Lakeland International Raceway

[ourwayband]

Well I've gotten back into the Auto World drag strips..Just can't leave this stuff alone.. ;)
This is a simple shelf on the wall,but fun.I've just started with some simple details.Lakeland International Raceway was a track that was this side of Memphis.Run in the 50's,60's and 70's.All of the big boys ran there plus many locals.I didn't even know it existed until a few years ago.If you've every seen the movie Two lane Blacktop,you have seen this track.That is were they had the big drag race..It has now all been bulldozed to make room for progress....You may want to check out this guys site on the track.http://www.lakelandraceway.com/
I'm planning on building the tower and a few other things .We may go with slotcardragon in the future..
Rusty

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I ran at Lakeland, along with all my guys that drove around terrorizing Memphis in the late 60s. For a while, there were so many locals running in the stock classes, they delayed starting to give people time to get there from church on Sunday. The owner of the Lakeland complex went to my church, and his son was one of us automotive delinquents. Jimmy's dad never really knew any of us, but he always sought us out to say hello or wave from where ever he was. He sold the drag strip (by the way, that was the strangest return road you can imagine) which was on the other side of the expressway from the rest of the Lakeland complex (swimming , a beach, an amusement park, a pavillion, etc.), and it hosted lots of famous folks before the damned malls and discount crapola places closed in on that side of the expressway.

[ourwayband]

that is way Cool!!What did you race?Do you have any pictures?

Rusty

[nhdungeonracer]

That is a cool setup.

I know what Santa should bring you :)

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I ran a 1966 Dodge Coronet 500 (383), later a 1970 Impala (350- yes, and got a bunch of tin cups for it), and finally a 1965 Mustang 289, which looked and sounded great and never won. In the end, the old Dodge was the most fun.

I had a few pictures, but when we moved to Texas, the movers left that box out in the sun all day and melded them into a solid block.

A few years back, there was a post on HRW about the history of Lakeland that was so good I had the blues for days. It had an aerial shot that showed the return road that looked like a snake.

[ourwayband]

hey thanks nhdungeonracer!
waaytoomuchintothis if you check out the link I posted you may see that same shot.
Thanks
Rusty

[waaytoomuchintothis]

Yep. that's the one. It may be the same site, too, just rearranged since I saw it. If they ever do a reunion weekend for the old fart locals like me, watch for a guy with a copper bronze 1968 Barracuda SE 340. The most amazing street legal car I ever saw. I know Bobby still owns it. If he's alive, it runs.

[dge467]

That looks great! Good idea having it mounted like that. How many feet for a scale 1/4 mile?

[ourwayband]

well I may be wrong but I think around 20 feet??
I just used what space I had.It is fun to watch the cars really change down the long shoot!

rusty

[TGM2054]

[ourwayband]

Nice drag strip there TGM2054!!
Checked out some of your pictures,nice too..
How are you liking the slotdragon set up?
Rusty

[Jesla]

Every time I see 'Two Lane Blacktop' always try to find my Dad, brother and myself.....

Saw Roger McCluskey win one of the USAC races there one year.

[ourwayband]

That is cool how many folks here have been to the old drag strip back in the day!!
really enjoy hearing the stories!
Here on our little strip we race just about any thing.. :auto-layrubber:
the cool thing about the top fuel and the Semi trucks are the two pins.Just reverse the power supply plug and you can race back to the light...
Remember the stompers?

How about some smokin' semis?

How fast can those dump truck be???

[dge467]

Hey Rusty, the dump trucks remind me of when I used to race on Wednesday nights at New England Dragway. There was a couple of ten wheeler dump trucks one evening racing each other, ripping through the quarter in the mid 20 second range.

[oldstromguy]

hey dge467...

TGM2054 is right. It depends on what you call HO.
For me, it's 1/64 scale.
So a 1/4 mile is exactly 20' 7.5".
With the AW drag set, you can get this measurement by using 15 of the 15" sections, and 1 of the 9" sections.
The remaining few inches are made up by the start and finish sections from the drag set.

For a drag strip, if you don't have room for a full scale 1/4 mile, it's ok.
The racing is fun regardless of the track length.

dennis