millers falls race track

scott121476 · Moderator

millers falls race track

openwheelracer · Admin/Mod/Eyewitness

Pretty cool Scott. I Did some surfing and as you said some big names from "back in the day" turned laps there. Buddy Krebs, Don Rounds, and Booker T Jones among others races there.

scott121476 · Moderator

yes there was many names that raced there back in those days........... people that use to race westboro riverside etc etc....... heres what i got back from Dick Monahan......

I dropped by 3 or 4 years ago, and it looked much like the picture.
I'll bet that pic is at least that old.

I spent every summer Friday night there from '54 - '58. The Rhythm
Inn was a dive (strip joint) located where you can see a driveway off
the East end of the track (1st/2nd turns). The payoff was held in the
club, so a lot of it never left the property.

BTW, there's a new web site, www.local.live.com that has even closer
photos for some parts of the country (Miller's Falls included).

Dick Monahan

plus i got some years of operation for the track..........

According to Allan Brown's History of America's Speedways the track in
Millers Falls, Mass. was named Rhythm Inn Speedway and operated from May 1951-59
as a third mile dirt oval.

Marty Little

scott121476 · Moderator

ok guys, you will be excited at the details of this ghost track, the track is still there, although you will never know it being on the side of the road..... if you look at the aerial shot above, i parked in that spot on the right which could have been the parking lot of the old strip joint that was connected to the speedway<of turn 1?????> i think dick monahan could help us out with this, i only got to see the outer birm and tires that were stuck in the birms on the outside of the track, snow was the major element deflecting my view, going back to the aerial shot, if you see the trail going around in a oval, that is the lower grove because the track surface i beleave extended 30 feet outwards. in allen browns book it was listed as a 1/3rd, but i think its impossable, it looks like a tight 1/4...... once the snow clears this week i will take the 30 min trip back over there to take pictures and visit around town to find out more about the track<route 63 roadhouse?????>

scott121476 · Moderator

update from dick monahan......... the way you see the track, left corner is turn 3 and the right corner is turn 1.........

"The stands were between the track and the road, with the flagstand
right in the middle of the stands on the outside of the track. The
race cars entered at the West end of the track. We pitted in the
infield. I think most of the spectator parking was at the West end,
too. The gin mill was not connected to the track. It was a short
walk. There was a back room with its own little bar (probably a
function room?) where the payoff was made. The last time I stopped
by to look at it must have been longer ago than I was thinking,
because I remember still being able to see across the infield. Now,
it looks like it is filled with trees.

We always thought of the track as a 1/4. It was definitely shorter
than Keene, where we ran Thursday nights. (Keene was the Cheshire
Fairgrounds, actually in W.Swanzey). Keene was a 1/3, inside the old 1/2".

openwheelracer · Admin/Mod/Eyewitness

I just can't get over the fact you had a race track and a, "gentlemen's club" in such close proximity to one an another. What a concept, nothing we guys like better than fast cars and fast woman!

scott121476 · Moderator

hahahahaahhahaa

now you can also say that the track made a profit!!!!!!!! with the money not really leaving the place at all

scott

WhelenModifiedTour · WMT Moderator

Now now OWR. None of us serious "race chasers' would ever think of using a gentlemans club as a meeting point for our racing endeavors. I would never meet a former SK / BGN driver at a place like that just to go racing. Or would I LOL.

Scott that is some great history you are digging up there.

scott121476 · Moderator

as for the strip joint

in the layout link on top of the thread...... it would have been on the right hand side of the layout...... ive walked thru the woods and everything and theres no traces of it.... could have been torn down after the track closed.... when its nicer out i will take another look and walk thru the outskirts of the track its self..... since i only walked from the inner peices<oval and 10 feet from the birms and pit area> maybe theres something to see if i walk where the parking lot was<strip joint and race track used the same parkinglot>

scott