Williams Grove history round table at EMMR

[RT88]

This coming Sunday, April 21, at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing, there will be round table discussion on the early history of Williams Grove Speedway. How the speedway came to life and survived the early years, including the government shutdown during World War II, will be discussed.

The round table will be from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. upstairs at the museum. This is part of a program to have round tables on various racing history.

From who orginally owned the land at Williams Grove, to Roy Richwine and the early life of the track will be open for discussion. Stop by EMMR, walk through the museum and be a part of the track's history.

Steve Bubb

[SLINKMASTERC]

I might have to go listen in. Thanks for the info.

[GOSHOW]

Thanks for the info Steve.

[Esh Fan]

What a great time that was! Thanks to Steve Bubb and Lynn Paxton and others for taking the time to organize and put on the round table discussion. I certainly learned a lot and enjoyed hearing the stories. I felt privileged to be there. Please do more of them!

[RT88]

Thanks to everyone that attended the round table. That was a lot of fun and I learned some new information. It was great to have two people there that actually went to the first race in 1939.

I did not know about why the track had the odd paper clip shape until Lynn Paxton explained about Roy Richwine did not want the peach orchard disturbed so they squeezed the track in the area between (awful sentence but it gets the point across).

For those not there at the round table, the track construction work was done by Hempt Brothers. They built the track in two weeks working two shifts. The track had 100,000 watt lights designed so they could be turned around to light up infield football, baseball, and polo games. The front stretch was 75 feet wide and the turns were 80 feet wide with eight degree banking. Ottis Stine was the first racecar on the track. They brought him in to test the new speedway.

A very big thank you goes out to the gentlemen that gave me the booklet on Landisville Speedway. Wow, there is some great information in there. I loved the part about the Lancaster Airport Speedway and how the speedway officials were in an airplane hovering above the speedway. Steve Bubb