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They had big tires in the rear and smaller in the front. Each heat consisted of about 15 cars. The ones finishing say 7th and higher up to first, would race in the final comprised of about 20 cars. Those say 8th to last would race in the semi-final of about 30 cars, which followed the heats and preceded the final. This was the track we went to, but other tracks in the area like souther Wisconsin might have had fewer cars. The really interesting thing about these races was that the faster the car qualifies, the further back in the pack it had to start, so that first place qualifiers started last in the final.
These races took place in the summer time, and on warm dewy June July Saturday evenings we might be driving with all the windows open and one could hear the roar of the warm ups from miles away, as one drove the dirt lane into an adjoining field filled with parking parked cars.
Our first time, maybe four of us, myself, Dickie, Jimbo or Cristo and
Kendra say, never having been to a race before, we went through the entrance way, which was a gap in the center of the stands and turned left. We walked between the rows of stands filled with people and the track, where there was a cyclone fence about 10 feet tall. A race was in progress and the roar of the cars running without mufflers was deafening. The exhaust pipes ran straight out the side of the engines and in the night lights they flashed flames, roared, cracked and cackled. The smell of the gasoline and nitro additives of the exhaust, hung in the air in a light bluish cloud over the track.
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