In search of lost drag strips, mountain roads and Mexican food

Mailman

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Mel Larson was a NASCAR driver from the mid 50’s up until the mid eighties.
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He was a decent enough driver, but what he really wanted to do was promote racing. In 1962 he built a very good drag strip way out in the desert beyond the outer edges of Phoenix in the small town of Wittmann. Blink and you’ve driven right through it. The dragstrip was very successful in its day and in 1964 they held the AHRA Winternationals there.
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By the 70’s the dragstrip was still operational, but the glory days were long gone. This was the era that I knew it. On Sundays they would open up the strip to anyone that wanted to run their car, and me and my buddies would take our Mustangs and Camaros, Novas, Chevelle, and GTO’s to the dragstrip and race our cars and generally run them until we broke something and then limp them home again. It was great , cheap fun and a part of my youth.
It’s been closed for a long time.......today I went looking for it.

It was a beautiful day in the mid 80’s when I left my house today and headed Northwest on Highway 60 and out of town into the open desert. If you keep driving on this road, you’d be to Las Vegas in about four hours.
I knew where the turn off was to go the old dragstrip. If you didn’t know where it was , you’d never even see it.
Here’s what I found. A blocked off entrance and chain link fence surrounding the property with big no trespassing signs hanging everywhere.
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I couldn’t get very close, but I could see the remains of the announcers booth and the timing tower, if you look in the foreground , through the weeds you can see the lines of the parking lot, all but hidden.
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The old shop buildings.
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And the cement barriers that bordered the sides of the dragstrip.
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Time has all but consumed the old racetrack. Once the old guys like me that remember it have gone, it will just be a footnote in history. So...let’s just motor on shall we?

Twenty miles on up the highway is the town of Wickenburg, you may recall the old West town that I wrote about from before, but today I’m not looking for history, I’m looking for Mexican food and I found it! Hallelujah, I scarfed my taco so fast. Didn’t even get a photo of it!
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Now that I’ve properly stuffed myself I’m thinking about the return trip. Shortly after heading out of Wickenburg , I come to the town of Morristown, there is a turn off to highway 74, the New River highway.
This is a beautiful , mostly two lane highway that skirts the Southern edge of the Hells Canyon mountain preserve area and lake Pleasant. It is mountainous with stunning vistas and very much fun to ride.
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The desert, which for so much of the year looks dry and brown, has really greened up from all the recent rains we’ve had. The most rainfall in October on record.
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And you know I have to include a couple black and whites.
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This highway leads to home, so that will pretty much conclude my ride for today, 105 miles of smiles!

A couple of footnotes:
Mel Larsons story didn’t end with his dragstrip out in the desert. He went on to be a big deal in Las Vegas. He became a senior Vice President at the Circus Circus hotel and Casino and a major business partner in opening Las Vegas’s own NASCAR track.
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I would also just like to say a word about my Givi windshield. I absolutely love this thing. I’ve had a lot of different windshields over the years. Big ones , small ones, good and bad ones. This is a Goldilocks windshield. ITS JUST RIGHT!!! Today was pretty much all ridden at 60-70mph and I was completely comfortable the whole time. It was very windy today, sometimes pushing me around, but the windshield does a great job of keeping the main blast off of my body while allowing good airflow, and it has never adversely affected the handling. You can’t even feel it’s there.

So that’s my little ride for today. Are you guys getting tired of desert scenery? It’s pretty much what I’ve got around here, Haha! :laugh2:

Until next time,
Bob
 

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Hey, another great photo documentary Bob. Great ride, great photos, great story. Thanks for sharing it. I'm so envious of your weather now.... lol.

Keep the ride reports coming to help your northern brothers get through the next few months..........eh?
 
Hey, another great photo documentary Bob. Great ride, great photos, great story. Thanks for sharing it. I'm so envious of your weather now.... lol.

Keep the ride reports coming to help your northern brothers get through the next few months..........eh?

Thanks! I shall do my best!
 
Old racetracks is a nostalgic subject matter.
Just yesterday, Marlin72xs was reminding me of the Moody Mile, the mile-long dirt track at the Syracuse Fairgrounds.

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Unfortunately, they bull-dozed it a couple years ago...:(... to make way for an equestrian complex, so I can't bring my bike over there to take a picture like you did.
Same goes for the Bryar Motorsports Park in New Hampshire, where I raced in the 80's,

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....which ultimately (after the bulldozers came in) became the New Hampshire International Speedway, now famous for NASCAR races.

But there are other fading, rusty carcasses of old racetracks out there, I'm sure.

How about a New Game? "Post a Picture of Your XS650 at a Derelict Racetrack."

Bob, you would have a head start on this, and I think I recall Azman posting an old drag race track.
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Nice pics Bob. I think You've convinced me on the windshield. Didn't you do a write-up on it?
 
UOTE="YamadudeXS650C, post: 568234, member: 21193"]and I think I recall Azman posting an old drag race track.[/QUOTE] Nope, wasn't me.
 
I only knownof two other racetracks around here and they were bulldozed in the name of progress.
Sometimes it takes some digging and inquiring to unearth these old things.
In regards to Old Garages, I was recently informed that an interestingly-shaped, run-down house just up the road from mine was once a gas station. I've been driving by it daily for over 25 years.
And a stranger with whom I picked up a conversation with at our local McDonalds down the road in Lafayette recently told me of a derelict dirt circle track (stock car) that exists just a 1/4 mile away. I had no idea !
 
"Post a Picture of Your XS650 at a Derelict Racetrack."
It might be easier to post a picture of my derelict XS650 at a race track. Road America Rockerbox weekend.
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Even better a picture of Derelicts at a race track.
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me JRP1 n cafephil at Road America
 
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