I attended Flemington Speedway regularly from 1985 through their last race on dirt. And I would disagree with the comment that there was more non race fans than race fans that attended. There was a certain amount of people that were there just to party, but I know most of the people I encountered there were die-hard race fans. When they paved the track, a lot fans were upset and vowed to never attend a race there again. Including most of the friends I used to attend with. I went a total of 2 times after it was paved, leaving mid way through the 2nd race. Being from Pa I spent most of my time then traveling to Grandview, Big Diamond, and became more involved with attending Sprint car racing in Central Pa. I did go to Bridgeport often, and then New Egypt when they opened. I think the main reason people didn't filter to other tracks is because Flemington was the best!! The racing there was unique and exciting like no other Speedway in the area. I will always miss but remember the awesome racing, and great times spent with friends there.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

Thx for the insight!!

I grew up at Flemington and to this day I’ve never been to a racetrack like that. The Christmas lights going across the track and the foam blocks in the turns are my favorite things that I’ll never forget.

@JeffSterns

8 ай бұрын

Can't be duplicated

"All push trucks to the front straightaway, please..."

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Been there!!

My buddy, Crazy John and I, made a trip there in the summer of 1999. We were regulars at Wall Stadium, but we decided to check out Flemington. The International Super Modified Association was running there the night we went, and they set a record lap speed of 154 mph! The Super Modfieds ran their event, and then a single ISMA car ran to set the record. I remember one night how, after work, I visited the then closed Flemington Speedway. This would've been in 2004 or 2005; I'd moved up to the area in late 2004. I was able to get into the track area, and I walked a lap around it. During my walk, I thought of the racing I'd seen there a few short years ago with my buddy, Crazy John. When I got to the back stretch, I reminisced about John Blewett III's wreck that happened there. While walking my lap, there was a high performance motorcycle or car that passed by on Rt. 31. The way the sound echoed off the vacant, declining grandstand was eerie; it sounded as if someone were making a hot lap around the track! It was as if the ghosts of racing's past were calling to me... A few years later (after Crazy John and I went), I moved up to the Clinton, NJ area for work. I was let go by my old employer, but I soon got a new job in Flemington. My new commute took me by the old race track every day. During the spring and summer of 2007, I saw the slow, inexorable, and heartbreaking site of the track being dismantled and demolished. Bit by bit, the historic, Flemington Speedway disappeared! Now, thanks to that abomination, that mall called "Raritan Town Square", no one could tell there was ever a race track there.

@JeffSterns

10 ай бұрын

Great share thx

@markymarknj

10 ай бұрын

@@JeffSternsyou're welcome. It was a shame such a historic track fell to such an ignominious fate... :(

@JeffSterns

10 ай бұрын

@@markymarknj seems many feel that way!

@PeteHahn94

8 ай бұрын

The super modifieds were just plain insanity on Flemington, great memories.

@JeffSterns

8 ай бұрын

@@PeteHahn94 I love the memories from this sacred place!!

It was great to hear about Flemington again. A place that was my Saturday home for many years. I was one of those Pa fans that made the 1hr 30 minute trek every week. I am from the Reading Pa area so when Reading, Flemington and Penn National all closed, as difficult as it was, it was a blessing to me. It opened my eyes to other forms of dirt track and asphalt racing. 358 mod racing was never really an option when the big blocks were running somewhere. The racing at those 3 places was second to none. As a race fan who would want to go to Middletown to watch follow the leader racing. My Jersey friends went to Bridgeport or New Egypt. All the Pa fans went to Grandview or now became sprint car fans. I went to Grandview for years and Bruce Rogers, god rest his soul, would not know me from a baseball fan. To say the fans did not go anywhere else is not true. We now went everywhere!!!! I witnessed great racing at Mahoning Valley, Evergreen, Wall Stadium and even NHRA on the asphalt. It opened my eyes to the bullrings of micro and small block dirt racing. Flemington had a carnival atmosphere every single time they opened the gates. I am so thankful that I was there to witness it. The fun and great racing days are long gone.

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

That is a GREAT comment. Thanks for taking the time!

@raygronemann8555

Жыл бұрын

We did some heavy touring after Flemington closed. They were just not the same. But we had fun. To our great joy we saw the popcorn guy at New Egypt. We loved that guy. He would sit with us in the beer grandstand to take a break with us . Never knew his name we just called him popcorn

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

@@raygronemann8555 great memory. Thx!

it was the best track ever such a shame it is a shopping center now

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

Kirk sounds depressing!

Lots of good memories

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

I keep hearing that!

2:26 Was so lucky to grow up in flemington 70's 80's 90's

@JeffSterns

11 ай бұрын

From what I hear..I'm jealous!

Flemington was before my time but my dad tells me he used to go to Orange county the first time he went to Flemington for a try track series race he never left and Flemington was 45 minutes further than Orange county

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Sounds like we lost a national treasure!

Loved that track, should have kept it !

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Def!

My father took me and my brother in the late 60’s / early 70’s and we sat in the third turn. Those days set the hook. 30 years later my father still sat in the third turn, but then watched my brother win races during 88, 89 & 1990. Who would of thunk!

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Awesome comment. Thx!

Flemington was my first exposure to dirt Modified racing. I think Al Tasnady won that night in the 39 and man I was hooked.

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the comment

I grew up at that track with my grandpa from the time I was 7 to in my mid 20s...loved it...worst thing they ever did was pave that track that's what killed it....after it was paved we went to Bethlehem or stayed in Jersey and went to New Egypt...as far as not alot of race fans there I think is totally wrong..there where people we know dedicated to watch the races every weekend...heck we traveled 2hrs one way every weekend...many great memories I hold in my heart from that track...I will never forget Flemington Speedway...

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

I love the memories and feedback on this vid

Best dirt track ever. Hands down, bar none. Billy the Kid beats Sammy Beavers feature wins. Sammy came out of retirement to run the race. It was awesome. Doug Wolfgang said he could of gone faster if he could see around the corners. So many great memories.

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Thx for sharing this memory! 😍

@stevenworth6305

Жыл бұрын

Greatest place ever, I was 5 or 6 my first time there. My Dad and Uncle brought me until I could drive then it was me and my friends. We were regular Windsor fans as well. After it was paved my father and took our vintage modified there with the Garden State Vintage club. That was fantastic because I actually got to drive on it. So many fun days. I've seen too many wonderful tracks close.

Paul Kuhl added an interior gate in the front parking around the late 80's because people were hopping the fence by the Hunterdon County Democrat side or the back fence area for years. I agree with you about the demographic of spectators but a good portion were very loyal attendees as well that were there to support their driver. Many drunks fighting in the stands though. Under the grandstands there would be hundreds and hundreds of beer cans. I've never seen another track that had so many fan clubs set up behind the grandstands every week. At it's peak the stands were packed constantly. Being there was a bit indescribable, you had to have gone and any video that we are fortunate to have on KZread doesn't come close to being their live. The mystique of that place was multi-facet. The weekly drivers like Pauch, Brenn and Ploski were so good that invaders from other tracks, as good as they were at their own track, struggled unless they figured the track out somehow. In the 80's Pauch was the man and many NY and PA drivers went home with their pockets light. You are correct that it all changed in '91 when it was paved. It lost it's soul and even though the racing was fast, Flemington was best on dirt. I miss that place tremendously.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the great comment! I'll show it to Jim

@scottcoraci4327

9 ай бұрын

People also used to pack in the trunk or hide in the back of vans before that interior gate.

I remember back then in the early mid 90s, the south county police departments (Delaware, readington, I think west Amwell PD) would bring there police cars to the track around 2-3 in the morning and race eachother to see who has the fastest police car.

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Now that's cool

Went to Flemington many times , we would walk out of there looking like we came out of a coal mine ! Filthy dirty ! I remember this like it was yesterday Crazy Harry Benjimen in a cut down sprint car to be a midget, heat race , track was moist and Harry started last in this heat , we were sitting in turn 1 , took the green and he went to the outside in the marble cushion , sprayed everyone with dirt and had the lead out of 2 ! Harry seemed to either win or crash !

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Great memory! Thank you!!

I was at the last dirt race, never went once it was paved.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

Sounds like the sentiment

@markceaser8073

Жыл бұрын

My last visit was the 100 lap small block and 25 lap sprint. Pauch was flying in the 126, and nearly reeled in Hearn in the 76.

I knew people that go there when gates opened, tailgate drinking all afternoon and all through the race.

@JeffSterns

9 ай бұрын

were the legends true?

They ran a super sportsman ? Race there, Winged Modified? I remember Bill Pauch amazing track!

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for commenting!

We Pretty much stopped racing after flemington. We actually stopped racing our enduro a couple years before it closed. Good times, the whole family came, oh man, the things that tie.

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Love this place's stories

You are so rite sir. That’s where my racing addiction began.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

I hear a lot of this!

Yes it was a square, but to drive it, you had to treat it like it was a football shape, not a square or a circle. The first corner was tight, but four was the dangerous because three was wide so you came in with a ton of speed to four.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for the comment!

We raced on both dirt and asphalt the racing was just as good.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

He speaks from first-hand experience!

Spent many Saturday nights there in the dirt and paved configurations. Even had the opportunity to crew a asphalt modified there through the race of champion events. Wonderful experiences of days gone by.

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Thx for telling us!

I live 2 mi away from the speedway in the 70s Billy pauch Gary Butler Mario Andretti Stan Pulaski Phil cox the way turn one and two funnel down was wicked

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the memory!!

I think this guy is a little off. I also went to East Windsor at the same time. I ran across many folks I seen at Flemington at many of the local tracks.

@JeffSterns

Күн бұрын

Could be absolutely right ?

Andy Belmont on his roof

@JeffSterns

Жыл бұрын

Amazing

The other guy (not the older guy) looks like a orange alligator.

@JeffSterns

2 жыл бұрын

life in FLA