Long Island, New York has one race track remaining. Riverhead Raceway is a NASCAR sanctioned ¼ mile asphalt banked oval. Racing takes place from early May through September. I am honored to be one of the “voices” of Riverhead. I will be starting my 7th season as a track announcer this spring. We still pack them in on a good summer night and feature six divisions of racing.
Long Island has a rich racing heritage. It was home to The Vanderbilt Cup, the famed Bridgehampton Race Circuit, Freeport Speedway and the Islip Speedway. Islip had an interesting history. It was the home of the first ever Demolition Derby and also had the distinction of hosting 6 NASCAR Grand National races. The Grand National eventually became the Busch Series.
What makes this interesting is twofold. First “Yankee” excitement in NASCAR racing was not exactly at a fevered pitch back in the 60’s or 70’s. Secondly Islip was a mere 1/5 of a mile. As a matter of fact Islip was the shortest track ever to host a Grand National or Busch race.
The last Grand National race to be held at Islip was on July 15, 1971. 250 laps, with a standing room only crowd of 6,200 fans in attendance. The average speed of the race was 49.925 mph, and the winner led every lap, taking the checker 2 laps ahead of his nearest rival. The winner of the race? “The King”, Richard Petty driving a ‘71 Plymouth and taking down $1,500 for the victory.
Some other names of interest in that final race: Bobby Allison, James Hylton who is going to try to qualify for the ARCA race at Daytona at 73 years of age and Richard Childress, yes even back then driving a Chevy.
Tom Pistone #59 and Bobby Allison #2 fight it out during the 300 lap main event in a 1966 Grand National Islip race.
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Jeff, you did Islip a dishonor.
You forgot to note the speedway was the site of the Figure 8 World Championships for many years.
And yes, don’t ask, I am that old to remember. I have a “special” connection to that time as Richard Simmons was champ in ‘68, Chuck Hall in ‘76 & ‘79 was champ and fellow ARCA veteran Lubie Allen also competed there.
All three were highly competitive at both Flat Rock Speedway (MI) and Toledo Speedway (OH), tracks I considered my home tracks.
How competitive were Hall and Simmons? Both also raced their 6 banger figure 8 cars in the late model division (v8’s) against the likes of Joe Ruttman and normally made the feature event.
Thanks so much for the link! The late Ernie “The Wrench” Maynor’s son Roger is the defending Figure 8 champion at Riverhead Raceway.
Flat Rock is one of those tracks I wish I had the time to vist. I have seen the track on TV for ARCA events. Looks like a bullring gem.
Your welcome Jeff.
And your correct in your thinking, Flat Rock along with Berlin Speedway in MI are two of the finest short tracks in the Mid-West.
And Toledo? Maybe not in league with Winchester and a few others but a mighty fine high bank half mile none the less and the site on many explots of current NASCAR stars.
Not to mention both tracks were the home venues of the late Benny Parsons.
Greetings from a fellow Long Islander in Japan .
Lots of great childhood memories of seeing races at Bridgehampton and Riverhead . Remember as a wee lad being a Fireball Roberts fan . Saw him race at Bridgehampton around 1961 or 2 . Jim Weatherly , Richard Petty …etc…My uncle Harry Rambo and his friend Johnny Evers built Riverhead Raceway in the 50’s . He used to race there for some years and also was a starter for a time . Spent many a Saturday night at Riverhead . Glad to see it is still going .
Make that JOE Weatherly .
abc’s wide world of sports championship demo derby and champion figure 8’s crazy carl voelker was the man in the 8’s i was there many of years groing up check out http://www.racersreunion.com o ya i lived in islip
The NASCAR Grand National division racing at Islip was incredible.
However, you are incorrect in that the Grand National division eventually became what we know as Sprint Cup cars today, NOT the former Busch/Nationwide cars.
At the time the Grand National cars were the premier NASCAR division. What would become the Busch series was called Late Model in the late 60’s early 70’s.
Islip was part of the old “Northern Tour” of NASCAR before they trimmed the schedule back to 32 races per year from around 57 races when RJ Reynolds came on as title sponsor in 1972.
In the late 80’s early 90’s NASCAR changed the then Grand National cars names to “Winston Cup” cars in an effort to get more sponsor exposure for RJ Reynolds. They did away with the Late Model name and renamed that division the “Grand National” or Busch Grand National division.
Ask your PA partner at Riverhead; Bob Finan. He was a fledgling announcer with the LI Ministock association back in 1977 and 78 when I was the Islip and Riverhead track photographer.
He’ll remember.
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