Posted by chuck sparnecht on 4/15/2006, 10:14 am, in reply to "Your opinions on Freeport Stadium" I'm glad to have read your opinion. However, your personal attack on me is juvenile and unwarranted. My family was working class. As a part time job, my Dad worked at Freeport Stadium signing people into the pits for many years. If you really raced there and remember Herb Sparnecht at the back gate that was my father. The fact that my family and I worked hard enough to allow me to go to college so that now I have two masters degrees and teach United States history at a college does not make me "holier-than-thou" just luckier than most. I worked on the pit crew of George Brunnhoelzl's modified from the time I was 12 until the driver's strike drove him and the others to Islip - where they had success. I had to stay at Freeport because that's where my family would be. I spent time at Complete Auto Body helping out as much as I could while trying to learn something about race cars. My childhood friends were George Brunnhoelzl and Ed Brunnhoelzl Jr. I bought my first car from Ed Sr. and my second one from Joe Baccari and Caspar Buttafouco. Do I qualify in your eyes yet to have an opinion without your being demeaning about it? My opinion about Duke Donaldson was formed by watching him in action over many years. I attended races at Freeport three nights a week from early childhood until I married and moved upstate. For several years after the best of Freeport's cars and drivers went to other tracks, I worked there doing everything from running lineups to the pressbox from the back booth at the back gate to being a scorer. I saw Donaldson insult people, cut races short for his convenience by cutting the laps short, make questionable decisions, etc., etc., etc. One of the reasons for the driver's strike was the belief by many of the driver's and owners that he was "undercounting" the box office so the 40% they were getting was a share of a smaller amount than it should have been. (I have no opinion about the truth of the charge - I just know that's what some people thought) The races at Freeport were very successful for a very long time thanks to Jake Kedenburg and his wife Billie - not IN MY OPINION - because of Duke Donaldson. His expertise in getting cars into the Indy 500 was in signing a check - he was a financial backer not an engineer or mechanic - in fact he didn't even go to watch the 500. I worked at the track until 1971, so if you raced there, I wrote the number of your car down when I was a scorer - I'd love to read a description of the car so I can remember you. I also can't wait to hear your response to my email - hope you don't have to resort to the put-down again. I am proud of what I have accomplished in my life - not holier than thou or anyone else. But I also don't intend to apologize for it. Chuck Sparnecht --Previous Message--
24.169.125.12
George,
: Chuck, you opinions on Duke Donaldson
: and Freeport Stadium are typical of
: the "holier than thow"
: opinions that I have experienced in
: my lifetime from from "school
: teachers" like yourself who
: never built a car, never drove a
: car, never promoted a succesfull
: race track for many years, paid
: outrageous money to it's drivers,(40
: percent of the gate) owned an
: Indianapolis roadster that qualified
: for the race one year,and turned a
: drivers strike, ( a demand from the
: drivers tracks top division in to a
: shut out, "I don't need
: you" to finish out the 1967
: season, (they realized the had no
: place to go with their topless
: cars)..they even came to Staten
: Island to race for a $100 to win and
: got chased away. Duke Donaldson was
: a great promoter and suffered the
: fate of many northeast speedways in
: the mid sixties. Drivers strikes
: where prevalent in 1966 and 1967 and
: were the demise of several
: speedways. Promter Gabe Rispoli
: moved up the Class B division when
: the top division pulled out and was
: able to operate his track with those
: cars and drivers. Duke Donaldson
: was smart enough to revise the rules
: and brought back the modifieds to
: Freeport in 1968 with 7 inch maximum
: width street tires ,390 C.I. limit
: which resulted record car counts and
: good crowds. I know, I ran my 32
: Plymouth there on street tires and
: loved it.
:
: --Previous Message--
: :
:
:Freeport stadium tried to build up
: interest in their lagging
: "modified six" fields by
: having the roofs cut off of the cars
: and calling them open cockpit
: modifieds. One of the promoters at
: the time was Duke Donaldson who had
: part ownership in some Indianapolis
: cars and was an open cockpit
: enthusiast. (as well as being one
: of the most egotistical and worst
: stock car promoters ever!) Anyway
: Mickey Corr cut the roof off his car
: but left it so that it could be
: bolted back on when he wanted to
: race elsewhere. For a couple of
: summers he and his wife Fran would
: go own vacation with their racecar
: and he would race other places.
: Before this orange number 40, Mickey
: owned a non-ford number 140 and a
: modified number 1401/2 that were
: driven by Bob Lamoreaux. Hope this
: helps some. It took the Campi's with
: all of their money to finally ruin
: the track. I said to Don Campi to
: his face one night at New Egypt
: Speedway when he asked me what I
: thought of the Improvementa that he
: had made to the new Freeport
: Speedway, and I said to
: him,"You destroyed for the
: backyard racer". He walked
: away. I now you have many fond
: memories of Freeport,but you can't
: make negative comments about a man
: like Duke Donaldson, who made alot
: money and flaunted it, but did a
: much better job at running a race
: track than the Campi's did with all
: of their money.Keep building your
: models,that's as close as you will
: ever get.
:
:
:
:
