1939 Stock Car Race Langhorne Speedway Pre Nascar Eddie Rickenbacher New Price on 2040-parts.com

Rare, Scare, pick a word. I believe this is likely a one of a kind piece of Stock Car and Pre-NASCAR Racing History history. The era between the bootleggers and the official start of NASCAR. Accordingly to the Encyclopedia Britannica Organized Stock Car Racing began in Langhorne Pa in 1939 (see link below) and this is the racing program from that momentous day, a Tuesday, July 4th 1939. Captain Eddie Rickenbacher is listed as the Chairman of the AAA contest Board. Although I am not an expert, I believe this to be the First Program of organized Stock Car Racing as indicated by Britannica Official Stock Car Auto Race Program Langhorne - Tuesday July 4th, 1939 Sanctioned by the AAA Contest Board Hankinson Speedways Langhorne All-American Championship Stock Car Auto Race 200 miles Speedway Style Rolling Start BE SURE TO SEE OUR OTHER LISTING FOR A 1938 RACING PROGRAM visit - www dot britannica dot com/sports/stock-car-racing Stock-car racing, form of automobile racing, popular in the United States, in which cars that conform externally to standard U.S. commercial types are raced, usually on oval, paved tracks. Stock-car racing is said to have originated during the U.S. Prohibition period (1919–33), when illegal still operators, needing private cars capable of more than ordinary speed to evade the law while transporting liquor, tuned and altered ordinary passenger automobiles to make them faster. Subsequently, these cars were raced for pleasure, particularly in the southeastern states, where the sport remained most popular. Organized stock-car racing began at Langhorne, Pennsylvania, in 1939. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), founded in 1947 at Daytona Beach, Florida, gave the sport its first formal organization. The sport had become popular on the beach at Daytona Beach from the 1930s, but the first organized racing in Daytona took place in 1948. History of Langhorne Speedway Track history The speedway was built by a group of Philadelphia racing enthusiasts known as the National Motor Racing Association (NMRA) and the first race was held on June 12, 1926 (scheduled for May 31 but postponed by rain). Freddie Winnai of Philadelphia qualified in 42.40 seconds, a new world's record for a one-mile (1.6 km) track, and went on to win the 50-lap main event. The NMRA operated Langhorne through the 1929 season, staging 100-lap events on Labor Days and occasional shorter races. Difficulties in track preparation, management disputes, and poor attendance drove the speedway to the brink of bankruptcy until noted promoter Ralph "Pappy" Hankinson took over in 1930. "Pappy" brought in AAA Championship 100-lap races and continued to stage shorter Sprint car racing on the circular track. One of the first stock car races in the northeastern U.S. was held at Langhorne in 1940; Roy Hall of Atlanta, Georgia was victor in the 200-lap event Near Langhorne in Bucks County, PA, they carved out a one-mile track, designed as round as possible to fit onto their eighty-nine-acre plot of swampland. Early practice sessions proved their "New Philadelphia Speedway" to be the fastest dirt track in the world. After Toni Dawson completed a practice lap at 94 miles-per-hour, shattering Ralph DePalma's world speed record by 7 mph, the organizers required qualifiers average more than 90 mph to reduce the first race's huge field of 100 entries. On June 12, 1926, a huge crowd turned out to watch Langhorne's inaugural 50-lap contest of twenty-four very fast racers, which was won by twenty-one-year-old Philadelphian Fred Winnai (1905-1977). Langhorne Speedway flyer, May 6, 1948. With cars in a constant four-wheel drift or running sideways in great dirt-throwing powerslides, Langhorne treated the spectators to some of the closest, most fiercely contested events in the history of American auto racing. Unfortunately, the close competition also caused some terrible accidents. On August 7, 1926, former prizefighter Lou Fink became the track's first fatality when his car crashed near the main stands. That October, Russ Snowberger drove a Miller-powered racer to victory while dodging rocks, holes, and crashes in Langhorne's first 100-mile contest. "The dust was so bad," Snowberger exclaimed, "I couldn't see more than ten or twelve yards ahead." And it only got worse. Its underground springs and shifting subsoil made Langhorne a treacherous course. Racing cars quickly rutted the surface and dug up huge holes, and the dust was so bad that fans stopped coming in 1928 because they could not see the action. The track was in danger of closing when racing promoter Ralph "Pappy" Hankinson took Langhorne over. Pappy dug up the track and treated the soil with 30,000 gallons of used motor oil, which cut down the dust, held the soft spots in the track together, and soon turned Langhorne into the "Indianapolis of the East." On May 3, 1930, Hankinson carded a 100-mile race, which featured a tremendous duel between Winnai, Deacon Litz, and future Indy champs Wilbur Shaw and "Wild Bill" Cummings. This battle royal went to Cummings. "That was the toughest race I ever drove," the exhausted Cummings told Hankinson. "Don't ever run another 100-miler here. Long races at this place are too tiring to be safe." What made Langhorne so tiring was the absence of straightaways. To navigate "the big left turn," drivers had to grip the wheel without rest in a death-grip left-turn that lasted 100 miles. Auto-racing historian Joe Scalzo recalls an additional danger, explaining that "as a cut-rate way of taming the dust storms, management routinely had contractors pump vast reservoirs of used motor oil and crankcase sludge onto the track. Essentially, drivers were putting their cars and lives at risk upon a slick witches" brew of toxic sludge." Hotspots in photo is due to flash.Looking to Sell, so don't be afraid to make an offer, you won't insult me.