Indefatigable Crosley fan John McKnight sent me a link to this recently-posted footage of indoor all-Crosley stock car racing from the fifties. It is NUTS.
The footage was shot by a racing fan named Jack Bills, and is posted on the History Mystery Man channel on Youtube. Bills says he filmed these races circa 1951 at the Louisville Armory, where a tiny track was used for racing during the Winter when it was too cold to watch outdoor racing. If this really is from '50 or '51, these cars would have been five years old at most!
The History Mystery Man offers some background on Powel Crosley and the Crosley Corporation for a few minutes, then we get to the action, narrated by Bills, at about the 9:30 mark.
The racing is fast and furious - so much so that I wonder if the footage is sped up at all. Those cars are moving! The cars suffer a ton of abuse (there is at least one rollover) but you can tell the drivers are having a ball. There is even a Crosley tow truck to pull dead cars off the track.
I've seen still photos of Crosley stock car races, but the film really gives you a sense of how crazy it must have been to watch. Kudos to Jack Bills and the History Mystery man for sharing!
1 comment:
Don’t know why it took me so long to watch this. That’s NUTS! (And fun as heck!) I competed in a “Faster Pastor” race last year on an 1/8 mile circuit. It looked and felt fast, but wasn’t fast enough to be really dangerous. And because we were driving clunkers, we could do a little paint swapping. (Didn’t hurt that most of us were amateurs who were surprised by the drift. 🤣) That guy who popped his hood to work on the car *on the track* though - that was dumb. Thanks for sharing, Tim!
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