First of all blackjack, my name is Walt Sherwood. I just re-registered again this morning, been away from this board for quite awhile. I wanted to touch on a few points you brought up and that is you mentioned and I quote
"I found a little bit of info on Roulette Speedway in or by Galeton Pa."
Galeton is a good 35 miles west of Roulette which was between Coudersport and Port Allegany, Pa. The track you speak of was in Roulette near the drive-in back in the late 50's. My Dad (Harold "Shifty" )raced there along with Dean Layfield as teammates and Squirt Johns, two legends in this part of the country, and on that rare occasion Jackie Soper. They were working in conjunction with McKean County Raceway in Smethport, Pa (which remains open today) to make sure they never ran on the same night, which didn't happen because Roulette didn't stay open for very long, but you're right, the place was really fast and had a wicked hairpin in turn three that tested every driver that competed there. My Dad never really took to the place but Layfield loved it because with his immense talent he would always be in contention for the win which he did quite frequently.
Another point I read on here my good friend Tangletongue mentioned something about there being two or more "Sportsmen Speedways " in Pa between 1959-1965. Yes; this was the one which he mentioned was Gaylord Miller's high banked oval:), you had to see the place to believe it, I can still see the late great Floyd Green's car sitting perpendicular up the flag pole which was covered in mounds and mounds of dirt. Gaylord and his trusty sidekick, the happy go lucky George Chilson, loved piling up dirt wherever they could pile it which made for the highest piles of dirt you would ever see between turns 2 and 3. Cars that managed to go over the turn 3 piles of dirt could end up down in the jingweeds heading towards Mills, Pa
. Like I reiterated before, you had to see the place to believe it. We only lived three miles from the track and it was nothing for my father (Shifty) to load up the multiple cars we would run and have a race right down the main highway to get to the track. He would even suit up our huge German Shepherd dog named "Silver" in his lucky number 11JR helmet complete with sunglasses and Silver would always ride shotgun right to the track. The dog loved being suited up, he would've raced right in the car with Shifty if the track officials would've let him. Gaylord was so tight back then he charged my Dad a dollar for the dog to get in for admission.
The other Sportsmen track you would be referring to was in Knox, Pa which was in central Pa near Clarion Back in 1990 when Don Kio and Walt Mitchell were driving for Shifty in their modifieds we went there on occasion. Don and Walt took turns winning races down there, our cars were really superior to those guys who were racing there, we were pretty fortunate. My two late younger brothers Lyle and Kevin helped crew chief for Mitchell while my brother Bob would crew for Kio. Great times indeed !
And finally, you showed a great story about the second favorite driver I ever saw race right behind Dean Layfield in my mind and that was Jackie Soper. For nine years Jack would come up to my place where I used to live in Wellsville, NY and hunt on my 120 acre spread. He not only was a great stock car driver, but he was an even better hunter. The guy is amazing ! He has tales of the past that sportswriters should be tapping into about the local racing scene in our areas. If anyone ever gets the chance, look Jackie up, Godspeed to the man, he'll always be one of my racing heroes.
Until then, next week it'll be 5 long agonizing years since I lost my little brother Lyle at Woodhull. I miss ya alot, little buddy !