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hotstock74

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Who opened riverside speedway?

thats a good one ..sunny brown i think was his name .. he died in an airplane crash out in one of our bays ..not sure which one it was...i want to say just off of rockport.......i know someone will tell us .

Edited by HiTech
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Thats not why he crashed! He went into a turn after takeoff and did not have enough air speed ,so down it went! A local firefighter named Butch Malek was also killed! Sonny was a promoter, you know what i mean? But he would help you anytime you were short ! same as Frank Hoch. Sonny would listen to the racers, even if he did not like what you had to say! He always said racers were a bunch of prima donnas,he was right on. He paid well! When i raced for him I did not agree with the prima donna thing! But 23 years later he had a point!Its what can you do me these days ,it should be what can I do for racing! I miss him.

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  • 5 months later...
Lets here more stories on riverside, who all raced there that still races?
my first laps in a racecar were at riverside ..in 1984 .....i raced six weekends towards the end of season .... other than my first race i ran .i finished third racen 13 other cars ..that was the best finish i got .the others i raced ...were not so good ..after getting hit and knocked out of some races ..found out a black car on dark clay track .didnt fit to well ...... ill get my son to add the last pic i got of me in my car ..... 68 camero ..305 bored 30 with camel hump heads ...i was told it would not run fast ..against the 358.s ..but i showed them lol..when i was on the track ofcourse .. .my fondess memorys were of don weatherspoon comeing over to this rookie and telling me ..look .lock in the rear end ..and run that damn car in second gear . peewee norrel wielded my gears for me .......i didnt know i was suppose to shift .. first gear was ok with me .up till then ...thats what got me into trouble ..i started pole but didnt like what i was feeling ..so i backed down to let everyone go past me ..that was not a good ideal at that time ..28 cars .. five of them hit me and carried me all the way down to turn one ..that ended my dirt racen ..car was junk ...slidways racen was fun ..mud cleaning and ball joint replacements every week wasnt ..i never raced on dirt again ....
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You want a good riverside story, well here you go. When we all went to the dirt all of us ran our asphalt cars. we were lost, but we thought we were fast! Sonny Brown was a pretty sharp promotor, he liked to bring in a name. So about the third week he brought in Tom Williams from schertz, Texas, that was a legit BIG DOG. Tom was in a 70 chevelle and when practice came he run that car high up the bank wide open! the way they used water the track open big valve and drive around the top ,all the water would right to the bottom. So the bottom was a mudhole! The races started and Tom flew low at the top and the heat easily. he was looking like a sure sweep winner. Well a young asphalt driver figured out that if you tippitoed the mud at the bottom just stay hooked then floored on the straights you would go a shorter distance! Well he smoked the field including Sonnys hired star . he stunk up the show! I hate to admit he thought of it before me! His name Law Mikulencakmajek!

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  • 2 weeks later...

my uncle was aruthur "shorty" berends. he always had he blue tow truck in the infield of cc speedway. his ashes are spread around the track. rick rapp spread his ashes and then gave me and my sister a ride around the track in his 99 miller lite firebird.

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my uncle was aruthur "shorty" berends. he always had he blue tow truck in the infield of cc speedway. his ashes are spread around the track. rick rapp spread his ashes and then gave me and my sister a ride around the track in his 99 miller lite firebird.

i remember old shorty .....he hooked me a couple of times ..id say he loved hooking you more than life itself ..guys like us that have been going to the races from way back in the 60.s ...miss alot of those men .......frank ...dub ..willy ..walter .....shorty ....don sr ..don weatherspoon.. and many others ..just nameing then bring back alot of memorys ....not to mention how old you feel now ..

Edited by HiTech
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yeah man he got me into racing and i miss him! i always could not wait to go see him cause i knew i would get to go to the races. the first car i saw was a tida late model and i think the guys name was steve smith? and of course rick rapp won that night!

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My experience at Riverside came in 1985.After the 3rd race at RGS,Robert Theser dropped our class of outlaw minnies so I had no place to race my brand new car.Randy Young suggested Riverside so I gave it a try.Since Jim Melhart almost twisted mine any my brothers arm to switch to the 10 inch McCrearys my car loved that track and so did I.Sonny gave us a great purse and my brother started racing there too.We had the black VWs #s 77 and 64.We called his car the flying nun because the fenders looked like a nuns hat.

 

We had fierce battles between us,Greg Spreen who now sells race motors and the father of Dillon Spreen from late models.Also the Expressions in Wood sponsered chopped Bug.and Melharts car then owned my Micky Collier I think.Bubba was there with his Capri.The guys fron the Navel Air Base bbrought the most cars.Many others too.

 

The first race in 1986,the trophy dash I won and a pink Rolls Royce pulled up to the finish line.I remember thinking " man this place really rocks,I just won a Rolls!!!!!" It turned out it was carrying the Trophy Girls,3 dancers from I think The Playpin all dressed in pink ruffels.I did not get to keep them eather but I have the memories.Sonny Brown and John Farquair ( Im sure misspelled ) were the first promoters to treat the mini stock racers as real racers,gave us respect,good purses and it showed with good car counts.Loosing Sonny was a great loss to the mini stock community.Riverside tried to stay open but without resources it failed.

 

It took me almost 10 years to find another promoter with the same respect for the 4 banger guys.His name was Donny Yocum. R.I.P you guys,I will never forget eather of you.Hope to race for you again someday. G.B.Carter

Edited by thumper
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My experience at Riverside came in 1985.After the 3rd race at RGS,Robert Theser dropped our class of outlaw minnies so I had no place to race my brand new car.Randy Young suggested Riverside so I gave it a try.Since Jim Melhart almost twisted mine any my brothers arm to switch to the 10 inch McCrearys my car loved that track and so did I.Sonny gave us a great purse and my brother started racing there too.We had the black VWs #s 77 and 64.We called his car the flying nun because the fenders looked like a nuns hat.

 

We had fierce battles between us,Greg Spreen who now sells race motors and the father of Dillon Spreen from late models.Also the Expressions in Wood sponsered chopped Bug.and Melharts car then owned my Micky Collier I think.Bubba was there with his Capri.The guys fron the Navel Air Base bbrought the most cars.Many others too.

 

The first race in 1986,the trophy dash I won and a pink Rolls Royce pulled up to the finish line.I remember thinking " man this place really rocks,I just won a Rolls!!!!!" It turned out it was carrying the Trophy Girls,3 dancers from I think The Playpin all dressed in pink ruffels.I did not get to keep them eather but I have the memories.Sonny Brown and John Farquair ( Im sure misspelled ) were the first promoters to treat the mini stock racers as real racers,gave us respect,good purses and it showed with good car counts.Loosing Sonny was a great loss to the mini stock community.Riverside tried to stay open but without resources it failed.

 

It took me almost 10 years to find another promoter with the same respect for the 4 banger guys.His name was Donny Yocum. R.I.P you guys,I will never forget eather of you.Hope to race for you again someday. G.B.Carter

that was one ugly bug you had ..wedge typ .. . i think john gun was racen with yah back then ..and both sullivan boys ... riverside had to many land owners from what i remember .and some wanted it back ..or more money ..if i heard right ....first track i ever turned a lap on .. .man they had alot of cars there ..... remember crazy james with his pink camero ..... darrel philps . and others i cant name right now ...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Lots of great stories here, i was about 15yrs old and spent every Sat night at Riverside watchn the races, the grandstands were great to sit and watch, i cant remember too much but the photos sure bring back some memories, i remember my dad considering the offer Sonny made to my dad about buying Riverside and then he wanted to pave it into a 3/8s asphalt, my dad didnt buy it and of course it didnt happen, i kinda remember Johnny Unitas and Tom Riley running Riverside but i dont remember the details on that

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  • 7 months later...

WOW!!!! Riverside was a good old dirt track. My dad was Mickey Collier 93 pinto. GB you remember when my dad's car was on top of Austin's car? I remember when cars went off turn 3 or 4 they were really gone, they will end up in the trees. How cars were fished out of the creek? I only recall 2 ; the sprint car and a sportsman car and almost my dad.

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