Monday
Jan302012
Dirt track racing in San Luis, circa 1924
Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:50 PM
Check out this amazing video showing auto racing at nearby San Luis Obispo in 1924. I had never heard of Exposition Park Raceway, but it looked to be quite sizable for what must have been a relatively small farming town at that time.
The Exposition dirt track was bumpy and dustyand drew a large crowd. According to the YouTube detail page, the track "was located along South Street between Higuera and Broad Street."
Couple fun things to look out for:
- The close promixity of speeding cars and crew members casually walking alonside the track (the pits were not segregated by a wall as is common in modern tracks).
- The dust plumes that follow the cars along the backstretch. They reminded me of the dust left by the Roadrunner.
- A nice pass on the backstretch that begins halfway out of Turn 2.
- A very quick pitstop in which a crew member deftly removes the damaged undertray of a car. Not sure they could make the repair any faster these days.
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