coming into the final stretch sideways!

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1377411097752797&set=pcb.1377411177752789

Sept 1923, Tommy Milton heading for the Beverly Hills board track to race, in the HCS Special, a 1923 Miller 122, the first Miller (chassis and engine) to win the Indy 500 (thank you Dave!)

Like most of the great drivers from that era, Milton was a top-flight mechanic and self-taught engineer. Milton started his career as a driver with J. Alex Sloan's state fair automobile barnstorming act before making the move into AAA racing in 1916. 

Blind in one eye from birth, Milton drove for Fred and Augie Duesenberg's team and scored his first win in 1917 on the concrete oval at Providence, Rhode Island.

Milton was at Daytona Beach in 1920 to run a 'Beach car', a twin-engined Duesenberg designed specifically by Milton to break the land speed record, which it did, 5 mph over de Palma's record

Milton raced at some demonstration runs Havana with other early racing superstars Barney Oldfield and Ralph de Palma in 1920 as well

Milton won the AAA board track title in 1920 and '21 and during the height of the board track era between 1917-'25 Milton won twenty-three AAA championship races, including the 1921 and '23 Indy 500s.

The above Miller has a logo on the cowl above the word special, and on the grill, it's actually the logo of  Harry Stutz

Tommy Milton was the inspiration  in 1926 of  Finn Frolich's scupture placed in front of Richfield gas stations  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/finn-frolich-architect-and-scuptor-of.html

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9135969956504814&set=gm.1420979279079904&idorvanity=319578812553295

Cincinnati Motor Speedway under construction in 1916. The 2.0 mile wood oval was in operation from 1916 to 1919.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10234676271705475&set=gm.1616601242568580&idorvanity=729773494584697

the deadliest form of racing in the history of motorsports, board track racing in the 20s... no brakes, 100 mph, total oil loss spewing oil on the wood track, it was nicknamed the murderdrome.

https://www.facebook.com/wheelsthroughtime/photos/a.10152090524542901/10159267164227901/

I wonder what traction was like on board tracks, vs on paved race tracks

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/vintage-shots-from-days-gone-by.428585/page-5965#post-12899298

working on the board track, Vélodrome d'Hiver, Paris, 1932.

Built by H Desgrange, editor of L'Auto, who later organized the Tour de France, when his original track in the nearby Salle des Machines was listed for demolition in 1909 to improve the view of the Eiffel Tower

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/auto-racing-1894-1942.380814/page-343#post-11807461

1915 Board track racer at the Sons of Speed races this Saturday

Buzz Kanter (publisher of American Iron Magazine) will be racing this amazing 1915 Harley boardtrack racer, at the New Smyrna Speedway in Daytona.

No clutch and no gearbox, so starting them takes a tug on the rear wheel on a stand, or by dropping in from the top of the banked track.



Braking is achieved by a combination of throttling down or ignition kill

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008438972289
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154690768543371&set=gm.1035352879931999&type=3

a dog, a race car, a board track. Where's Norman Rockwell when you need him?

http://republic-of-awesome.tumblr.com/page/11

1915 Tacoma Speedway

http://collections.washingtonhistory.org/details.aspx?id=21789
http://digitum.washingtonhistory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/mboland/id/66/rec/13

Isabelle shares such cool photos

https://www.facebook.com/isabelle.bracquemond.7?fref=photo

board track racing dog

found on https://www.facebook.com/anibal134?fref=photo

the Beverly Hills Speedway located at Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards

The Beverly Hills Speedway (also called the Los Angeles Speedway) was a 1.25-mile wooden board track for automobile and motorcycle racing in Beverly Hills. It was built in 1919 on 275 acres of land that includes the site of today's Beverly Wilshire Hotel, just outside of the "Golden Triangle". The site was bounded by Wilshire Boulevard, South Beverly Drive, Olympic Boulevard and Lasky Drive.

The Beverly Hills Speedway was built by Jack Prince and Art Pillsbury and was financed by a group of racers and businessmen that called itself the Beverly Hills Speedway Association. The track was the first in the United States to be designed with banked turns incorporating an engineering solution known as a spiral easement.

At the time, the wooden racetrack was ranked second in race quality only to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

Durant Racing team, Harry Miller Designed and built.

 Cliff Durant was William Durant's son (General Motors President, co-founder, and also the co-owner and president of the Beverly Hills Speedway). He had the most highly funded team of the day with the best drivers.

Torn down in 1924 to make more money from the real estate than a race track provided

http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_City_Views%20(1900%20-%201925)_Page_3.html

the Beverly Hills racetrack, 1921, banked board trck

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/321577158048111/?fref=nf

Board track racer Gaston Chevrolet

Gaston Chevrolet, at one of the many board tracks of the late 1910's and '20's in one of his Frontenacs with the distinctive flower petal nose. Notice that the boards in the pits were laid broad side up, while on the track, for added strength, the boards were laid on edge.

found on https://www.facebook.com/indianaracingmemorialassociation?fref=photo

Cliff Durant's meticulously prepared Detroit Special at Indianapolis in 1928

Cliff was the millionaire son of General Motors founder, William Durant. Cliff was a bit of a playboy, he was married four times, but passionate about racing. He wanted only the best equipment, like this Miller engine Detroit machine. He was also one of the owners of the Beverly Hills board track.

Found on https://www.facebook.com/indianaracingmemorialassociation?fref=photo

Charlotte Speedway board track

Found on http://fastisfast.blogspot.fr/2014/05/charlotte-speedway-board-track.html

Board Track Harleys on display at SEMA

Oldfield, Burman, DePalma and Rickenbacker... all in one race, the 1915 Vanderbilt Cup at the San Francisco Worlds Fair race track during the Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Bob Burman driving the #30 case

Eddie Rickenbacker in the #17 Maxwell

Ralph DePalma in the #22 Mercedes

Barney Oldfield in the #1  Maxwell

Images from http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/starting_lineup_the_1915_vanderbilt_cup_race_in_san_francisco

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/433/

fire fighter three wheeler for a board track, grandstands and buildings at the track, built by the Dayton Sewing Machine Company

the images are with others that show the 1915 Astor Cup Race that was held at the Sheepshead Bay Board Track on October 9, 1915.

Found in the July 7, 1915 Fire and Water Engineering magazine published in New York City, was an accounting of one of the machines being put through its paces at the Speedway as follows:

“One of the Dayton Tri-Car chemicals was installed by the Woodside Mfg. Co. agents at the Sheepshead Bay Speedway in conjunction with the Astor Cup Races. In a public demonstration for the judges and officials, the car with a 35-gallon tank circled the two mile track in three minutes and 56 seconds. It so pleased the officials as well as the Fire Department in charge of the Speedway fire protection, it was then unanimously adopted for fire protection for the track, grandstands and buildings”.

 Found on http://theoldmotor.com/?p=120564

advertisement for the Dayton Tri Car found on http://books.google.com/books?id=9aVIAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA90-IA74&dq=Dayton+Tri.+Car.+Chemical&hl=en&sa=X&ei=J8Z7U52hOMHlsATwnYCwDg&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Dayton%20Tri.%20Car.%20Chemical&f=false

Board track racing 1925 Laurel Maryland

Found on https://www.facebook.com/marc.tudeau?fref=photo