While stock car racing always gets pegged as being a “southern” sport, history shows that there were guys racing in circles in all parts of the country for decades before the explosion of NASCAR’s popularity. This video comes from 1967, when the craze was in full swing and it features 8mm footage from a testing day at Lancaster Speedway outside of Buffalo, New York. According to the description on the video, this event was held in April of that year a week or two before the track opened so racers could get used to and tune up their new cars. The litany of awesome cars and tow rigs in this video is long. Mustangs with center steer, a late model Ford Fairlane, shoebox Chevrolets, and stuff that falls right in the middle.
It was about this time in the sport’s history that local promoters were trying to get their racers to ditch the older bodies that they were dragging out of the junkyard for more late model stuff. Why? The ever expanding scope of the NASCAR Grand National series was an appeal and promoters thought that they’d have a better time getting people in the stands if the cars looked like the pros that people were watching on television. As you can see, it was starting to take root in this video but there (as there always are) were a few holdouts that were sticking with their old stuff.
We wish we could have been there on this day. Of course, back then this was just another day at the races and it wasn’t much different than the days they would have through the season but looking back on it now, these cars sure seem special.
That 66 fairlane at the start of the video is only one year old at time of filming.
The 66 Fairlane belonged to Maynard Troyer who founded Troyer Engineering. Troyer Engineering exists to this day in Greece NY and still builds a large percentage of Modifieds that run throughout the US. This was my home track growing up! Awesome!