Dirt track racing in San Luis, circa 1924

Monday, January 30, 2012 at 10:50 PM
Logan Molen in San Luis Obispo, Sports, auto racing

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.

I'm regularly amazed with the scope of racetracks back in the day. I mean, how many tracks have you been to that have overhangs over the stands? 

Article originally appeared on LoganMolen.com (https://www.loganmolen.com/).