Hello members, I'm looking for a little input.
I need to write up a small seminar on the history of Delaware Speedway.
I was looking for your opinions on the sort of things that would be important to note. (The info would be nice too!)
I was thinking along the lines of
The different names
The different owners/promoters - Novotony, McGreedy, Brodie etc.
The different configurations
Harvey Lennox,Earl Ross, ....?
The changes in the divisions over the years (that's a tough one , the Canadian Racing site gives some good info in an article but it's not completely Delaware specific.) IE - hobby, rat racers, stockers etc.
The evolution of Cascar
Anything else (with details) would be great. You can post or PM me.
Thanks,
Don
When do ya need it?
OK, heres the short anecdotal history of Delaware, from a fan pespective, and backed up by (pretty much) absolutely nothing! ;D
In a nutshell, when they started at Delaware in the 50s it was pretty much free for all, until it developed into 2 divisions...the Supermodifieds, and the backup division (commonly known as the Hobbies, but properly known by different names over the years, such as Modified Sportsman) Hobbies had a weight to cubic inch rule. I beleive Supermod was pretty much wide open.
In the late 60's the Rat racers were born, a precursor to the Street Stock / enduro class.
In the early 70s, Supermodified was on its way out. Too expensive. It floundered for a couple years till they dropped off the weekly map about 1972. (going by old programs) They tried again a couple years later but it didn't last long. From then on, Supermodified was just a once in a while thing at Delaware. The limited Stock replaced Supermod as the main division in the mid 70s.
In or around 1974, the hobby division transformed into the Compact class, as the drivers were given enticements to get rid of the old coupe bodies and put Vega, Gremlin and Pinto bodies on instead. Basically, it was worth and extra $100 to a feature winner sporting a compact body. (documented from an old program)
So the main divisions in the 70s were Limited Stock and Compact, but the Late Model Super Stocks were frequent visitors. (this was Hanley, Beiderman, Ross and company...the Export A series) As it got towards the 80s, the lines again blurred and Super Late Model (thats what everyone called the LM Super Stocks...and it stuck) became the feature division, the compacts either disappeared or folded in with the LMs, and the Street Stock division took hold.
In the early 80s, they dabbled with an International Sedan class of 4 cyl cars. It never really took off. 4 banger was too slow for the big track, and not enough guys seemed interested in building one.
SO now in the 80s, it SLM, Street Stock A and Street Stock B. Now the SLMs were facing the same problem as the Supermods had faced 15 years earlier. Too expensive and it was getting tougher for the promoter to get a full field of cars.
So basically, and this was Novotny's genius as far as I'm concerned, they recreated the Street Stock A division into CASCAR Late Model. It allowed the SS guys to go faster, and as a bonus, allowed a few of those old Limited Stock guys from the 70s to pull their cars out of mothballs and use them again. Racing was good again at Delaware.
In the 90s, as the Cascar super series took off, they decided that body styles and whatnot were going to have to change again, and began the evolution into what is now the Sportsman - NCTS. Friday night and Super Series became incompatible without great cost, so guys had to decide on one or the other. The modified division was born, to slim numbers at first, but grew. SS were starting to get more expensive to run...Then along came the truck division as the entry level replacement.
And here we sit, with Sportsman morphed into LM, the Street Stocks morphed into Super Stocks, the Mods are still the mods, and the trucks are still the trucks.
By the way, Enduros were born in 1982. I don't have the program anymore, but if anyone does they can back it up.
Thanks guys
I think it will be an interesting little seminar