Labor Day weekend to me brings back memories of camping at the NYS Fairgrounds over the weekend. Kind of a win-win for Mom and Dad. Dad got to go to the races and Mom got to walk the fair. I have fond memories of watching horses jumping over gates and free concerts at the Chevy Court. The butter sculpture and drinking chocolate milk. The climax to the weekend was the Modified race on the mile track.
As some of you may know, the last few years that Bob was alive he suffered from dementia. Sometimes when I begin to dig into the archives I never know if what I’m looking for is going to be exactly where it should be.
So, when I decided that I’d dig into a Labor Day Race, I figured I’d go way back to 1968. I began to read the article about the race and thought, this sounds interesting!
Dutch Hoag was the winner, but the day was marred by many wrecks. While being interviewed Hoag said, “The red flags were my toughest competitor today”. Hoag started on the front row and really didn’t have any competition. He would stretch out his lead each time prior to race stoppage. Five restarts would keep him on his toes for at least a few laps.
The 30 lap event would see Hoag collect $2000.00, which seems to me like a pretty decent take for 1968. Second place finisher was Lee Osborne, who took second place on lap 29 over third place finisher Gerry Chamberlain.
Now I’m ready to pull negatives from the archives! The log book says there are two file numbers. I slide out the drawer and start to look for the first negative number. It’s gone! Argh! This sounded like a gem! Where is it?
The second file is there and has some good stuff. I dig around a bit more and find a Spencer Speedway file from 1966 mixed in where it doesn’t belong! No sign of the one I’m looking for yet. Well, it will be a nice surprise when I finally find it!
