Friday, May 31, 2019

once there was a race track. Well, no one ever tore down the grand stands, no one ever bulldozed the track, and nothing was ever built over it... so, I'll say it's still there, even though it's been 60 years since anything raced there


The grandstand is the most obvious remnant. It was built in 1947. The track opened in 1926.




Jungle Park Speedway, a half-mile oval with a quarter-mile oval in its infield, was one of the premier speedways in the Midwest in the early 20th century. It was a proving ground for some of the top American race drivers. Eight Jungle Park veterans went on to win the Indianapolis 500, including one of Indy's all-time greats, Wilbur Shaw, who won the 500 in 1937, 1939 and 1940.

The track closed in 1960 after one more in a long line of horrific accidents.



https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2016/05/25/legend-notoriously-deadly-jungle-park-speedway/83040816/
https://www.facebook.com/JungleParkSpeedway/


Once idled, the track was allowed to fade back in the woods. Four of the five grandstands soon rotted and collapsed, and the debris was hauled away. Since 1972 the property has been owned by longtime Parke County residents Beverly Chaplain and her son, Monte. They operated a canoe livery there for decades. "We never had any intention of renovating the race track," said Monte Chaplain, whose uncle, Charlie Sentman, raced there. "We just needed an access point for Sugar Creek."

The Chaplains no longer are in the canoe business. They have no long-term plans for the property, most of which is in a flood plain and therefore unavailable for development.



here's what it looks like at the 2014 reunion. It's this nice because some of the track is next to a river, and a canoe rental operates a business there



http://recoveryteam.tv/the-legend-of-the-notoriously-deadly-jungle-park-speedway/

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