My interview with Gary Marchbanks

I had the privilege of recently interviewing Gary Marchbanks, a former co-owner of Hanford Motor Speedway and the grandson of Marchbanks Speedway founder B.L. "Bircha" Marchbanks. 

This wonderful ticket brochure for the 1961 NASCAR race contains a nice map showing the various layouts at Marchbanks Speedway (link opens PDF of brochure)We chatted at his Hanford farm for about 90 minutes on a variety of things. While I still have many questions about the track's history (particular specific dates for any number of things), Gary filled in more than a few blanks and lent me a boxful of old newspaper clippings and other documents (including this attached wonderful trifold brochure for the 1961 NASCAR race) that I will write about in the future. The visit was very fruitful and will really fill out the history I've started so far. 

Here are some highlights of things we touched on:

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Reader: Hanford 250 "the best auto race I have ever seen"

Reader Mike Franovich emailed some compliments, as well as some memories of the Hanford 250 Champ Car race in November 1968, which he described as "the best auto race I have ever seen."

In justifying that statement, Franovich wrote:

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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. 

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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."