Richard Holstad on the Fairground Racetrack

Richard Holstad has his own memories of the racetrack and passed them along.

Your memories of the races at the old fairground track …. Those were awesome times.

I recall sneaking in the south fairgrounds gate ….. crawling on our bellies up to the edge of the track …. at the southeast curve …. we would hide in the grass on our bellies …. where the cars would pass in front of us so close, the dirt would fly up and get in our hair, in our eyes and ears, and mouth and teeth … on every lap …. I can still smell the exhaust ….. the engine sounds were thunderous.

We were RIGHT THERE in the action ….. we never considered that if a car went wide and slid off the track on that curve we were RIGHT THERE in that action too ….. we would have been “H-I-S-T-O-R-Y” like the kid says in the Stand By Me movie clip. But they didn’t, and we weren’t, and the race track memories are SOLID GOLD in my mind.

Why did we make it this far and others didn’t?