Anyone remember this Race Track?

[motobenco]

Super Dave...?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadowdale_International_Raceway

http://www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com/index3.html

[Super Dave]

No, but I hear that they are trying to revive Frankfurt International Raceway Park.  4.87 miles, and they want seven configurations...I guess that it's big.

[weggieman]

Before my time in roadracing. I heard of it back then but never visited the place. My bad, it looks like it was a neat track

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

I've heard of it. Now a hiking trail.

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

I've actually done laps around the place at speed.  Of course, I was just a little kid at the time, but my Dad raced an MGB back then, and we made many trips to Medowdale.
The 60's were quite different from today.  On test days, you could actually take passengers for rides in your racecar!  This is how I got to experience hot laps for the first time, in my Mom's lap as my Dad drove the B around Medowdale.
A few years ago, I took my dad for a mental lap around Medowdale.  I described for him several corners in a row, including the Monza wall.  I also noted landmarks that you saw as you lapped the track, including a second silo that was not the one they are now trying to preserve.  I also described the pit lane and registration buildings.  Dad was pretty freaked out.  He said, "My God!  You're absolutely right!  How the hell could you remember all that?  You couldn't have been more than six when we stopped going there, and I only drove you one time for about five laps!"
Yeah, I had a pretty unique childhood.  I used to push my Hot Wheels around in the dirt right next to the cars and people that are legends now.  I've been many times to a place called Donnybrook.  I'm sure that Gordie at least knows where that track is and what it's called now....  How about Stardust Raceway in Vegas?  Riverside in Cali?  Also, to a CRAZY romp through the woods called Mid America, only this one was near St. Louis, not Iowa.
Remember the Pagoda and the covered pits at old RA?  I can remember snow fences and green guardrails as the only thing between me and Can Am cars at Road America, Mid Ohio before it had buildings, Blackhawk before the Bus Stop, and a 100 foot tall tower that stood on the hill next to the front straight at Grattan in the days when there wasn't one blade of grass on the whole property.  For all my childhood years, I was endlessly working on an awesome treehouse in the woods at Road America.  It was located up on the hill where the VIPs were parking their motorhomes until this newest expansion of the pits.  Back then that area was all impenetrable forest, and it would take me an hour to find my way back to the treehouse the first time we went back each summer.
Yeah, Mom has pictures of me in my STP tee shirt and my safari hat like the guy in Rat Patrol wore, standing next to my Dad's car, or riding the Mini Trail 50 that Dad THOUGHT he was buying for himself....  Man, you look in the background of some of those shots and the cars you see just blow your mind.  Back then Scarabs, Austin Healys, Jags, Ferraris, Chaperells, Mclarens, Lolas, the Penske/Donohue/Sunoco Camaro, the Owens Corning Vettes, they were just cars.  Now the survivors are worth millions!
Thanks for this thread.  It got me in just the right mood.  Tomorrow after work Dad and I are leaving for Topeka to watch the SCCA Runoffs!

[Stinger562]

hey that was a pretty good read, you should write a book or something

[grasshopper]

My wife grew up not too far away from there. I'd really like to go back there and check it out. Nice to know it is infact a forest preserve and isn't gone like Santa Fe.

[Gixxerblade]

No really that was good K3. You have great memories with your dad and I think that is awesome. The best part? That you guys still have a great relationship like that.

[stk0308]

 Also, to a CRAZY romp through the woods called Mid America, only this one was near St. Louis, not Iowa.

That track is still there, in pavement atleast.  I heard just tonight it might be up for sale.  Sadly, it'll probably go to a housing developer, as it's now surrounded by suburbia.  The last racing they did there, that I know of, was on the dragstrip.

[Scotty Ryan]

No, but I hear that they are trying to revive Frankfurt International Raceway Park.  4.87 miles, and they want seven configurations...I guess that it's big.

Good call Dave... I was just talking about FIRP last night with Mark Stiles during dinner, before they left for Daytona.....He was saying how Doc Stein was all for it because it was gonna be so close to his house..... I guess almost everyone in his area all all voted for it - because eithere the make the land into a racetrack or a garbage dump......

[Super Dave]

The civil engineering group called me about it, and I guess they've got a Wilson guy helping with the new configurations, but it's not Alan Wilson.  Does he have any brothers?  Maybe long lost family.  Just a coincidence, I guess.

[PJ]

 I've been many times to a place called Donnybrook.  I'm sure that Gordie at least knows where that track is and what it's called now....  

Donnybrook = Brainerd International Raceway.

I first stared racing with CRA at Brainerd. Been a long time since I've raced there. Going into T1/T2 with a pack of racers is something you'll never forget.