Danbury Fair Racearena

My second lifetime Connecticut track visit – 1980.

I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #430.  With the Danbury Racearena being just track #76 (that’s more than 2,200 tracks ago as this is written!) my memory is somewhat foggy on this one.  I did go to Danbury twice in 1980 and once in 1981.  I saw Bob Riley win the first time I went there.  The second time I was rained out after the heat races.  During my only visit in 1981 Bob Riley in the #66 won again.  My limited notes remind me “the crowds were huge and the racing was fair”.

Most people think of me as a “West Coast” trackchaser.  Lots of folks don’t know that we were transferred around a good bit as I climbed the rungs of the corporate ladder.  Following the 1979 Knoxville Nationals (won my Ronnie Shuman – above) we moved from Mission Viejo, California to Ridgefield, Connecticut.  Despite living on the east coast for 18 months I never joined the “Dreaded East Coast Trackchasers”.  One has to have morals right?

Our home in Ridgefield was just 10.4 miles from the Danbury Racearena.  You would have thought I would have driven my brand new fire engine red Cadillac Sedan Deville to the Danbury oval more than three times when the track was just ten miles from our house.  However, the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, New York was considered our “home” track during our brief period of Connecticut residence.  The Orange County Fair Speedway was 59.5 miles from our place in Ridgefield.  However, it was a dirt track.  I prefer dirt tracks over paved tracks….most of the time.  In 1980 I went to the OCFS four times and returned again in 2011.

Names like Chick Stockwell, Jimmy Smith and Don LaJoie (above) were the primary champions over the years at Danbury.  The Southern New York Racing Association (remember Danbury was in Connecticut!) crowned their first Danbury Racearena champion in 1950.  The track was a tight 1/3-mile asphalt oval.  Lesser known drivers like Billy Boo, Bones Stevens and Danny Gaudiosi were feature winners at the track.

I found this additional information from racearena.forumotion.com on the long-time history of the Danbury Racearena.  Identical data appears in the Allan Brown book, History of America’s Speedways – Past and Present.

Danbury Fair Racearena – Danbury / at the Danbury Fairgrouds
1/2 mile dirt oval (10/06/1908 – 10/07/ 1939)
The grandstands were destroyed by fire on 10/08/1922
1/5 mile paved oval (06/01/1940 – 5/10/1942) (September, 1945 – 1947)
1/4 mile paved oval (5/31/1947 – 9/30/1951)
1/3 mile dirt oval (10/05/1958 – 10/12/1981)
held boat racing in a moat outside of track in August of 1958
home track of the Southern NY Racing Assn. (1952 – 1955) (1958 – 1981)
(aka: Danbury Fair Race Track) / (aka: Danbury Speedway)
(aka: Danbury Fair Speedways) / the site is now the Danbury Fair Mall

The last race ever held at the Danbury Racearena occurred on September 19, 1981.  My third and final visit to Danbury came on April 11, 1981.  The final day of the famous Danbury Fair was on October 12, 1981.  The fair drew crowds of more than 300,000 during its run each October.  It wasn’t long before the Danbury Fairgrounds and Racearena was demolished in favor of a huge shopping mall.  This was not the first track to meet such an untimely end and it surely will not be the last.  R.I.P.  Danbury Racearena.

You might have remembrances about the Danbury Raceacrena Speedway.  If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below.  If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com.  I’ll try to include them here.