Editor’s note:  In 1980 I made my first visit to the Flemington Speedway. This famous speedway would be my lifetime track #82. I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until about track #430. Therefore I do not have a full set of notes from my first visit here. My one recorded comment from that first visit was “Memorial Day – 4 straightaways”.

In 1980 the Flemington Speedway had a dirt racing surface.  When I next visited in the year 2000 they had switched to asphalt racing.  You can read my Trackchaser Report from that Flemington appearance a little bit further down this post.

In 1980 my family and I were living in Ridgefield, Connecticut.  We moved there following the 1979 Knoxville Nationals that I attended.  We were only in Ridgefield for about 15 months.  We had a beautiful brand new home built high on a hill with two acres of land.  I had just purchased a new Cadillac Sedan DeVille from a New Jersey dealership.  At the age of 31 Carol and I were stylin’.  Then in early 1981 I was promoted within the company to a job in Chicago.  Our stay on the east coast was brief.

During the 1980 racing season I was a “racechaser” and not a “trackchaser”.  I went to the races to see the best racing without any regard whatsoever as to whether I was seeing a new track or not.  As this is written that was 35 years ago.  Times have changed.

In 1980 I began recording the date that I visited each track.  I had never thought to do that previously.  I added 20 tracks to my lifetime totals ending with 91 career track visits by the end of the year.  There wasn’t a dog in the bunch.  This might have been my best ever trackchasing year when the quality of the racing was the comparison point.  There wasn’t a junk car, figure 8 or road course race in any of my race day activities.  In 1980 I never ever considered that type of racing.  I would not for several years to come.

Here’s a list of the twenty new tracks I visited in 1980.

East Bay Speedway (FL)

Big H Motor Speedway (TX)

Devil’s Bowl Speedway (TX)

Stafford Springs Motor Speedway (CT)

Danbury Fair Race Arena (CT)

Eldora Speedway (OH)

Orange County Fair Speedway (NY)

Lincoln Speedway (PA)

Dover Downs International Speedway (DE)

Grandview Speedway (PA)

Flemington Speedway (NJ)

Silver Dollar Speedway (CA)

Nazareth Speedway (PA)

Lebanon Valley Speedway (NY)

Albany-Saratoga Speedway (NY)

East Windsor Speedway (NJ)

Indianpolis Raceway Park (IN)

Wayne County Speedway (OH)

Mansfield Raceway (OH)

Wall Stadium (NJ)

Folks, I would put those twenty tracks up against any other trackchaser’s best twenty tracks in a single year.  No one could beat the quality of my 1980 season.

The race I saw at the Flemington Speedway was a 200-lapper the best I can recall.  It was a warm sunny day.  The track was essentially a square with four straights and enough of a turn connecting each straight to get the race cars turned onto the next straight.

It was also a very dusty affair.  I have a picture of me when I had returned to Connecticut after the day’s racing.  I had been wearing goggles to help with the dust.  When I got home I looked like a raccoon.  That has happened more than once but I think Flemington’s “raccoon look” was the most severe.

The race was for the big block modifieds.  That group of racers would become in 1980 and remain to this day one of my most favorite racing classes.

Here’s some great historical information about the Flemington Speedway provided by Wikipedia.

“Flemington Speedway was a motor racing circuit in Flemington, New Jersey which operated from 1915 to 2002. The track was known for being the fastest 5/8 dirt track in the United States. Later it was for hosting four NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races and its pioneering use of foam blocks used to lessen the impact of crashes, which led to the adoption of the SAFER barrier and was America’s longest-running Saturday night shorttrack until its closing.

Flemington Speedway was created as a nineteenth century fairgrounds horse track. It was a half mile, four-cornered dirt oval. Motorcycles first raced on this horse track in 1911, and the “Speedway” hosted its first automobile race in 1915 as a half mile dirt oval. The first race was promoted and won by Ira Vail. The track’s grandstand opened in 1917 and remained standing until the track was demolished in January 2005. Auto races were a nearly annual event at Flemington Fair. Stock Car Races became the weekly Saturday night featured attraction when lights were added in 1955. The track was reconfigured over the 1966-1967 off-season into a (nearly) 5/8 mile, semi-banked rounded rectangle, nicknamed “The Square.” The track remained this way until being paved at the end of the 1990 racing season. The speedway hosted one of a handful of public appearances by 1992 Presidential candidate H. Ross Perot. More than 25,000 people attended and tied up local roads for hours.

Life as a paved track

After being paved, speeds at the track dramatically increased. The higher speeds led to “a series of horrible crashes,” leaving drivers, such as future NASCAR Sprint Cup team owner Ray Evernham, severely injured. After talking to crew chiefs and drivers, track officials decided to add foam blocks to lessen the impact of crashes. The foam bricks allowed crashes at up to 140 mph (230 km/h) leaving no serious injuries.

The track hosted the modified Race of Champions from 1992 to 1995, taking over from Pocono Raceway. The race moved to Oswego Speedway in Oswego, New York from 1996-2014. This year, it has a new home Chemung Speedrome.

The track also hosted the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for four races, from 1995 to 1998. All four races were won by Chevrolet, with Ron Hornaday Jr. winning two.

The last Pro-Touring series to race at the speedway was the then ARCA Bondo/Mar-Hyde Series’ (Now ARCA Re-Max) Flemington ARCA 150. The winner was Frank Kimmel who would go on to win his first series title that season. The race was to be run on August 14, 1999, but due to a severe thunderstorm that hit the track after qualifying, the race was run the next day before a nearly empty house. It was the only ARCA race at the Speedway.

The track continuously lost money after being paved, and closed on November 8, 2002. The track was sold off to developers and demolished in early January 2005.^[1] A multi-use development called Raritan Town Center now occupies the surrounding area, and a Lowe’s store sits on the defunct speedway property.^[6]

Reprinted with permission from my July 22, 2000 Trackchaser Report.

Trackchasers, greetings from Flemington, New Jersey,

Tonight’s track, my 443rd lifetime was very special for a number of reasons. First, I attended the event with both old and new friends. I rode to the track, following a very mediocre golf outing, with my college friend and fraternity brother, Mike Skonicki of Doylestown, PA. We get a chance to see each other about once a year and tonight would be Mike’s 6^th career track.

I had planned to meet up with some famous trackchasers and the evening did not disappoint. This was a reunion meeting with Will White (Worldwide ranking #15) who had just returned from his nearly 12,000 mile, 17 day driving/racing extravaganza.   Also in attendance was the famous Gordy Killian (worldwide rank #3). Gordy has 750 tracks to his credit and still gets to see about 50 new tracks a year. A very special bonus was meeting up with Gordy’s new wife, the beautiful and bubbly Susan. The weather was perfect and gave us a chance to visit and enjoy a nice night of racing.

I had visited Flemington Speedway one other time on May 26, 1980 when it was a dirt track.   On that day Billy Pauch was the winner. That race was memorable because of the windy daytime dusty conditions. I was wearing sun glasses and after the races when I took the sun glasses off I looked like a raccoon…..a pair of white eyes and a black face! I still have a picture of it.

As is my practice I sent a note to the announcer telling him that leading worldwide trackchasers were in the audience. When he received the notice he announced over the public address system that he would like to interview me at the start/finish line during intermission. This gave me an opportunity to drag Will and Gordy into the often tumultuous lifestyle of being a trackchaser “media star”. They not so reluctantly agreed and we were off to discuss our hobby in front of thousands. Mike was able to get it all on video tape although the sound quality of the interview didn’t turn out too well.

Will took the opportunity to plug the trackchasing web site.  Gordy got the credit he deserves as being the #3 track chaser in the world. The announcer spent more than 5 minutes talking to us and the crowd gave us a nice hand at the finish.

I personally don’t have the history with Flemington to appreciate how much better it was as a dirt track than it is today as an asphalt track. Tonight they put on a very good program with a pretty decent sized crowd. They ran three classes: street stocks, late models and modifieds. The street stocks looked like late models and had a number of trucks in the class.

The late models ran an exciting race which was accentuated by a huge crash that occurred right in front of our position just exiting the fourth turn. Two cars got tangled together coming out of the turn and impacted the wall at pretty much full speed and nearly a 90 degree angle. I had forgotten Flemington used Styrofoam blocks in front of their walls to cushion impacts such as the one that we saw. These Styrofoam blocks are about 20 feet long, 4 feet high and 4 feet thick. I think they weight about 50 pounds each. When these cars hit the wall there was a huge explosion of Styrofoam. It looked like a piece of dynamite had blown up a huge pile of snow. Although the cars were demolished the drivers appeared OK. They then brought out some track workers who shoveled the Styrofoam over the fence (again it looked like they were shoveling snow). They also had a hockey looking “Zamboni” type machine to clean up the remainder of the Styrofoam debris.

The modified event started 30 cars and was one of the best races I’ve seen this year. These drivers really raced hard and driving two abreast at high speeds around Flemington’s four turns has got to be a real thrill for the driver on the outside.

General admission was $15 for tonight’s races. Refreshments were marginal especially for an East coast track. I had a fried chicken breast and Mike had a hoagie and French fries. As I said it was a very special night seeing Mike and Will and meeting Gordy and Susan. Definitely, an event I’ll remember for a long time.

My rating for the racing is an 8. Good, close high speed racing with some huge crashes. The facility gets a 5. The haulers in the infield limit the ability to see several parts of the track. The chance to be with friends rated a 10.

You might have remembrances of the Flemington 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.