A question from the Stock Car Past

[Liz]

The last race my Dad was in, so far as he can recall, was at a track in Pennsylvania with a name that began with "L". The race was featured on one of the magazine shows on Speed Channel once. There were 93 cars in the field, and during the race there was a huge crash and several fires, although no one was badly injured.

Can anyone recall what the name of this track was and what year this happened?

[ensign14]

Langhorne? A circular track that was positively lethal and in a typical American respect for the past now lies underneath a shopping centre?

[Liz]

That was the name! Thank you -- now I can look it up.

[Liz]

Well it can't have been the last race he ran, because it was in 1951. I know (because I was there) that he raced until 1956. But that race was famous for the "Sixty Second Wreck" and he has told me about it many times ... and there is NOTHING on the net about it.

[ensign14]

From Allan Brown's History of the American Speedway:

"Later that year [1951] the modifieds debut amid flames and wrecked cars on October 14. A ten car pileup just past the tunnel destroyed Wally Campbell's car and sent half a dozen drivers to hospitals. None were seriously injured. Hully Bunn [!] with relief from Dick Egan was declared the winner as the accident ended the race at 83 miles."

You may want to try trackforum.com in the Nostalgia page, just in case anyone remembers it, or the Racing History group on Yahoo!.

[flatlander_48]

Joe Scalzo has a book about American Dirt Track Racing (can't remember the specific title) and it contains a lot of material on Langhorne. It was dirt originally and USAC ran many races there in spite of the fact that almost no one liked the place. That continued after they paved it. There were many fatalities and serious injuries there. Very few lamented its demise...