Speedway Posters

1975 Calistoga California Sprint Car Racing Poster Print

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In 1937, as the Model A was dominating America’s roadways when a promoter with the colorful nickname of “Fancy Pants” came to Calistoga with a ‘fancy’ idea.  He believed the town’s horse racing track was ideal for another kind of horsepower.  He persuaded the town’s leaders to promote a car race on the Napa County Fairgrounds.  About a dozen cars showed up for an afternoon of hippodrome-style speed exhibitions.  It was the beginning of a tradition that has endured for over 70 years.

Except for the years of World War II, when all racing in the nation was put on hold to conserve fuel and rubber, Calistoga Speedway has hosted open-wheel race cars.  From spindly wire-wheeled wonders with four-cylinder engines to midgets and the V-8 powered, winged and modern sprint cars of today, Calistoga’s first racing heroes were family names that are still found in the Napa Valley, such as Figone, Normi, and Pacheteau.

The first races were sanctioned by the Bay Cities Roadster Racing Association and later the American Racing Association.  The track hit its stride as a racing destination under the nurturing hand of another well-known Calistogan, Louie Vermeil, owner of the former Owl Garage on Washington Street, whose association with the track spanned over 40 years.  Initially, he was a mechanic and later a car owner.  By 1960, Vermeil and others had formed the Northern Auto Racing Club, now known as the Golden State Challenge Series, to boost the professionalism of sprint car racing.  For the next 25 years, Calistoga Speedway was known as the “home” of the Northern Auto Racing Club while Vermeil presided as president.

Some things have changed over the years.  Admission price in the early years was a mere 55 cents.  The fastest cars of the hippodrome days took more than 30 seconds to turn a lap on the half-mile oval.  To be sure, they were daring speeds at the time in rough cars with narrow tires.  But they seem tortoise-like compared to speeds of modern sprint cars, which rocket down the long straightaways twice as fast at more than 120 miles an hour.

Over the years, Calistoga Speedway has hosted some of the best drivers of their eras.  Indy car veterans Jim Hurtubise, Bob Veith, Freddie Agabasion (’52 Indy pole winner), and Earl Motter raced here in the ’50s and ’60s.  Some of the best race car drivers of the next generation took their place, including 20-time World of Outlaws champion Steve Kinser and Tony Stewart, who has gone on to win championships in the United States Auto Club, the Indy Racing League, and NASCAR stock cars.  Many of the drivers on the track’s all-time win list became nationally known for their talent, even if they raced primarily in Northern California, as the track gained a reputation for requiring the best effort of the area’s best drivers in order to win.

Today, Calistoga Speedway continues its tradition of presenting special events for some of the region’s most competitive racing series, including the winged sprint cars of the traveling Civil War and Golden State Challenge series and the traditional sprint cars and midgets of the United States Auto Club.

by Bill Sessa

1953 Paradise Mesa Drag Strip Poster Print

57 years ago …!! it was 1953 at the Paradise Mesa Drag Strip. This poster print measures 17 inches wide x 22 inches tall. An awesome reproduction poster print.

At Paradise Mesa, a strip southwest of San Diego California which opened in 1951 on a a site once notorious for “chaotic illegal sprint bashes,” competition was about equally divided between two and four wheeled vehicles. At the end of a day’s racing it was often a cycle that emerged on top. Still, there were four wheeled machines competing which looked a little like something purposefully designed, as opposed to having merely been “stipped to the bare essentials.”  These machines were classified as “modifieds,”, a traditional dry lakes designation for a one-seater built on a narrowed frame.
It was at Paradise Mesa that many of the first drag racers emerged who became houshold names to hot rodders nationwide.

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This retro poster print is one of four prints of Gilmore Oil .Gilmore Oil –What began as a farmers market and grew to be a successful dairy farm, resulted in Arthur Fremont Gilmore striking oil at the turn of the century in Los Angeles, California. The Gilmore family took their fortune and became very active in the community, constructing Gilmore Stadium in 1934 with the very first race track specifically designed for midget racers.

This reproduction poster print from 1937 measures 15.5 inches wide x 21.5 inches tall. Makes for a great gift.

1937 Gilmore Red Lion Oil Co. Advertisement Poster Print

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1921 Tacoma Speedway Poster Print, measures 17 inches wide x 22 inches tall. Did a little Google search and found an awesome site with some great Washington State History. During its years of operation between 1912 and 1922, the Tacoma Speedway, located in Lakewood, hosted some of the big names of racing, rivaling the best in the world. The “Who’s Who” of races — “Terrible” Teddy Tetzlaff, Earl Cooper, Barney Oldfield, among others — left rubber on that track. Others left their lives. The grandstands closed in 1922, and the site is now (2004) home to Clover Park Technical College. Lakewood is a suburb of Tacoma.

1921 Tacoma Speedway Poster Print

The track was built by a group of Tacoma businessmen led by Arthur Pitchard, president of the Tacoma Automobile Association. They collected backers and built a five-mile, all-dirt track, which opened in 1912. The track ran around what is now Lakeview Avenue, where the grandstands stood, to Steilacoom Boulevard to Gravelly Lake Drive to 112th Street. The first races were held on July 5 and 6, 1912.

“Terrible” Teddy Tetzlaff, a famous racer of the day, was set to headline the first race that year. He was kidnapped days before the race, however, and held for ransom. Rumor has it he was held in a Tacoma brothel.

“When his bosses came to pick him up, he didn’t want to leave,” Herstad said.

The track changed quickly in those first few years. It shrunk to a 3.5-mile course in 1913, then in 1914 to a two-mile track. The shorter course was roughly what is now Steilacoom Boulevard and Gravelly Lake Drive to 100th, then back to Lakeview.

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1933 Los Angeles Air Races Poster Print

Today is July 4 th !! Happy Birthday America !! Back in 1933 there was the Los Angeles Air Races. This poster print measures 17 inches wide x 22 inches tall. A great reproduction poster from the 30′s.

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1949 Oakland Speedway Stock Car Racing Poster Print. Measures 17 inches wide x 22 inches tall. A great print that would look awesome in the office, den, game room, shop or garage.

1949 Oakland Speedway Stock Car Racing Poster Print

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The Oakland Speedway was the first motor racing track near Oakland, California, a one-mile, banked dirt oval track built in 1931, which operated throughout the Great Depression and postwar years. The track featured AAA National Championship races with Indy cars and drivers from 1931 until 1936, when the AAA pulled out of the West Coast. Thereafter the track still featured racing by members of the Bay Cities Racing Association, in roadsters and motorcycles, as well as Big Cars, stock cars, and midgets. It was known as the “fastest dirt track in the Nation”.

In 1931 the Oakland Speedway was built near Oakland, but actually was located between Oakland and nearby Hayward, California, on the site of what is now Bayfair Mall in San Leandro, California.

Annually each fall the track hosted the “Oakland 500″ race. Many of the local East Bay races were exhibited by the Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA). In 1948 local East Bay driver Bob Barkhimer quit racing to become the Business Manager for BCRA. In 1949 Barkhimer took over San Jose Speedway and also started his own association (CSCRA), and in 1954 he co-founded west coast NASCAR.

Among top drivers who were killed at the Oakland Speedway was Clyde Rea Bray, who had held second place in the A.R.A. points in 1939, behind champion Wally Schock. Bray had come in 5th in the Oakland “500″ that year. Two years later, on Labor Day, 1941, during the Oakland Speedway 500 race, on the 356th lap, Bray was fatally injured after being thrown from his car, after it sailed over the south fence.

Among legendary top race drivers who got their start at the Oakland Speedway was Bob Sweikert, the 1955 Indianapolis 500 winner. On Memorial Day, May 26, 1947 at the Oakland Speedway, Sweikert drove his own handbuilt track roadster in his debut race for prize money, and finished second.

In the early 1930s, Emeryville Motorcycle Speedway was built on 53rd Street in nearby Emeryville, California, on the present site of the Emery Bay Village residential and shopping center.

Another rival 1930s motorcycle track was Neptune Beach Speedway, on the Alameda, California bay shoreline.

A later local venue similar to the Oakland Speedway was Oakland Stadium, a 5/8 mile track, with a banking of 62 degrees, held racing events between 1946 and 1955 that featured Big Cars, Sprints, Midgets, Roadsters, and Hardtops. Before he moved up to the sprint cars, Bob Sweikert won a 50 lap feature in his Thompson Motors Special Roadster at that venue on October 17, 1948. In October 1949 he set the new one lap track record there at 20.78 seconds in a V8 Special. Surprisingly, there were no driver fatalities at this race track even with the extreme banking in the turns.

Another local venue was the downtown Oakland Indoor Midget Race Track, the only one west of Chicago. It was built inside the converted Exhibition Building, and featured a small 1/12 mile oval track, and became the site of featured races by the Bay Cities Racing Association, with the debut event on January 8, 1949. Bob Sweikert won that Indoor Midget championship that year with the concluding event on February 12, 1949.

1939 Alexander Tether Car Poster Print

1939 Alexander Tether Car Poster Print. Measures 24 inches wide x 21 inches tall. An awesome reproduction poster.

In the earliest beginnings — Racing of miniature cars powered by gas airplane engines started in California around 1937.  In the beginning the cars were home built with ashtray tires and primitive parts. They could reach speeds of around 40 MPHs.  Soon clubs started to form, rules were drafted, tracks were spawned, and events planned.  The earliest cars were lovingly modeled to appear authentic with windshields, seats, steering wheels, gages and sometimes even little drivers.

Pre-War — Manufacturers started to spring up and produced both kit cars and factory built ready-to-race cars.  These cars were expensive for the day considering the depression had just recently ended.  Most factory built cars sold for around $20 – $30  with the most expensive being the B.B. Korn selling for $53.50 in Magnesium form.  Kit cars sold for as low as $10.  Prior to the war, cars reached speeds in the mid-70s for Protos and 100 MPH for cable streamliners.

War time — Unfortunately, the hobby suffered like so many others during the second World War.  Most manufacturers went out of business because metals were shifted to the war efforts.  To my knowledge, The Dooling Bros. were the only one notable manufacturer resumed operations after the war.

Post War — After the war ended, manufacturers began to spring up once again.  Because of the war, there were new, light-weight materials to work with such as plastics, and fiberglass.  Most cars began to take on more streamlined looks and began to reach speeds of 100+ MPH.

The End — It has been said that the hobby came to a close due to the lack of fan participation.  The cars had become too fast and the fans could not longer view them.  The cars also lost their appeal when they took on a more streamlined appearance and no longer represented the real midget race cars of the day.

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