Our generation has the internet, but our parents had some cool shit too:
Anyway, racing promoter Bill Schade, was well known at the time for hosting NASCAR races at Soldier Field until 1964. Working in conjunction with the United States Auto Club (USAC), he hatched a plan to bring drag racing inside through the winter months in the Windy City.
With USAC sanctioning the event, the first-ever indoor drag races took place on December 30, 1962. The “track” was a 440-foot stretch of the Amphitheater, with each lane being 60-feet wide and bordered by steel Armco guard rail. According to accounts from the event, several hundred cars showed up to race, finding the concrete slab floor “like racing on ice.”
Adding to the racers’ excitement was the 660-foot shutdown area that required them to exit the building, still at speed, through a set of roll-up truck doors. As you’ll see in photos from the event, not everyone made it unscathed. In the end, the event’s Top E.T. of 5.68 was hit by Richard Myracle, from Melrose Park, IL, driving a 1962 Plymouth. The Top Speed crown went home to Wheaton, IL, with Richard Stroening and his 1958 Pontiac.
A second event was held on January 5, 1964. The first event’s success drew top name local racers, such as Mr. Norm from Grand-Spaulding Dodge, and famed Pontiac racer, Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick. Despite the A-list turnout, it would be the last indoor drag race at the International Amphitheater. No solid explanation was ever given, but Bill Schade and his co-promoter of the Soldier Field stock car races, Carl Bledsoe, called it quits that same year.
it depends on how you sell it? you could theoretically trap the evil ozone depleting gases before they get into the atmosphere through some ventilation system.
if i ever won got into a crazy ammount of money i would build an indoor track like this in pittsburgh for year round racing. It would be so nice to have no rain outs or winter break.
Indoor racing is still around, we used to race at the Convention center until they made it into a shitty Casino or whatever. Now the closest place is Atlantic City in NJ, payout was pretty decent and the racing was fun, but when you crashed you wreaked a lot of cars. The coolest part was seeing and racing against some of the best drivers in the North East during the winter off season.
some sort of air recycling unit… like paint shops use. me personally i could give two shits but to appease the lefty treehuggers that threaten our hobby its an idea.
