Posted by George
on 4/15/2006, 12:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Your opinions on Freeport Stadium"
64.12.116.202
Ok Chuck,your response is very informative and you saw alot of things a competitor or fan didn't see.I saw things at Weissglass Stadium here that I didn't like also.As you mentioned,cutting a race short because Bruno was about to pass a local favorite that the promoter would rather see win. I just got upset with you bashing Duke Donaldson.You have to admit,in it's heyday,Freeport was a mecca of racing and the drivers made very good money. Bruno told me he won races that paid more than it cost to build the car.An outsider like myself thought Duke did a good job promoting the races and creating new,very different divisions there.I think that there was some driver resentment that he made too much money. I particularly liked the street tire rule in 1968. I ran there in 1971. My car was a red,white and blue 32 Plymouth #100+. Weissglass didn't open until June that year so I was at Freeport for the Sunday afternoon opener and a few times after that until Weissglass opened.I was able to barely make the main in my heat race every time (seven Cars qualified) but my car was underpowered.When I put the 12 inch slicks on at Weissglass I felt like Superman compared to the street tires. Your right,I should not have gotten as carried away as I did. Our post high school years were very different. You went to college,I got a two year all expenses paid tour in the US Army,a year of that in Viet Nam. That kept me from racing until I was 22. George..
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: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.
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