G2 Radios presents The Waterford Speedbowl Message Board

Stumbled upon this thread while searching for more about the Plainville Stadium, I'm on page 135 right now, been liookin through it for the past week. AWESOME photos, and a few from the 'Bowl back in the 60's and 70's! I had no idea the flat used to be all dirt!
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/show ... p?t=174989

My grand father told me about the dirt but god dang I did not know it was that big of a mess. He said he raced once or twice. He also said he was a car owner for some time. I'll get more info this Sunday when I see him. I'm sure since we are all talking about the past in this topic it would be fun to hear a few words from my 78 (I think I'm close) year old grand father lol.

http://www.racingthroughtime.com/images ... 5B1%5D.jpg

http://www.racingthroughtime.com/ARCHIV ... -21-09.htm

Matt, thanks for the link, good stuff. I just dont have time at work to check it out. Def worth looking at once I get home.

Yeah, that thread is awesome! Came across it a month or so ago, but it's like 150+ pages long, so I stop in the mid-60 pages or something, but there's definitely cool stuff. It's basically everything you could have already found on the internet, just condensed into one thread.

And if you're talking about the bowl's pre-asphalt surface - that was only for 3 weeks in 1951. According to original track operator Don Benvenuti, who we interviewed last week for our documentary, they bought the crushed stone mix in New Haven and hauled it up to Waterford for the original track design, but the surface caused so much dust and debris during green flag segments of the races that they had to make some changes. They closed the track for a few weeks and paved the track surface all but the highest groove near the wall (or what Don called the "bulkhead") like shown in the first RTT picture link Paul listed. Not sure exactly when the track was paved up to the wall, but I'm guessing it was when Tattersall took over in the mid-70's.

On the documentary front - we'll be interviewing Gail Winter next weekend. She's the daughter of Tony Albino, who was part of the original BOD of the Speedbowl with the Benvenuti family and a few others. Gayle actually had a mint condition picture of the track before it opened with the dirt surface. Awesome pic of the facility in perfect condition and ready to open for business for the first time. She also had the first dollar bill they ever recieved which was framed and used to hang in the track office - or what is now the back room of the main gate ticket booth. We're definitely getting some cool stuff and great stories as we proceed.

Even better, I also spoke with John Brouwer Jr and he and his father have also agreed to do an interview. For those who don't know, John Sr was the first real historian the track ever had and his book covers the track operations in detail until 1973. John Sr's father Jack bought into the track to join the Benvenuti and Albino families before they collectively sold the place to Harvey Tattersall in the mid-70's.

We also have the family of Tattersall lined up as well, so things are going pretty good on our historical documentary project. If anyone has any information or contact info from some of the Speedbowl's supporters of years ago (drivers, employees, etc) definitely shoot me an email - sid@jeff-pearl.com

Sid, I started going in 1969 and the 'bulkhead' was paved by then. Bob Potter would be a good interview. He started there back in the '60s runnin bombers and could probably fill in some blanks.

Wow, way cool link. It will take a while to wade through that one. Thanks.

Yup, Potter's on our list. We already have his contact info and he knows of our project, just need to give him a shout and set something up. Same status currently goes for Phil Rondeau, Tom Fox, Ed Moody, Jerry Pearl, the Gada family and possibly Kobyluck, Harry Rice, Ron Bouchard, the Bunnell family and a few others down the road. Will talk with Billy Harman and Ronnie Wycoff at the track during the year and many others as we keep going....

Things are talking shape pretty well - if Benvenuti's interview was any indication, the stories will just keep getting better from these guys...

Awesome!

Sid, I think it is a great thing for the racing community that someone is taking the time and effort to do this. I know it must be a labor of love because there is so much work involved. Just to do the vault was a very big undertaking.

Thanks man!! The Vault website was always the back-bone to bigger ideas, just didn't know what those ideas would be exactly at the time we started in 2005 with the stats. I always felt in order to preserve the history in different ways, ya had to define what the hell happened first, so the Vault Almanac is really the base for everything else I've done since - Vault Record Book, Vault Report program, and now the documentary...

I'm really excited about meeting up with Brouwer. Oddly enough, I've known Jr for years, but have never met John Sr in person - he knows more than anyone the pain-staking research that goes into this kinda stuff, so it'll be cool to compare notes and listen to him tell us about the old days.... I'll keep everyone posted as we make more progress with the project...

And yes, it's a labor of love for sure! Sometimes I'm equal parts motivated and exhausted - if that even makes any sense, but we still believe it'll all be worth it when we're done!

That site brings back memories of my youth spent on Sat. nites @ the Bowl. I can still remember many of the cars/drivers pictured. Steve S. is right as I remember the track being paved all the way to the "fence" in '67 when my Dad won the Daredevil season championship. Those were some great times and hopefully more good times in the coming year when we debut my son's SK this season @ the "Beloved Bowl".

I wanna become a 'Bowl legend, haha.