Board track racing

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Official starter Barney Oldfield beside racer Ralph Hepburn at Fulford-Miami Speedway board track on February 22 1926, courtesy of the Florida Photographic Collection

Board track racing was a type of racing where the track had a surface of wood boards. The genre was popular in the United States in the early 20th century.

History

The first board track opened at the Los Angeles Coliseum Motordome near Playa del Rey, California on April 8 1910. The track used the same technology as the French velodromes used for bicycle races. The tracks were created with 2x4 boards. Tracks were banked up to 45 degrees. Around a half dozen tracks up to two miles long had opened by 1915. By 1931 there were 24 operating board tracks, including tracks in Beverly Hills, California, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Brooklyn, New York. The board tracks popped up because of the ease to construct a track and the low cost of lumber. Cars and motorcycles were both raced on board tracks.

The end of board tracks

Very high speeds and a complete lack of safety precautions lead to spectacular wrecks on the board tracks in the 1910s, often killing a half-dozen competitors and spectators at a time [1]. The 1913 motorcycle championship races were moved to a dirt track because dirt was safer. Board tracks slowly faded away by the early 1920s [2]. Famous racers to die on board tracks included Gaston Chevrolet.

Another contributor to the demise of board tracks was the expensive upkeep. Tracks needed new 2x4 boards every five years. During the last decade of board tracks, carpenters would repair the track from below after the cars raced down the straightaways at 120 miles per hour.

External links

• Article about motorcycle racing that talks about board tracks
• Photos