Welcome to the unofficial Delaware Speedway Online History Project.
This is the place for everyone and anyone to post any old photos or Delaware stories that you'd like to share. I'll be getting it started by making a number of posts myself, but its a community thread. I'd like to encourage everyone to post here.
The Reason
The purpose of this thread, simply put, is to share memories, old photos, stories and recollections. If there's one thing that long time fans are good at, its telling stories about the old days, and we've found that people are generally good at sharing this stuff. Every once in a while a thread pops up with some old photos, and the discussion goes well for a little while then it, like any other thread, tends to drop off the board.
There's already been a bit of a trip down memory lane for some of us in the "Please introduce yourself" thread, and we'd like to keep it going. This thread will be stickied so that, for years to come, everyone that turns up here on the Delaware message board gets a chance to see it. We hope that every once in a while, we'll get a new member that just happens to have some old pics or programs squirrelled away in a box somewhere and would like to share.
What many folks might not know is that Delaware itself does not have much in the way of documentation for anything that happened before 1998 or so. So much history has been lost to the ages, as past management was understandably more concerned with running the business of the speedway than chronicling its history. Believe it or not, that APC 300 wall of fame when you walk through the main gate is the only record in existence of most of those races. So really, any history the place has only exists in the memories, old photos and programs of the fans and drivers.
We want to get those memories where others can see and enjoy them too.
The Plan
It is my hope that one day we'll have enough here to put together a small "historical society" with a legitimate book or a historical display that can be exhibited at the speedway and maybe at car/hot rod shows as well. So in that regard, there may come a time when we'd be happy to accept donations of old programs or memorabilia, and you can rest assured that anything you did donate would be treated like the treasure that it is, and shared for all to see.
In the coming months, the plan for me is to go through all these old threads that contained photos and articles and bring them here. Over the years I've posted a lot of stuff. We had a great collection that Gary Brooks shared with us, and various other posters as well. It will be a time consuming process. I will soon open up a designated photo sharing site just for this, most likely a Photobucket site, and transfer everything over there. I'll also make sure that someone else also has admin access to the site, likely John from Delaware, just so the keys are being held by the "society" rather than just me as an individual.
Bringing them over here will be a time consuming process, but the end result will be worth it. Couple all those photos with the (hopefully) flood of new ones, and this thread should become a really great read.
If You Want to Share
If you are not entirely computer savvy and are unsure about scanning and posting photos, feel free to contact me personally and I'll be happy to help. If it should happen that you have a bunch of great photos but can't scan them, someone may be able to come to you with a scanner so that you get to have your photos up...but don't have to turn them over to anyone to do it. Old racing photos are rare and priceless to thier owners. We recognize that and would never ask you to just hand them over, unless of course, you want to.
Likewise, if you can scan them but don't know how to share them on the net, send them to me and I'll post them on your behalf. Try and give me a caption for each photo and it will get posted with full credit to the donator and photographer if possible.
If you are a "lurker" which means you read the boards but don't have a profile, and you want to share, please email me at
tjjjames@ZZZZyahoo.ca
(remove the ZZZZ part...its just there to prevent automated spam crawlers - and yes, its 3 j's)
What we're looking for
The criteria is loose here. If it relates to Delaware in some way, then its good. By proximity, anything regarding the old Nilestown Speedway is naturally welcome too, as most of the drivers/fans of that era did both places. We'd love to have at least a caption for each pic, but mystery "who's in this car" photos are good too. Someone on the boards usually has an answer.
Its been our experience that the tale-telling seems to snowball. Someone posts a photo, then someone else says "I remember that. Does anyone remember the night when...." etc etc, and we heartily encourage that here. You don't need to have photos to participate at all. This is a "history" thread, but unlike high school history, we want it to be fun too.
We REALLY hope you'll grace us with your participation!
This was what started it all for me. These are scans of 2 old programs, one from 71 and one from 72. Just go through the lineup sheets and see how many names you recognize. There's a lot of 2nd and 3rd generation drivers at Delaware now.
Also, on the cover of one is Harv Lennox in the Tammy 10. Look closely: A couple of years ago Harv was the grand marshal of our opening day ceremonies, and he honored me my autographing the cover for me. I never saw Harv race that I remember, being ony 2 years old in 71, but I heard enough stories from my mom and dad over the years that it was almost like I'd been there.
Harv was a bit of a villain back in the day. He was one of those guys who tended to dominate a lot of races, and therefore got booed a lot. In those days, the tradition was to take a victory lap with the checkers. One night at Nilestown, he declined the victory lap because whenever he did one, people would throw stuff at him on the way by. The crowd took his refusal as a slap in the face and booed even more vigorously.
Legend has it that Nilestown's promoter later offered Harv an extra bonus to his feature winnings, provided he continued to be the bad guy and not do victory laps, as in enraged the fans...and kept them buying tickets.
Thes programs are pdf files, hosted generously by FromTheStands.
great deal on a pinto, prices like that they would be selling cars like crazy.
This one is only from just over a month ago. Unless you're brand new here, you've seen it already. This was written in honor of the NASCAR Canadian Tire series coming home to Delaware, and was also printed in the souvenir program for that weekend.
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NOTE- All B/W photos are scans from either programs or copies of PRN. All color photos were taken by myself.
CASCAR/NCTS...a Brief History
Its no secret that the Nascar Canadian Tire Series is a really HUGE deal for Delaware. Its probably the biggest and most highly anticipated event in recent history, and the stands are expected to be full. All this talk about the series coming "home" is not just overblown hype...in this case its the real deal.
Once upon a time, the Super Late Model division ruled the roost at Delaware. Russ Urlin, Jr Hanley, Don Biederman, Don Mallat, Bob Merrifield all were regular campaigners here in a period starting in 1978 or so. (before that, our late models were Limited Stock, and the big boys only visited about 4 times a season) Through the early 80s this went on, and the typical Friday night races at Delaware consisted of the Super Late Models, as well as a vibrant Street Stock division with so many cars it had to be split into Street Stock A and B. It was good times, but darkness loomed. �
Open rules meant some funky race cars
Super Late Model racing was facing 2 main challenges at the time. Firstly, it was getting expensive...too expensive for most regular Friday night campaigners. How could they compete with the likes of Junior Hanley on a regular basis without throwing more money at it than most teams could afford to spend? It got to the point where as soon as you saw that 72 car come in the back gate, everyone else might as well have packed it in for the night. The second problem was where to draw from. Always before, a Late Model was a Late Model no matter what track you went to. By the 80s, tracks were divided (as they still are today) and every place had a different rules package. The old formula of locals mixed with visitors was starting to go sour.
Tony Novotny, Delaware's promoter at the time, had dabbled with a common series and a common ruleset for Super Late Models called CASCAR, and the CASCAR Number 7 Lights Series was successfully run at Delaware, as well as places like Sauble, Barrie, and Checker Flag/Windsor. However, even as the series did fairly well, skyrocketing costs, and prize money that did not escalate at the same rate as expenses, left Super Late Model racing in trouble.
The Number 7 Lights Series years - Londons Dave Isen
Don Beiderman wins at Delaware
Now all this time, the Street Stock division was thriving, sometimes with almost 70 cars in the pits.
There were a couple of years of failed desperation tactics to try and bolster the Fri Night SLM fields at Delaware. Some of those tactics included opening up the rules completely, so that as long as you were going by the rules of your home track, then you were legal at Delaware. Another was offering up a 1st place prize of $1000, an unheard of amount � for a Fri nite feature. But still, fields dwindled and became less competitive. (occasianally going so low that they had to reneg on the 1000 and offer up 750 instead.) The big guns still came in the form of Tracey Leslie and Junior Hanley, but everyone else was relegated to the title of mobile pylon, and the crowds on the hill started to dwindle too.
In the winter of 1985 it was announced that the Super Late Model division was done at Delaware as a regular division, � just as the SuperModifieds had done a decade earlier. They'd still run, but only once a month or so for 100 lap races. On tap for Friday nights now was a new kind of car called a CASCAR Late Model, and the competitors were drawn primarily from the Street Stock A division. For the first year in fact it was hard to tell the difference, as the cars looked pretty much the same, but before long they began to look more like Late Models. The class was basically a throwback to something called the Diamond class that ran in the 70's - essentially a Limited Sportsman. With this new divison, some of the old timers from the decade previous came back to the fold, such as Doug Garner, Moe Merner, and Ken Johntson, and they came back to rub fenders with CASCAR LM pioneers like Steve Robblee, Ron Ling, George Wall, Mark Patrick, Doug Stewart and Bob Morris.
32-Steve Robblee leads 10-Jim Weirsma down the frontchute in Fri nite action.
12-Mark Patrick takes heat race checkers.
Suddenly racing was good again at Delaware. These races in the new divison were certainly not a given...often over half the field had a shot at winning. And the crowds started to come back. Stars were born in the form of Barry Harmer, Skeeter Betteridge, Brad Jacques and Andy Farr.
Brad Jacques
04-Andy Farr from Mich, with "the Mayor of Sweaburg" Barry Harmer (number 26) in the background.
Skeeter from London
One of the first times the CASCAR late models ran more than a 25 lap feature. Labor Day 1990. It was the McKerlie Millen 200, but they split the bill with the Super late Models that day. Each ran a 100 lap race. Junior Hanley won one, and Brad Jaques won the other.
And then the next step went into motion, as a few other tracks adopted the CASCAR philosophy as well, which was to keep costs down. 2 barrel carbs, and 8 inch tires were the order, and it was adopted by Ottawa, St Eustache, and the short lived re-opening of the CNE stadium. Of course, more tracks meant you could now have a travelling series, and the CASCAR General Tire Super Series went into motion, and we were then introduced to guys like Rob Neely, Kerry Micks, and Dan Shirtliff.
There were some amazing years and some amazing races. At Delaware, Scott Lindsay, Jim Patrick, DJ Kennington and Brad Graham emerged as stars, and in the Super series we were intoroduced to Duke Sawchuk, Al Turner, Ron Beauchamp, a reborn Speedy Jack Monaghan, not to mention a 2nd time reborn Earl Ross. There were a number of years during this era where the rules package for both Friday nights and Super Series were close enough that Friday nighers could run both, so the fields for big races at Delaware and nearby Cayuga were huge, with often a 20 car consolation race and the main event starting 36.
Glory Years - Cayuga approximately 1995. Fri nite regulars like Jesse Kennedy and Doug Stewart lock horns with 7-Sean Depius, 93-Alex Nagy, 74-Duke Sawchuck, 3-Dan Shirtliff.
Duke and Jim Lapcevich in the Tim Hortons car.
Who's this young guy?
Now, it didn't take long before the Super Series took on a rulebook all of its own...soon the Fri nighters couldn't make the field any more for the big races. While still respectable the fields shrunk a bit. But the competitors were taking it seriously, dedicating themselves to it and boosting the credibility. A Westen Division was born, so now competitors from Calgary and BC were part of it, and the National Series had begun to develop as a sort of Canadian version of the Winston Cup.
The rest is history. A few years ago, Tony Novotny sold his series to the big one: NASCAR. And the Canadian Tire Super Series was born.
And here we are.
So, on Saturday night, you'll look down into the pits, and you'll see all kinds of really big haulers for really big NCTS teams. A few million dollar teams there with the best equipment out there, multiple cars, and every team member with a spiffy uniform. But look down at the other end of the pits too - the turn 3-4 end. There you'll see the Delaware Super Stock Division, regular weekly racers, some with small haulers, some on old fashioned open trailers - guys in jeans and t-shirts. And all the cars looking like something slightly faster and more Late-modelish than a Street Stock...
...Pretty much exactly what the first CASCAR Late Models were 24 years ago.
Thats the evolution of Cascar from its inception right up to the NCTS, all in the same pit area....right where it all started.
And I think that's pretty cool.
;D
Just to show how connections sometimes get made:
Gary Brooks once sent me this photo (bolded type is Gary's words)
This white car was owned by my dad and driven by Bob Mc cormick but don't know the year.
After seeing this photo, I went back to the old family photo album, where I have a couple of photos of my uncle Ray Eaton (Ford coupe #46) driving at Nilestown in 1969.
Here's one: 
and here's one more from the same race. - now go back to Gary's photo. The white bumper of the car in this photo is my uncle's 46, and he's following Gary's Dad's car.
Goes to show what a small world it can be.