I’ve had an eventful week or two. I woke up at Early O’clock last Saturday to drive to a friend’s house and meet up to ride a couple of hours west to the site of an abandoned speedway near Augusta, GA. The speedway site included a 3 mile road course that hosted a round of the USRRC and a NASCAR Grand National race in 1963 and another major sports car race in 1964, and a smaller facility to the north that included go-kart tracks and a half mile oval that was paved in 1965 and which hosted NASCAR Grand National races from 1965-1969. The oval is long gone, just a dirt hole in the ground now. The larger parcel where the road course is located encompassed three small lakes and has been turned into a park complex with a pavilion, gymnasium, and baseball fields. Most of the original track surface still exists although it’s been cut in two places for access roads and most of the side of the track where the grandstands had been located was used for the entrance road for the gymnasium. Some time in the past a trencher was used to cut an 18” wide trench in the asphalt in a meandering pattern from shoulder to shoulder to prevent people from sneaking onto the track with their personal vehicles and driving the track at high speeds. We were able to take our cars out onto the track though, and ride around at a reduced speed to get a feel for what it had been like. I took the opportunity to speak at some length with Wanda Lund, the widow of former driver DeWayne “Tiny” Lund. We swapped stories and I bought a copy of her cookbook. I also bought a DVD of the history of the Augusta Speedway facility, it has some really good color video footage of some of the races there.
The first photo is part of the monument that's on the site of the old track. The track layout is carved into the stone. The straight section at the top is the pit road, it's 3000 feet long. Most of the track is still intact, the curved section below the pit road has been incorporated into the roadway leading into the park complex and it no longer connects to the hairpin at the top left. There is an access road for some of the ball fields that cuts through the corner at the lower left of the layout, but the rest is intact.
This photo is looking down pit road. It's looking from left to right on the monument.
This photo is looking north into the hairpin turn at the top left of the monument. It's banked a little more than it looks in the photos.
This photo is looking north up the full length of that short straight on the left side of the monument:
This is a Google Earth image of the road course. It's an older image, it doesn't show the gymnasium/pavillion nor the new access road that cuts across the lower left corner:
This image shows the dirt hole to the north of the road course, all that's left of the half mile oval:
The next three photos are some of the cars that were present:
These last two photos were taken along the old pit straight. You can see the remnants of the block wall that separated the pit road from the grandstands:
All wasn’t roses and daffodils, though. When I arrived at my friend’s house I lowered the window to ask him where I should park, when I did the window came off the track and fell down into the bottom of the door! I managed to grab a corner and physically lift it back into position, we secured it with two strips of duct tape from the glass to over the top of the door frame. I spent some time on Sunday afternoon pulling the interior panels off the door so I could see what was broken. The window glides up and down in metal channels, guided by metal brackets with plastic slides molded onto the brackets. The brackets bolt to the window glass. The entire assembly of guides and slides, along with the power window motor, must be replaced as one assembly. The dealer list price for the assembly is approximately $215 but I shopped around online and found one in stock for only $80. SOLD! It shipped out on Monday and should arrive today, I’ll try to get it installed before the weekend.
Ah, yes. This weekend. I’m meeting the same friend again this weekend, the meeting time is before daylight this week. We’re driving to North Carolina to a model car show/swap meet, then on Sunday I’m driving an hour east to Darlington International Speedway for the Darlington Vintage Historic Festival. There will be lots of original and restored race cars there, and more than a few retired drivers and builders. I’m looking forward to it!
Also, my laser printer died recently. One of the toner cartridges jammed and I had to replace it. After replacing it the printer wouldn’t print, I discovered that when the toner had jammed it caused some of the gears to jump and get the printer out of timing. I took that apart last night to attempt a repair. It still wouldn’t work properly so I need to take another stab at it tonight.
*Update*
I saved this entry as private yesterday but didn't get the opportunity to add the photos last night. I got the window regulator replaced and the window glass connected then hooked up the power window switch panel long enough to verify that the window did indeed function properly. After that was verified I unplugged the switch panel then started reinstalling the door panel. I ran out of daylight before I got the door panel installed so I locked everything up and left it for today. I wrapped it up tonight, everything is back together and working properly. |
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Nice pics (: ♥
