new pics coming

[txtom]

These are from a collection I got last night.

 

The first pic is Leroy Brooks heading into the turn in the Billy Ormand car.

 

The second pic shows the #88 of Glen Schwabe in a Waldo Harper owned Camaro, the #02 Of Leroy Brooks in the Billy Ormand owned Nova, #10 is Norman Blythe of Houston on the outside of Schwabe.

The guy in the hat in the left side of the pic with his back to the camera is Ed Siegmund of Austin.

 

These pics were taken at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds Race Track in Shreveport, about 1978. Shreveport was a classic 1/2 mile Farigrounds track. Had a huge concrete grandstand with a cover over it. The last race was about 1980, and it was torn out by 1985. The location is now a big parking lot.

This link shows east of Independence stadium. Access was by Jewella Ave. I-20 is immediately south of the location.

Track

 

You can follow a small circular grassy area to the right of a tree line in the middle of the pic; that was turn 1 and 2.

[txtom]

On the great niftee fiftees site, one of the pics is a program cover pic from a 1977 program. It has a small pic of Leroy Brooks with the Ormand #02.

 

Here is what the rest of the pic looks like. Taken in the Meyer Speedway pits, There is Leroy at the fender. At the back of the car is Richard "Moose" Bowen. He was well known as the track welder in Austin San Antonio, and TWS. Moose was one of the funniest people I ever had the pleasure of being around, and the stories about Moose could fill up a notebook by themselves.

[txtom]

This pic is also at the Shreveport track.

On the pole for the start is Freddy Fryar in the #14; behind him in row 2 is Glen Schwabe in the Waldo Harper #88; Outside of Schwabe is Norman Blythe in the #10; third row inside is Terry Labonte in the family #44 with Leroy Brooks in the Bill Ormand #02 outside.

Outside of the front row next to Fryar is a red #16, and I believe it is Butch Lindley, although I need to confirm that.

[RETrott]

The Louisiana State Fair in October each year also, for a number of years, included Auto Racing on the last two weekends, with heats and a feature on Saturday afternoons, with a longer race on Sundays. Originally dirt, but later paved, and an absolutely great place to watch racing on a 1/2 mile oval. Another great speedway loss!

[txtom]

The October races were the Pelican 200s. That was a fun era of racing, and in Shreveport, the racing was only one part of the experience. Getting the racing done in the afternoon left time at night to have fun and eat; both were easy to do there. Lee Machen has a great story of him, "Moose" Bowen, and Charlie Koen at the Louisiana hayride. And anyone who knows Koen knows what a wild card he was.

 

One of the funnier things to do there (or for that matter, anywhere) was go to dinner with Moose.

Moose never found anything he was afraid to eat, and in massive quantities. I remember a steak/seafood place we went to somewhere up there, and he got what looked like a 5 gallon stock pot of Oysters. For himself. He would eat the entire pot of them, making pronounced gulping sounds while he ate them. There would folks around our table and others who would be unable to eat because he was grossing them out.

 

The track itself started out as the typical horse track, and auto and motorcycle racing was added over the years. It had several configurations, including a midget track in the infield, and was eventually paved as a half mile in 1969. The big grandstand in the pics in this post was built in 1912, replacing an original grandstand built in the late 1800's.

 

The track held one NASCAR race, which was won by Lee Petty in 1953.

 

The death knell for the Speedway occured in the early 1980's. The track was only being used sparingly, mainly the Pelican races, and plans for a minor-league baseball park were on the drawing board. It was decided by the fair board that the track was expendable, and the footprint of the track could be better used for parking for both the baseball park, and football games at Independence Stadium. There were also some concerns about safety at the track. It started with the ARMCO barrier, which was falling out of favor at racetracks, and went to the lack of protection on the inner side of the track, specifically nothing to keep the cars out of a line of telephone poles that lined the backstraight. The decision to level the track won out over the expense to bring it up to safer standards.

A later Secretary-General manager of the State Fair would express regret about his predecessor eliminating the track.

When I attended a Military Academy in Shreveport in May, 1985, I went back to the site to find it being torn out. Not all the asphalt was torn out, only the banked areas of the turns. The rest, including the huge paved pit area, became part of the parking. Interestingly, I went back there about 1990 on my way from Ft Worth to a Birmingham All Pro race, and the Grandstand was still there, as well as a recognizable part of the front stretch. Not sure of the timing of it's demolition.

 

It was indeed a great place to watch a race, and now just another memory.

 

Included here is a pic from another site that shows the Grandstand. This is an IMCA Series race is from 1951.

[txtom]

Here is an example of the safety problems at Shreveport. Notice the car spinning into the infield pit area. No wall, bare poles.

While it would have been fairly easy to fix the pole issue, putting up a fence to protect the pit area would have been expensive.

 

The grandstand you see in the background is the Independence Football Stadium.

[oatey220]

Tom you are right about Moose he was a very funny. At one of the first TROC races at TWS Moose made a big pot of chili. I was just young and dumb enough to let him convince me to have a taste.......... now some 30years later or so I can honestly say my tongue has finally stopped burning and my eyes stopped watering about 1998.

[302cominthru]

Tom - I love these pics! However, I'm not so sure they are from 1978...more like 1980 on upward. Is there a way you can confirm? I will gladly add these photos to my collection!

[txtom]

These were 1978, maybe 1977.

By 1980, the #48 you see Freddy in was Blue with a #1 on the side, and Rick Rapp was winning the track championship in it at San Antonio. Freddy was in Camaros in 1980.

Add to that the red #44 Labonte is in had been sold to Cheathem in Corpus, repainted red and white with a #24 on it, and was the track champion car in 1979 at San Antonio with Slick Yoemans in it. And we all know where Terry was in 1980.

The reason I think maybe 1977 is due to the #10 of Norman Blythe. This is the same car that was basically destroyed in a crash at San Antonio in 1978 with Hubert Bean and Monte Nichols.

And by 1980, the #02 of Brooks was any color other than the silver you see here. You would have seen the yellow scheme, with primer fixes.

[302cominthru]

Tom - thanks for the quick response. Remember, I'm the guy that posted some pics of Leroy's yellow race car that I took with a Kodak Instamatic Camera (with the red-washed dripping 02's on it) from AquaFest around 1979. That particular car had the removeable hood/fenders that resembled not a Chevy Nova, but instead, a Pontiac Ventura (strangely enough, it had the bullet holes of a Buick Skylark and the tradition orange and white paint scheme of Jerry Stanley). I know - I lived and breathed Leroy Brooks, Betty Brooks, Terry Brooks and Robbie Brooks for 10 years of my childhood life. Attached are the photos I took...enjoy.

[txtom]

That car had a mixture of Nova and Ventura sheetmetal on it at various times; probably whatever Billy Ormand had in the wrecking yard at the moment.

 

As for the yellow paint; if I remember correctly, that came about as a result of a crash at Shreveport.

The cars were under caution, when Tom Harrington ran completely up the side of Leroy and tore a good bit of the body off. There is a great story that comes out once in awhile about Leroy and a couple others trying to get Harrington, who was running for his life. They lost 6 laps getting the car in some kind of shape to run, and Brooks went on a tear, making up 5 of the laps. That yellow sheetmetal is after they replaced the body.

If you look close at the nose of the three clear shots you posted, you can see the red trimmed nose piece off the silver body. And the pic you took is probably 1978; on the other side of Brooks is the #81 Camaro of Steve Klestinec. 1978 was the last year he ran the early Camaro; this one was on a 1957 Chevy frame. You may remember during the Aqua fest race that he dead centered the pole on the exit from the track; this was before they put the gate up.

That same Camaro is also the one that Klestinec won a Limited Sportsman Feature in, then started scratch in the Late Model Feature and won that one also. Two wins in the same night. He ran the outside, and while the late models were faster on the straights, he would pass them in the corner, and pinch them down off the turns. That car was repaired after the Aquafest crash, and sold to Danny Reininger who raced it in San Antonio. The winter of 1978/79 is when Lee Machen built Klestinec's late model that is shown in other threads.

[txtom]

Here is Leroy with the Ex-Schwabe Camaro, probably early 1977, maybe 76. I have some more pics of this car that I will be getting my hands on this winter, after the owner of the opics gets a little more settled in his retirement and relocation.

[RodneyRodriguez]

I remember as a small guy looking through that fence @ Speed O Rama into the pits! Steve's dead centering of that pole is one I recall too, put a pretty good lick on the 81 camaro, my aunt used to work with Steve, her and her hubby had gone to watch him that night. I remember she said, "he didn't say he may do that"!!!!!!!!

[Budman]

Tom,

 

It is with great interest and appreciation, when I look at your "racing pics" FOTKI site. Of special interest to me is the "Bush Family Collection."

 

I've really enjoyed looking at those pics. Regarding the number 12 "purple" coupe, that car was ordinarily driven, on Friday nights in Austin at least, by Don Fowler. The #106 was driven at various times by Buddy Yantis and Johnny Doyle.

 

I remember the #8 "Dri-Powr" car but am just not sure on the driver. It may have been Ted Jones. Rodlea might be able to shed some light on this.

 

The driver referred to as Harold Peppers probably is actually Harold Piper.

 

The #106 is the car Johnny Doyle was driving the night at Speed-O-Rama, when he did a rather spectacular double end-over-end flip through the infield. Johnny was hurt in that crash, but after a few weeks of recovery from his injuries, he was back racing in the #43. As far as I know, the #106 was destroyed in that crash. I never saw that car again after that night.

[bg36]

here's an old pic of the fairgrounds race track from shreveport

 

 

 

 

does anyone have pics of the modfieds from boothill that ran out there also, they ran a few shows back in 79-80

 

sorry

[rocketdog15]

Thanks txtom! These pictures of the State Fairgrounds have made my day. My Grandpa, J.T. Casey

won some races at the Fairgrounds, back in the late thirties. I don't know exactly when right off hand,

the exact dates, but we have one old yellow newspaper article that I will have to check for the date. I have been without a computer for about 6 months, and just got hooked back up, so I am just finding this thread.

I have only been to Shreveport once in 1966, when I was 4 years old, but I don't think that this was the track that he raced at the weekend that I spent with him. It was the only time that I ever got to spend with my grandpa, but at least we got to spend that one weekend on something that we both loved, and enjoyed.

Anyhow, my grandmother who never even speaks my grandpa's name, supprised dad and I recently,

with the neeewspaper article of one of his wins at the fairgrounds. I've tried to find somebody with archives

of the local racing around Shreveport, between the middle thirties, to the early seventies, to see if I could

find pictures of him, orrr more articles on his racing endeavers. My old #15 Sportsman wwith the tourquoise and white paint scheme was a tribute to him, That was the paint scheme on the 46 Ford bussiness coupe that he drove the weekend that I spent with him. It just did my heart good to learn

a little bit about a place that he loved, annd I otherwise would have never seen.

 

Thanks again,

Tommy Casey rocketdog15

[Dzu-Fast]

Here's a site with some Shreveport stuff . There are links at the bottom of the page to more .

 

 

http://oldracers.com/index.html

[bg36]

here's an pic from the sky of the shreveport fair grounds race track that used to be there

 

[resized by Nick Holt, 12/08/08]

 

[kv0363]

here's an pic from the sky of the shreveport fair grounds race track that used to be there

 

[resized by Nick Holt, 12/08/08]

 

These are great pics and stories. Thanks for posting them. The pics are definately in the 70s. I watched Labonte rule that period when the track had the Pelican in the spring and races again in October during the State Fair. I have a few pics from the speedweay on my facebook site "arklatexdirt". I grew up a few blocks north of the speedway and it, along with Hilltop got me hooked on oval. I was lucky enough to see guys like Ramo Stott, Freddy Fryar, Donald Watson, Leroy Brooks, John Bankston, Larry Phillips, Harlan Beene, Henry Robison, Terry Labonte, Layy Schild, and many, many more greats drive at the track.

Would anyone happen to have any picks of Charlie Koen's beautiful Camaro that he raced briefly in the late 70s? I remember it was a brand new car when he raced in the La State Fairgrounds. He was forced into the front straight fence and, I think, totally destroyed the care beyond much repair. I'd love to have a pic of that pretty care.

The folks, and myself, would love to have some of you guys post some of the pics on arklatexdirt (facebook).

Thanks for the many stories. I've spent hours this week reading the posts. I've also got some printable/downloadble pics on my website: purplecountryphotos.com

Thanks,

Buddy

p.s. I"ll go to my grave saying John Bankston won the Pelican that Ronny Adams was awarded. I like Adams (amazing talent), but I was an obsessive lap/car counter as a kid:)