Detroit MI dirt racetrack

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Fire-medic

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Here are some really-cool pics of a Detroit racetrack. It was built as a dirttrack in the early 1930's which as we know, was a bad time to open any business! Be sure to read the description about how it was constructed on next-to no budget and how the savvy promoters bet-big, and fortunately, had it pay-off for them.

Looks like Triumphs, BSA's (the 1st one looks like a Gold Star) and Harley flathead racers. Plus, they all seem to be hardtails. Iron men!

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Photo by Al Blixt, Sr. 1946

Motor City Speedway seen from the air as racing resumed after the war in 1946. The old half-mile track can still be seen with a portion serving as the pit area. Eight Mile, the border of the City of Detroit, is in the upper right while the farm fields of Macomb County can be seen in the lower left.

Carson Zeiter

Inducted into the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 1984.
“Carson Zeiter- The Voice of the Speedway” started in the racing business taking tickets at his brother’s promoted race at Norwalk, Ohio in 1923 at the age of 12. From that point on, Carson would work at races every summer in every capacity from selling tickets, working the pit gates, to hanging flyers on poles. Carson would tell how he would have to stand on running boards to see into the cars entering the pits to check for pit passes.

After graduation from High School until the early 30’s Carson and his brother barnstormed races throughout the state from the Upper Peninsula to the Ohio and Indiana borders at many tracks that have long since disappeared.

In June of 1932 Carson and his brother Don opened Zeiter Motor Speedway on 8 Mile and Schoeneer Rd., just outside Detroit, a track he designed (incidentally-Carson sold his car so that the nails to build the stands could be purchased).

The Detroit Free Press referred to this track during its construction as the “DREAM SPEEDWAY” and to be known later as the Motor City Speedway.

In June of 1933 at VFW Motor Speedway (Motor City Speedway) Carson announced his first auto race. In a few years, he was in demand all over the country announcing all types of races, including motorcycles and a few Gold Cup boat races on the Detroit River.

Besides Motor City Speedway, Carson designed the following tracks in the state:


  • Flint Midget Speedway (Playland Park Speedway)
  • Old Kalamazoo Fairground Midget Speedway
  • Track at Bigelow Field Grand Rapids
  • Sandlotters Park Speedway- Detroit (near Belle Isle Bridge)
Carson was on the initial seven-member committee in 1936 to draw up the first specifications for midgets. The specifications were drawn up for safety and uniformity. These ‘specs” were soon accepted nationally.

Starting in 1946 and for many years, Carson hosted the Mid-West racing conventions in Detroit. It was a big party in which race cars, equipment etc. were on display. It was always a good time with dancing and liquid refreshments. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the outstanding racing personality in the United States. Winners of this award were:


  • Walter Bull Publisher and Editor of the Illustrated Speedway News
  • “Aggie” Agajanian Promoter and Race Car Owner
  • Johnny Parsons, Sr. 1950 Indy 500 Winner
In the sixties and seventies Carson trimmed down from his seven (7) to eight (8) race dates per week schedule to announcing only special events and to eventually his new role of “fan”.


At the close of every racing program, Carson coined a phrase which in one version or another is now used by most racing announcers around the nation. It was “Remember folks the place for speed is on the speedway, not on the highway, so take it easy on the way home”.

http://www.mmshof.org/inductees/Zeiter_Carson.html


12/30/2006 - Al Blixt, Jr.
It's 1932 and Detroit Has A New Speedway The year was 1932. It was the bottom of the Depression. More than a third of Americans were unemployed. Banks were failing and people were lined up in bread lines to get something to eat. If there was ever a time not to start a business, the fall of 1932 was it.

So, how did it happen that a new auto racing speedway came to be built at Eight Mile and Schoenherr Road in Warren? Here is the story of Don and Carson Zeiter and their dream speedway; one that would have many names; but ultimately became the legendary Motor City Speedway. Most of us don't remember 1932 but we know times were hard. After the crash of 1929 there had been three years of unrelenting bad news. In the summer of 1932 the Republicans renominated Herbert Hoover and the Democrats selected the former New York governor, Franklin D. Roosevelt in a contest to see who could lead the country out of what was by then called the Great Depression. There was unrest in the country.


Two of the top songs of 1932 were, Brother Can You Spare a Dime? and In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town. 10,000 WWI veterans and their families, dubbed the Bonus Army, were camped out in a shanty town in the Washington, D.C.


So, it is no surprise that Don and Carson Zeiter were depressed as they drove back to Detroit in early September, 1932 after a disastrous auto racing program at the Fort Miami dirt track near Toledo. They had been sure that this program, touted as the first under the horse track's lights, would draw a big crowd despite the Depression. They were wrong.


The people did not come. So after the purse had been paid and the fair board got the rest of the gate, the Zeiter brothers headed home with only a hard lesson as payment for their efforts. They talked on the way home; agreeing that somehow they needed to build a track rather than renting from fair boards that didn't like auto racing anyway. As Carson tells the story in an article written years later, they were driving past the corner of 8 Mile and Schoenherr roads on the edge of the City of Warren when suddenly Carson shouted, That's It! That's It! Looking across the road he saw what he knew would be an ideal site for a race track.


It turns out the owner of the property, Mrs. Beste, was about to lose the property on back taxes and was willing to sign a lease based on a percentage of the profits. Beginning with that no down payment lease the entire new speedway was built on the cuff. In his article Carson Zeiter says, During those black days of 1932, lumber was piled high in the mills and dealers were jumped with supplies and equipment that no one had money to buy.


So, it was easy to promote these needed materials on credit. The merchants were willing to take a chance on the percentage of gate receipts. At this point construction was ready to begin except for one thing.


NAILS. Lo and behold, they just couldn't be had without the cash. The assets on hand were $30 and a Model A coupe.


So the car went and the nails were bought. (from Motor City Speedway by Carson Zeiter) Construction began immediately on the original half-mile track, 60 feet wide with banks on the turns about 8 feet high and the straightaways banked about 3 feet high. The surface was oiled clay. The contour made it very fast with its 320 foot-long straightaways.


The contractors worked with a will to complete the track in time to hold at least a few races before the Michigan winter began. Just three weeks after construction started, the New Detroit Speedway opened for its first race on October 2, 1932 with AAA.


A field of 22 race cars and drivers had been announced and everything possible was done to promote the race. Here, from that original program is the starting field including some names that would become very famous in years to come like Al Miller, John Wohlfiel, Carmie Frazzini, Howard Dauphin and a driver already famous from Anderson, Indiana by the name of Bob Carey.


But the most famous racer on the track on that day was not a driver. The Zeiter brothers took the unusual step of recruiting Gar Wood to be the starter for the race. A boat racing legend, Wood had won the prestigious Harmsworth trophy race for the 8th time on the Detroit river that summer before an estimated 1 million spectators. In winning the race and defeating his English rival, Wood shattered the world's record with a speed of 124 mph.


He did it in what was referred to as a madman's dream by engineers. Miss America X was a 59 ft long monster powered by four 1800-horsepower, 12-cylinder Packard engines. His passion and reputation for speed made him a perfect fit.


The Zeiters hoped that having a sports superstar like Gar Wood would help bring in even people who were not familiar with the attraction of the high powered race cars that would be competing that day.


The question: Would the people come? The answer: YES. The race was a big success and the track was on its way.


Imagine coming to a race track where there had only been fields a month before and seeing spectacular action on a lightning fast half-mile dirt oval! There were four races on the program: 3 10-lap Elimination Races and a 40-Lap Final Race. The feature that day was won by Bob Carey. Bob Carey won the feature race on October 2nd.


In doing so he set a world's record qualifying time of 23.57 seconds. He went on to win the other two features at the New Detroit Speedway on October 9th and 16th. By year's end Carey had won the 1932 AAA Championship.


Carey started racing in 1921 at age 17. After three years he moved up to sprint cars. He was regularly upstaging his team mate, Mauri Rose, so badly that Rose broke up the team. In his only appearance at the Indy 500 in 1932 he placed fourth.


Tragically, Carey was killed April 16, 1933, cutting short one of the most promising racing careers between the two World Wars, possibly by a throttle jammed full on, at Legion Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles, California. For more on Bob Carey see Motorsport Memorial.


Even the ads were interesting. Two of the contractors that hurried to complete the speedway, Ray Kebbe, Inc and Restrick Lumber Co. , ended up as advertisers in the program for the first race that was held just three weeks after work began.


Kebbe and Ed Apel took over operation of the track a few years later and eventually sold the lease to Andy Barto after the war.


The other advertisers included Jaekel Bros. Ambulance (Everybody's Favorite says the ad), Fronty Sales Co. (Watch the Fords in Today's Races), EHMS, Little JoeBrand Grade A Meat Products (Served exclusively at this track), the ever-present Coca-Cola Bottling Co. (Refresh Yourself), and my favorite, the Essex Terraplane from Raynal Bros.


The 1/2 mile oiled dirt oval built in 1932 on Eight Mile Road and Schoenherr Road by Don and Carson Zeiter was shortened to 1/4 mile in 1936, and was variously also known as VFW Speedway, New Detroit Speedway and Zeiters. The last race was held in 1958.


For a time the races were on TV. The broadcaster was Fred Wolf. As kids watching, we all waited for someone to join the Upsidedown Club. I think Marolis Chevrolet was one of the sponsers, and would roll the cars onto a set, and advertise the cars price.
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