No news has come in concerning the closure of Chowchilla story, save Tom Sagmiller announcing that Kings Speedway will be the site of this years big George Steitz race. To me, it's good and bad news. It's good that the Steitz Race tradition continues, but it's not good news for Chowchilla. When you are sending probably the biggest money maker of a race to another track, the outlook for reopening in 2007 does not look good. Hopefully, I'm wrong about that, but time will tell. I was hoping Tom would have posted something by now, but there's probably a good reason he hasn't.
For seven years, Chowchilla Speedway has been offering racers and fans a great place to race and building memories. If that's where it ends, it's a shame it had to end, but there's a lot to be proud of. I wanted to take you back to a story from 2000 that ran in the Merced Sun-Star, but my blog is having format issues. I recall back a year or two before the track opened. I was corresponding with an insider to Tom's effort to bring change to the racing scene. I actually have some of those e-mails in a file.
In fact, I was looking through my files as I gear up for my trip. It was a trip down memory lane for me. I may be posting some of these files here on the blog. I have some interviews and other stuff I ran in the magazine. There are pictures that I forgot I had scanned. Some of the early WSS stuff. The first file of the rules typed for the class is on disk. Interviews in Q&A form with Andy Archer, Don Shelton and Donny Babb. A Jim Booth story. Lots of stuff actually. I'll be sorting through it all.
I found some News & Rumors columns that Don had written. Vintage photos from the early 70's and early 80's. Some of this stuff may eventually find it's way back to Don O'Keefe's site. The last Editor's Viewpoint from the DCRR in 2003 and other Viewpoint columns. Lots to look through, but we're a ways away from getting started on the book. Right now, it's sort of a trip down memory lane, and I look forward to sharing this stuff with Don in Indy as we recall those times.
Stay tuned to the blog as some of this stuff will likely get posted. By the way, I do intend to offer some newly written posts about days gone by in racing, but I'm not sure how much time I will be spending on that in the next couple of weeks. Plus, I'm still working on other writing projects.
