Hall of fame (on the second floor in the conference room – that, as an aside was hired out that night by the local church for a family evening) there is a tv and video that shows all of the ceremony’s that have happened over the years inducting the members of the hall. It’s a “roast” type event were they tell classic stories of what’s happened in their career, and had me pulling up a chair and enthralled for an hour. A few people came and went, and must have been amused by the kiwi perched up close and personal against the TV watching some retired legends cackling with laughter
There were heaps of old sprinters in old settings that I couldn’t stop taking pictures off – Was thinking of you pall mall when I was trying to get some of these historic shots. Hopefully someday we can get something going for the stockcar guys and girls of our past.
The only Mod in the place – and check out the height and the offset!
Check out the drive train on this classic – was cool to see a sprinter from the day when the gearbox was included in the drive train. Reminiscent of the good ol stockcar
gearbox shot
This place is big – They were probably over 30 cars inside the museum, and stacks of memorabilia. I tried to get some long shots to show how big the place was, but failed miserably I reckon.
Still spent a good two hours there looking around – here’s a few older sprinters in groups of 8 or so
Here’s some newer ones – all of the cars have histories and history boards from the momentous wins, big crashes, or drivers that steered them. Being a sprintcar novice and pretty ignorant of the history of this place and the special cars that have attended, I spent most of the time reading, and trying to take things in. I was pretty short on the old camera shots, as I wasn’t keen on running out of space before I’d even made it too the pits, or seen any racing.
newer sprinters
There were plenty of pictures and memorabilia of drivers and cars past – this was a nice one the showed the origins of the sport, and the hero’s required to drive. Notice helmet, seatbelt, and fire suit….I’m sure all were state of the art in the day ;o)
Hope you enjoy the look - hopefully anyone else who may have been there can offer there thoughts on one of the worlds great speedway tracks, and what there thoughts are on this great museum.
cheers
The Observer
In May I was fortunate enough to visit the USA for work. My trip covered a weekend, and with no commitments on a Saturday, and being based in Iowa I wondered if there was a speedway nearby that I might attend. I asked via Macgor’s open wheel board, and was fortunate to get some excellent advice from Shane Walsh (sprint and midget Star Stevie Walsh senior), AJ Gullery, and a variety of other contributors on the open wheel forum macgor.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=openwheelers&action=display&thread=10863 .
And of course a big thanks to macgor for the great board, and giving us a spot to indulge our habit.
Little did I know in my naivety that my location in Perry, Iowa was a mere 35 minutes from Des Moine, which in turn was only 35 mins from the home of sprintcar racing, Knoxville Speedway and the National Sprintcar Museum and Hall of fame. Here’s a view of the facility from the track side.
I’m standing next to the fence that goes around the Knoxville track, at the exit of turn 2. The museum is at the bottom, there’s a conference hall and the hall of fame next floor up, and the rest are all corporate boxes.
A huge thanks goes to Bob Baker, Executive Director of the National Sprintcar Hall of fame and Museum – after wandering for a few hours, and chewing his ear off for 20 minutes he very kindly invited me to his corporate box, which is on the top floor, and in the middle of the crease where the buildings corners meet. Check out the museum at www.sprintcarhof.com and if your after any more details email bb at bbaker@sprintcarhof.com . They have a pretty cool address, One Sprint Capital Place – awesome aye!
Unfortunately the entrance photo I had was deleted in a fit of madness. There is a 50 car carpark at the entrance, which is next to the road where all the cars and crew drive down to enter the track. Across the road is a Pizza Hutt (who deliver to the corporate boxes mid race
) Subway, another pizza joint, and a local diner, where I stopped for a early dinner of ribs, fries and onion rings. Don’t ever order sides in the states, they come on dinner sized plates, and fill them handsomely. Good time tucker, that just about everyone who was eating there attested too, and filled up on before racing. Off course washed down with a Bud and finished with a Dr PepperOne of the great things about this place is the information that’s available via so many different mediums. While a complete ignoramus about the history of open wheel racing, after a few hours in this place you can’t help but pick up some of the history and the culture around this great sport. At the entrance to the Hall of fame (on the second floor in the conference room – that, as an aside was hired out that night by the local church for a family evening) there is a tv and video that shows all of the ceremony’s that have happened over the years inducting the members of the hall. It’s a “roast” type event were they tell classic stories of what’s happened in their career, and had me pulling up a chair and enthralled for an hour. A few people came and went, and must have been amused by the kiwi perched up close and personal against the TV watching some retired legends cackling with laughter
There were heaps of old sprinters in old settings that I couldn’t stop taking pictures off – Was thinking of you pall mall when I was trying to get some of these historic shots. Hopefully someday we can get something going for the stockcar guys and girls of our past.
The only Mod in the place – and check out the height and the offset!
Check out the drive train on this classic – was cool to see a sprinter from the day when the gearbox was included in the drive train. Reminiscent of the good ol stockcar
gearbox shotThis place is big – They were probably over 30 cars inside the museum, and stacks of memorabilia. I tried to get some long shots to show how big the place was, but failed miserably I reckon.
Still spent a good two hours there looking around – here’s a few older sprinters in groups of 8 or so
Here’s some newer ones – all of the cars have histories and history boards from the momentous wins, big crashes, or drivers that steered them. Being a sprintcar novice and pretty ignorant of the history of this place and the special cars that have attended, I spent most of the time reading, and trying to take things in. I was pretty short on the old camera shots, as I wasn’t keen on running out of space before I’d even made it too the pits, or seen any racing.
newer sprintersThere were plenty of pictures and memorabilia of drivers and cars past – this was a nice one the showed the origins of the sport, and the hero’s required to drive. Notice helmet, seatbelt, and fire suit….I’m sure all were state of the art in the day ;o)
Hope you enjoy the look - hopefully anyone else who may have been there can offer there thoughts on one of the worlds great speedway tracks, and what there thoughts are on this great museum.
cheers
The Observer
