Sunroof's thread on the bus races brought back an awesome memory of when I was a kid, the local 1/4 mile oval track at the end of the night would let people line up their cars, whatever they drove to the track to spectate, 2 at a time from a dead stop, for one lap.

My biggest dream as a kid was to turn 16 so I could build a wringer, a sleeper Mopar with trick suspension, good size tires all the way around, and a screamin small block.

I remember guys piling Cobra mustangs into the wall. Also remember a Camaro that spanked everyone then they took his trophy because they found out he was a racer there, it was suppose to be for spectators only.

Insurance reasons ended the whole thing right about when I turned 16, what a bummer. Too many guys would drink all night watching races and then sign up for the parking lot drags.

sounds like a good idea to me. why not charge everyone $5 or $10 to participate?

insurance can't be any different than a test and tune night at the drag strip.

in high school we had circle track racing ( illegal ) in our band room parking lot. i was the champ in my dad's honda wagon. believe it or not, there were some epic wrecks! and we never got caught! at our local circle track they had a racing series called "enduro". stock cars with minimal safety equipment. it got bigger every year until finally there were 125 cars on a third mile oval. the field was two rows of cars bumper to bumper three quarters of the way around the track. the race started and the front of the pack piled into the back of the pack, which hadn't even started to move yet. we were laughing so hard we almost suffocated. that race took five plus hours to complete.

Bob, are you talking about Cloverleaf Speedway?

Yes!
They have em here once a month. Except they let you run slicks or whatever you want, but mufflers are required. Theres no stripes, timers; nothin but a guy lining you up and dropping his arms. We threw the DRs on the Dakota and had a good time. Ramona was driving, and at one point she lined up to a kid in a Honda. His buddies in the stands were yelling that not only was he gonna lose, he was gonna lose to a girl. His face looked like he'd been sucking lemons lolol

There was an orange Camaro there with a blower sounded mean. When he got beat twice by Ramona, he left.

She ended up getting kids on Banshees lining up with her on purpose. They would give her about 2 lengths to make it close, and everyone had a ball.

I think Painsville speedway still dose it and i know Sharon speedway did it one yr and thats a dirt track

They used to do that at Raceway Park in Shakopee, Minnesota.

A high school buddy built a ringer car for this once. He had a warmed over 350 in a pretty nice '70 Camero, so he bought a beater '70 Camero and transplanted the motor into it just for the "spectator racing" as they called it.

I also had another friend do it with his beater '69 AMX, and yet another friend do it with his '67 Belvedere Street/Strip car. That was good humor watching him on the oval with his 15X3 Cragars and Volkswagen tires on the front.

This was all in the mid-80s. Another time a guy ran a nice, real Hemi Charger into the wall there trying to spectator race. Fun times.

Never raced in them, but yes Cloverleaf Speedway had
parking lot drags.
We used to go there a lot when I was a kid.
Seen a sweet GTO get slammed into the wall. (ouch)