NASCAR's Oddest Track: Trenton Speedway
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
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Trenton Speedway has a long history in auto racing, and an interesting one in the world of NASCAR. But the track is one of the most unique that’s ever been run in NASCAR. Unfortunately, One new track came to the area, and stole the NASCAR touring series the track worked hard to obtain. Then, a controversy led to the track closing and being demolished in 1980. This is NASCAR’s Oddest track, Trenton Speedway.
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I do not own any of the footage in this video, all credit goes to the respective owners: NASCAR, NASCAR Media Group, Fox, NBC, NBC Sports, ESPN.
Qualifying for that 1973 NASCAR Cup Series race actually did take place with Bobby Allison winning the pole. However, with the race ultimately being cancelled he was not credited with the pole win in NASCAR's record books as the race never took place.
We need this layout again. There's nothing wrong with an occasional right turn.
My uncle Dick Linder died there in 1959. There is a video on UA-cam for "Dick Linder fatal crash" He was getting ready to race the Indy 500.
Worth mentioning that the 1958 Northern 500 was the first 500 mile race held anywhere other than Darlington.
As a young boy I lived a half mile form the speedway (as the crow flies)and watched most races form the backstretch where we propped pieces of lumber against the fence to view cars racing by. At one race Troy Ruttman barrel rolled his Indy roadster which came to a stop in front of us. Many jumped down but I had to watch. He was ok. There were many races that I watched the next Saturday on Wide World of Sports. The modified sportsman races were my favorites. Rene Charland is the only winner I remember but Bobby Allison was in a ‘57 Chevy an a local driver in a ‘53 studebaker that I remember most. Getting autographs from drivers after the races was was the highlight.
A friend and neighbor invited Indy car driver Mike Moseley and crew home for a spaghetti dinner and they accepted. Imagine that today! The car was parked in front of his house on a trailer! No hauler back then. His mother was a saint.
Yeah, it was long time ago but those were the days.
Great story !
I've got some photos that my uncle took from the infield in 1963. They show all the people standing on the scaffolds and looking over the fence. There is another photo of a tree in the fairgrounds outside turn 2. There looks to be 20 people on various limbs. I went there with my dad every year from 1975-1980.
@@HODIUSDUDE Thanks! I’d forgotten about that tree with people in it. It was watching a WWoS broadcast where I first saw it as cars raced by.
Thanks for sharing that story and taking me back to a better time. Good stuff.
I’m a big fan of Trenton!
But this track was mainly known as an IndyCar track, well any racing series. I wish there were NASCAR broadcasts of Trenton races. I’m happy for fan footages of the races, but there’s like no NASCAR broadcasts of any Trenton races like IndyCar has.
But I love Trenton so much! It’s the most unique oval track, in my opinion. Too bad it’s been gone for 4 decades.
Interesting that Trenton & Langhorne Speedway were 10 miles from one another
NFJJ, This is awesome! I subscribed because I want to see more!
The timing of this video is kinda funny, just last week I was talking with Mr Andretti and I asked him about some of the oddest tracks that he raced at, he immediately named this one but said that as odd as that backstretch turn was it was a blast to drive over a conventional oval because of how you had to setup the car. Really good video!
I remember driving in the New Jersey area years ago. Radio guy was mocking race fans for "watching people drive in a circle". And segued to an ad for..horse racing. So watching people ride animals in a circle is good. Watching people drive in a circle is bad. Right.
This track is part of a dark moment in USAC's history....though speaking of odd tracks.
We have had at least two genuine circles (Langhorne and Louisville), rectangles (Indy and Ontario and Homestead in 1996), ovals (too many to list), triangles (pocono) and a square (Flemington)
Now we need someone to build tracks for the other missing shapes. Dodecahedron or octagonal track anyone?T
Does a Pentagon work?
Henry's was a perfect circle I've been told
The track in my backyard...almost literally. I went to some amazing races from 1958-1976 when I moved away from the area.
Wasn't this also the 'home track' of Chris Economacki?
@@ronfox5519 Yes it was... we was a regular announcer (in addition to Bill Singer)...and his famous newspaper.... National Speed Sport News...was a few miles away down on S. Board St Trenton. Used to go there and get "old issues"... I was too cheap as a kid to have a 25c for a paper back in the day
@theophilhist6455
Lol. You'd fit right in around here. My uncle had a subscription and would pass them on to my dad and then they went to me. Dad and Uncle passed real close to the same time, so mom got me a 2yr subscription and I would give them on the the neighbor, who would swap me the local newspaper.
I just had this thought last night - a track with a slight right corner on the straight making the big corners more of a carousel. It would be interesting to see how teams adapt.
I actually went to NASCAR races there at both configurations. Although I was young, I do have memories of them. Especially after the races they would open gates so spectators could go in the pits. Met a lot of drivers then.
Just saying, NASCAR: if you're still not sure of what to do with Auto Club...
A 1 mile version of kidney bean track would be cool.
In the uk we had our own version … brooklands! It was the circuit that inspired Indy ! and along with monza one off the oldest tracks in the world! … however only about half the track exists today … originally a bit lost due to the 2nd world war meaning the aircraft factory on site had to increase production and then post war an housing block/ a supermarket/ and a public road have all cut sections out off the old great track …in now host an real Concorde plane and motorsport memorabilia 👍 just a shame like monza’s banked oval
Was never updated 🥲
Yes that black and white photo of the two covered grandstands is from Trenton.
0:55 mistake *1984*
bro skipped 104 years
Bros suddenly scared of getting exposed for plagiarism imagine blowing the whistle on yourself
I saw a few of the Modified Race of champion races there. Great memories camping behind the main grandstand! Coming from Riverhead NY, it was so cool to see the Modifieds stretch there legs on a "super" speedway!
As a NASCAR fan, I drove to work on Sculptors Way for 4 1/2 yrs & never knew what a historic place I was passing by.
I attended races & concerts there.
Home of the New Jersey State Fair from 1888 to 1981
George Hamid Sr. ,who owned the fairgrounds, was from a family of immigrants that performed regularly at the fairgrounds when he was just a boy. He purchased the fairgrounds after he became very wealthy in the steel business. That's why the walls in turn 1&2 were made of recycled Marsden Mat from WWII. He also built the Steel Pier in Atlantic City.
They need to bring tracks back like this...too many damn cookie cutter tracks, make it unique. I always thought it would be neat to make the "dog leg" go inside of the track instead of outside, would give the track character and make for something different.
Stafford Speedway in Connecticut started out as a hoerse racing track in the beginning the track was originally dirt fir a long time but I believe it was paved around 1969/1970.
Trenton was such a cool track. Tommy Thompson died from a crash there in 1978. I didn’t know Nascar ran there. I just knew that Indy, USAC, & Formula Vee ran there (the latter being what Tommy was racing in when he crashed horribly in the last lap in ‘78)
I remember for awhile CBS Sports Spectacular had a clip from here in it's opening. It was from a race i watched. A.J. Foyt was trying to lap a slower car during an Indy race while leading and slid high hitting the wall. Caused him to drop out. In typical A.J. fashion he was PISSED.
This track is fun on NR2003, lol.
I have it downloaded for NASCAR Legends.
Though the GN63s do seem to have a tendency to cause a wreck at Trenton.
And that's after I resolve the grip issue of the mod.
0:56 - probably 1894, not 1984
I grew up only blocks away from this track. I remember it well
Wish we had more odd shaped tracks on the nascar schedule.
“Is it a road course or an oval track?” “Yes.”
Reminds me off Brooklands in England
I recall the Summer of 1969 when ABC-TV Wide World of Sports televised portions of the USAC Champ Car [aka Indy Car] race there. The race had been rescheduled from earlier in the year due to rain.
Mario Andretti ran away from the field at the start, gearing his car for top-end straightaway speed reaching nearly 200 mph, while other competitors geared their cars for better acceleration with the dogleg turn.
But not far into the race, Andretti made an unscheduled pit stop for a tire replacement, putting him well back in the field.
Ever the talented competitor, Andretti fought his way back through the field, taking the lead with a handful laps left, and won the race. That victory put a lock for Andretti being crowned the USAC Champ Car Champion for 1969.
The TV race announcers expressed concerns that due to Andretti's early pitstop, and not stopping midway in the race for refueling, that he may run out of fuel with a few laps left in the race.
Written account of the race from _Auto Week_ newspaper said that the slowness of the tire replacement pitstop allowed the fueling crew to top-off the fuel tank in Andretti's Brawner-Hawk Ford, which gave the car an extra gallon or two, and that made the difference between winning or losing the race.
1884 dude…
NFJJ, Yay! I liked this video so much, it made me smile!
How does turn four come before turn three? Just curious about that one.
I love tracks with quirky layouts like this. It's the same reason why I have a soft spot for Phoenix and Pocono.
Any other NR2003 fans here that looked at the areal shot and thought "Hey that's Ft Wayne Superspeedway!" ??
I disagree. Langhorne, PA was NASCAR's Oddest Track IMO. Circular one mile dirt track. Lots of wrecks and mechanical failures. Perhaps the most dangerous, too.
Going to my first race there in the 60's the sign that was hung as you entered into the spectator area announced proudly claiming "Welcome to Trenton speedway the INDY of the East." I believe the Mercer car company used Trenton as a test track also. Went to many races there until 1980. Roger Penske almost saved Trenton but couldn't get a favorable deal from the State.
Any races ever take place clockwise on ovals over the years?
I've been following motorsports in the US [off and on] since the late 1960s and I cannot once ever recall a race in the US that ran clockwise on ovals.
Even the oval-track event of 'Race of Two Worlds' held at Monza in the 1950s ran counter-clockwise [aka left turn corners].
The left-turn aspect of motorsports in the US even had a joking reference to it in 1967. It was when an Indy Car road race was held at the Riverside International Raceway [California], whereupon the print magazine article reported on that race with the title of: "The Day Indy Turned Right."
Actually, it was the second Indy Car road race ever held, the first one being at the Indianapolis Raceway Park [not to be confused with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway] in 1965, which Mario Andretti won with his car using a two-speed transmission.
Great post so many thanks. Although i love a unique lay-out in a track the modern speeds make certain dog-legs, chicanes & bends wide enough for 1 vehicle at a time which results in slower speeds & more "pig-headed" crashes! If constructed correctly a race can certainly gain by an odd bend, Cheers fella! uk
I saw Indy Cars here in the 60's, and the Allman Brothers in 1973. Now it's a sculpture garden.
I think a new track like this would be pretty cool, especially for the newest version of the cup cars. I also think a "bent in half oval" shape, with 2 turns like Martinsville, a turn more like Bristol but turning right, and then a single high speed turn linking the Martinsville turns again, closer in size to the larger turn at Darlington, with straightaway sizes to match, would be pretty cool, and would allow for a larger track in a smaller area.
In the diagram, why does turn 4 come before turn 3?
There's a whole history of the USAC stock cars at Trenton that you missed
This is a track layout I would love to see come to iRacing
Thats Harry Gant in the #77 '69 Chevelle (Late Model Sportsman) and i think that is Butch Lindley in the #16?? And Ray Hendrick outside of Harry.....pretty sure anyways.
I use to ride my dirt bike on that track and down in the pit next to the two lakes which later was made into one huge lake.
On race days We would hear the cars ripping (loud as hell) around the track from our house on Connecticut Ave You could hear the announcer clear as day. All the big drivers names from the 70s
Also that was the fairgrounds. The state fair was held there every year. The allman brothers, Aerosmith, Molly hatchet etc…. Played there. Good times!!!!
1980 gone too soon. It was a great local area attraction!!!!
Aerosmith was spray painted on the exit of turn 2 on the track. Spent many weekends there watching the Indy Cars!
We lived in Hamilton and I remember my mother taking me there in the 70s.. I mighta been 6 or 7 years old at the time. What a cool thing to see as a kid.
yoo trenton
Great vid!!!! 👍🏁👍
Exactly the kind of thing Nascar needs today
The track didn't close because they had rainouts. All tracks do.
I never understood why they went ahead with this design. I feel like it was a novelty act. At first, it got people interested, but after a few years, they saw how silly it was.
You weren’t there then.
Dude the mile and a half version is so cool I'd love to race on it in something like nr2003
I love these videos about former tracks with unusual configurations. Great video, man.
If rain played a part in it they would of left pocono already 😂
Hold on this just the fantasy track id drive my diecasts when I was 8
Got to see two Modified Races. Really enjoyed it.
I think track would been fun in video games
On the thumbnail, this track looks very odd, right.
2:12 There is a newer Indycar game David Land played over on his channel. Best I can remember, that was what the grandstand looked like in game.
6:17 does he get airborne?
Never thought I’d see much about this spot near me
Looks awesome to me
Need to do this again.
I LOVE THE BEAN
3rd
first
NASCAR drivers: Dear lord! There's a right hand turn! What do I do?!?!
it has a right turn!! so many nascar people have heads being blown!!! nascar needs a couple othe these ovals with a right turn
6:14 I’m confused with “4 times in ChampCar and twice in Cart” did you mean Indycar for one of those? If someone can explain that for me I’m more than happy to hear
Champ Car is Indycar, but it was called Champ Car back then when Champ/Indy and CART first split.
It's a shame Trenton lost it's date to Pocono since Pocono consistently gives us some of the most boring racing in NASCAR.