"The Fabulous Mr. Marchbanks"

Reader Richard Hodges wrote to me from the United Kingdom and shared some copies of MotoRacing that chronicled several California Sports Car Club races at Marchbanks in September 1960 and July 1961. I'll add that info to the Marchbanks history when I get a few minutes.

Of particular interest in the 1960 MotoRacing coverage of the Cal Club's race was a nice feature story on track owner B.L. "Bircha" Marchbanks, of which I've been hard-pressed to find good information. MotoRacing said Marchbanks ran the track with the help of son B.L. Marchbanks Jr.

The feature titled "The Fabulous Mr. Marchbanks" includes a photo of Marchbanks, looking ever the hardworking farmer with worn work boots and ever-present cowboy hat.

"A cattleman at heart, the lean, angular Texan today has 300 head of cattle on his land, and, at 65, he is still breaking in his own horses," MotoRacing's Gus V. Vignolle reported.

Click to read more ...

Additions to Marchbanks Speedway history

Just a quick update for my Marchbanks Speedway readers:

I recently made a few additions to "History of Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway" that include:

1) Comments from several people who emailed me their recollections of the track. Keep those coming.

2) Added some detail from "The History of the American Speedway" regarding the track's different configurations over the years. However, the info seems to conflict with other sources, so there's still a ton of digging to do there in terms of distilling myth from reality.

3) A bit about a CRA sprint race in 1969 that was one of the very last events at the track.

And there wasn't anything new to me in this story, but Cox Newspapers recently gave a shoutout to Marchbanks in a look back at the birth of NASCAR superspeedways.

I've stumbled across a few more photos so will try to find the time to plop them in a Marchbanks gallery soon.

In the meantime, please share any new info, photos, stories or anything else Marchbanks-related. 

---

RELATED STORIES: Read more about Marchbanks Speedway and Hanford Motor Speedway in my Marchbanks section, including the regularly updated "History of Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway."

April 1969 Champ Car race program

The third annual "California 200" on April 13, 1969, was the last of four IndyCar races held at Hanford Motor Speedway -- as far as I can tell -- the last major race held at the track.

The 36-page program was the first of four Champ Car races that didn't  feature cartoon-like artwork, instead featuring 1968 USAC national champ Bobby Unser sitting in his checkerboard No. 1.

The chassis-engine mix had a new twist for 1969, as turbines were nowhere to be seen, although Art Pollard was driving one of the wedge-shaped chassis retrofitted with a turbo Offy.

Here's an index of the various chassis-engine combinations listed in the program:

Click to read more ...