Racing History in the Southern Tier of New York

[trivia99]

Hope you guys don't mind me jumping in here but I grew up at Glen Aubrey and Five Mile Point in the 50's and 60's and am in the process of trying to do the dauntless task of doing a feature win list for each track. The Finger Lakes Club of which the aforementioned Lucky Cornish was a member of was on it's way out at Glen Aubrey (actual last race sanctioned by FLRA was in August of 1957) in 1956. Records show that Cornish won a feature on July 4th 1956 and had at least three other top five finishes from records I accumulated for that year, I have at least one other feature win logged in 1954 and have flag shot pictures of at least three distinctly different #44's taken at GAR. Lucky also did drive as a team car to Mr. Fish in the car that Jackie Baldwin of Trumansburg drove prior to that. In the photos I have the#77 that Baldwin drove was powered by an overhead Ford motor. I can tell you this Bucky Dew and Bill Strosahl were the big winners at Glen Aubrey in the ten years that they raced stock cars there and it was not uncommon to have sixty or so cars in the pits on any given Friday night in the mid fifties where an "A' and "B" mains were commonly held with the "A" paying at least $125 to the winner. It was a good time back then. Enjoy this thread.

[Beenthere]

Yup, those team cars were 77 and 76, instead of 75 and 76. First thing when I awoke this morning I knew my recollection was off. Funny how the fog clears at times.

[Walt171128]

You hit the nail squarely on the head there Blackjack, the money was better at Angelica back in the early 60's because my Dad won three features there in 1962 and they paid 150 to win for two of them and 200 for the Labor Day race, I still have those envelopes somewhere, of course, if I can dig them out someday

All the classes from the B's to the Modern class paid better than most tracks at Angelica, but they got hellacious crowds at the Fairgrounds back fifty plus years go so I presume they could afford it

I know Soper always told me that Angelica paid a lot better, and like you said blackjack, the scratch was why he came west in those days. And besides, the competition was top notch and Soper always loved a challenge

I miss that crazy 'ol sidewinder Soper, not only was he the best I ever watched in those days along with Dean Layfield, but one hell of a hunter as well ! The man could do almost anything he put his mind to !

[blackjackracing]

I had a gentleman come knocking on the door last week and he asked me if  I was the Bob Johnson that posts stuff on RaceNY. I told him I was indeed. He said he had been meaning to look me up and that, if I was interested, he had old racing pictures he would like to share. I told him I was very interested in seeing them. That fellows name is Ken Burnside and yesterday he dropped off two boxes of old pictures and programs. I am floored by someof the stuff in this collection. I will be posting southern tier content on this thread and other stuff on the "oldies but goodies" thread. This first one is of Pat Judson in the B13 at Chemung Speedrome in 1965 (Ken Burnside collection)

[blackjackracing]

Frank Chapman's #89 at Chemung Speedrome in 1972 (Ken Burside collection)

[blackjackracing]

From the Ken Burnside collection...I have a copy of the BOB-CAT Sporting News which I have never seen before. It featuered photos form Chemung, Dundee, and Canandaigua. This first one is from Chemung Speedrome: Cy Sander (#707) passes Don Post (#99) to take the lead in sportsman feature. Maybe someone out there can shed some light on this publication...

[blackjackracing]

Jerry Gilbert standing proud with his #222. This photo was shared by his daughter Mary Updike

[YetAnotherDW]

Lucky was an interesting character indeed, it always puzzled me why a lot of those guys in the Elmira, Ithaca area came clear over to Angelica on Friday nights to race but I always assumed it was because of the fact that Angelica was a super fast well groomed horse track , but Lucky, Soper, Curly Wilson, Bill Schafrath, sorry if I misspelled Bill's name but its been more than 50 years ya' know and a host of others always seemed to make the trek to race over here. It was my favorite place to be on weekends when I was a boy, takin pictures of all I could in the least amount of time as they came through the gates.

I'll be gathering up what pics I can in the near future because I had them put on discs years ago so we'll see how things turn out but I do know I have a real good one of Lucky in a white T-shirt standing next to his hot rod.

And yeah, I never knew of Bernie Foster but maybe he can shine some light on why, like I said, a lot of those guys came over to Angelica on Friday nights in the early 60's to race when the Chemung, Elmira, Ithaca area had tracks of their own like you said in South Seneca and the aforementioned Chemung. It sure would be interesting reading indeed

Hi Walt,
I'll bet the name you're trying to remember is Bill Schroth.  He still lives in Elmira, comes to races a few times a year with Kennison's 9x.  He went on to race in URC where he had success in (I think) the Bower car.  He has some interesting stories that's for sure.

[Tangletongue]

From the Ken Burnside collection...I have a copy of the BOB-CAT Sporting News which I have never seen before. It featuered photos form Chemung, Dundee, and Canandaigua. This first one is from Chemung Speedrome: Cy Sander (#707) passes Don Post (#99) to take the lead in sportsman feature. Maybe someone out there can shed some light on this publication...

I've got a few BOB-CATs. Was a short lived little newspaper that was published weekly. I'm thinking early, maybe middle, seventies, and featured Chemung, Canandaigua, Dundee, and Woodhull plus wherever else they could get ahold of for photos or info. If memory serves, I think it was based near Watkins Glen, but I may be wrong about that. I don't think it lasted more than a year or two. Cy Saunders was a Chemung hot shoe from Pa., and Don Post was (I think) from the Penn Yan area. Don worked for Dundee Raceway Park (Black Rock) for a number of years and had a column in Gator Racing News for awhile.

[blackjackracing]

That's interesting info... This copy is getting pretty fragile. Here is another photo from the Bob-Cat. Harold Secord of Burdett was the winner in the sportsman division at Chemung Speedrome. (photo by Jack Igoe)...Ken Burnside collection

[blackjackracing]

Al Baldwin with the silks in the Butch Horton and Ken Fuller #66. Photo by L.O. Duncan (Ken Burnside collection)

[Tangletongue]

Bob, that orange Dodge was one of my all time favorite cars. They replaced it with a '68 Dart, which actually ended up racing at Woodhull on the dirt a couple of years later. Sparling Northside Esso was the hot spot for race cars, Loren Oakden ran a #77 '61 Chevy bubbletop as a teammate to Al, and I remember a white and orange #4Q '65 Chevelle that maybe Fred Quail ran. I believe there was a Formula Vee in the shop on occasion too. When J&J Auto Parts was still in business on Market Street, you could tell them you wanted a gallon of SNERT orange and they knew exactly what you wanted.

[dirttrackrocker]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v332/klv8lm/IMG_20180412_080038_zpsjawg7jvi.jpg


Found a whole stack of these in some stuff my dad gave me. His uncle was the promoter or co promoter from what I was told.