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Entries in San Luis Obispo (1)

Monday
Jan302012

Dirt track racing in San Luis, circa 1924

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?