Merrittville Speedway’s 60th Anniversary
“So what’s so special about this year’s
celebration?” After all it is 50 + 10 more years and we
truly have something to brag about, since we are the oldest
continuous running dirt track in Canada. But let’s put it
in perspective.
During this year of 2011, it is not only
Merrittville Speedway’s celebration of 60 years of stock car
racing, but as we connect our anniversary to that of the
rest of the automotive world, 2011 marks some significant
milestones:
1. THE 60th consecutive season of
Saturday night stock car racing at Merrittville Speedway,
the oldest, continuous Saturday night dirt oval in Canada.
2. THE 53rd consecutive Daytona 500.
The Great American Race-starts every NASCAR season’s point
race, during the modern era. If you count the “Beach” stock
car races, it marks 76 years. If you go back even further
to the era of Ormond Beach – Daytona area speed trials that
started in 1903, that totals 108 years that automobiles have
been racing during the winter, in Florida.
3. THE 63rd consecutive season at
NASCAR’s oldest continuous half-mile oval- Martinsville
Speedway, Virginia. Clay Earles was one of the founding
independent track owners of NASCAR.
4. THE 72nd consecutive season of
racing every Friday night, at probably the oldest dirt track
in the U.S.- Williams’ Grove Speedway, home of the
Pennsylvania Posse, sprint car style. A.J. Foyt, Mario
Andretti as well as Steve Kinser and Sammy Swindell have
raced here.
5. THE year 2011 bookends a 3 year
2009-2011, 100th Anniversary Celebration at the granddaddy
of all big tracks. Indianapolis Motor Speedway celebrates
100 years of automobile racing, known as the “Centennial
Era”. Even though Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened in
1909, it wasn’t until 1911 that it hosted a 500 mile
automobile race. The first event in 1909 was actually a
balloon race, followed by a motorcycle exhibition. This year
the Indy 500 will be one for the ages, since 100 years only
comes once, while the brickyard will amass all 27 of the
surviving race champions, all of the brickyard’s tradition
will reach a pinnacle when the 2011 Centennial Champion of
the Indy 500 pulls in to victory lane, for the presentation
of the Borg Warner Trophy and the traditional drink of milk.
It is a little known fact, that the idea for building
ndianapolis, was patterned after the now defunct Brooklands
high banked track in England.
One other track, that should be
mentioned, is Syracuse, N.Y. This historical “fairgrounds
race track”, has survived the decades & is still hosting
special events .From 1924 when Phil Shafer driving a
Duesenberg, won the first 150mile AAA race up to 2010 when
the Grandson of a former Merrittville Speedway track
owner, Stewart Friesen, would become the” first Canadian” to
win the Syracuse 200, in a DIRT Modified. Syracuse is still
an important event some 87 years later. Large 1 mile
fairground ovals replaced the high speed board tracks that
dotted the U.S. during the early years of the 20th century.
There are other centennial celebrations, which may not
garner the same notoriety as the Indy 500, but are as, or
more important.
Chevrolet will celebrate its 100th
anniversary especially in light of the recession and how it
impacted the automotive manufacturing business, it is a
significant milestone. While I am not personally a
Chevrolet fan, as my following is of the Dodge Brothers
legacy, that will not occur until 2014. It is significant
and only fitting that a 2011 Chevrolet Camaro will pace the
field of 33 race cars for the start of the 100th Anniversary
Celebration of the Indianapolis 500. By the way, there is a
monument dedicated to race driver Louis Chevrolet, in front
of the entrance to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
THE other no less significant, celebration is the 100th
Anniversary of the Ford Motor Company in Europe,
specifically in the British Isles-United Kingdom. It is
hard to believe the rapid growth and popularity of Henry
Ford’s creations, especially with his Model T. While I am
not an expert on Ford products, there are certain Ford
automobiles that resonate with me, especially when it comes
to automobile racing.
Whether it was Henry Ford’s infamous
#999 racer of the early 1900’s driven by the great Barney
Oldfield, or Jimmy Clark winning the Indianapolis 500 in
1965, in the first rear engined winning, Colin Chapman
created Lotus-powered by Ford. NASCAR 2011 Hall of Fame
Inductee, David Pearson winning the 1968 and 1969 NASCAR
championship at the wheel of the Holman-Moody owned #17,
Ford Torino Talladega, probably the most aerodynamic highest
horsepower stock car that Ford ever developed. It even
caused Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises to switch to
these race cars, for one season, until the radical Plymouth
Superbird emerged. Chrysler would not allow the Petty’s to
drive a Dodge Daytona factory race car, back in 1969. As an
a side ,David Pearson won his first NASCAR championship in
1966 driving one of my personal favourite cars, a 1966 Dodge
Charger but that’s a story for another time.
My most favourite race car of the Ford
brand, has to be the 1937 Ford, flathead powered coupe.
Why, you might ask, it was not sophisticated but it held a
special place in automobile history. This car was
responsible for the development of a cheap competitive race
car. After World War 11, automobile production started
with 1946 models, many of which were hold overs from 1941-42
models. There seemed to be an abundance of 1930’s model
cars and Fords seemed to be popular as they were light,
reliable, and fast with the flat head V8 engine.
The 1937 Ford was also the first
year that Ford offered an all steel roof structure, that
made it a safer car. The 1930’s Fords were also cheap to
buy and with the advent of either AAA Stock Car racing or
loosely organized southern based stock car racers driving
moonshine cars, it would lead to the organization of a Stock
Car circuit to be named NASCAR founded by Big Bill France,
at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach Florida in 1948.
From 1948 on, NASCAR has tried to organize and control the
spectacle of stock car racing in fact, NASCAR even made a
venture into Canada, in 1952, holding an event at Niagara
Falls, Ontario. How does this all relate to our 60th
Anniversary at Merrittville Speedway? For what its worth,
the first NASCAR race in Canada, was held at Stamford Park
horse track and won by Buddy Shuman, on July 1, 1952. This
was also the opening day of stock car racing on the 1/4 mile
dusty dirt oval known as Merrittville Speedway at Thorold,
Ontario. The first feature winner was Jerry Swisher from
Buffalo, N.Y. in a 1937 Ford. As a matter of fact, from
1952 to 1958 all of Merrittville Speedway’s champions drove
Henry Ford’s creations in 1933 to 1937 Ford powered coupes.
So what’s in an Anniversary? It stands
not only as a testament to our sport, but also becomes a
documented biography of our grassroots, family style
automobile racing.
While the development of the automobile
is hastened by racing, the adage “Win on Sunday sell on
Monday” may still hold some truth. Our sport is more about
the people and families who have become the fabric of our
sport and its history. Whether you are NASCAR’s first
champion Robert “Red” Byron who drove a flathead Ford coupe,
or Merrittville Speedway’s first champion Orville Kelley who
also drove a flathead Ford coupe, this sport is about the
people and their dedication. Back in the day, when there
were no large purses, just the win, the trophy and the
family of supporters and friends, who worked as a team.
So if 60 years of a little dirt track in
southern Ontario means anything, it is to rekindle the
memories of the past linked to the present. We will be
celebrating our legacy every Saturday night this year
leading up to our 60th Anniversary Race Reunion on July 16,
2011. We invite you all to join us and enjoy the 2011
racing season.
Whether it is our 60th celebration at our
small dirt track in southern Ontario, Canada, or the
greatest spectacle in auto racing, the 100th anniversary of
the Indianapolis 500, they are both significant in their
own way, as they stand as testaments to both amateur and
professional automobile racing families that have endured
the decades and have remained popular with today’s race
fans.