On display at Salem Speedway were some older sprint cars and midgets. It took me back to my younger days in Daytona...
Back in the mid to late '60's, when speedweeks came around in Daytona where I grew up, along too came the midget cars and they raced at the local football stadium. It was some of the best racing to be seen. And here at Salem there was a restored car on display just like the ones I used to watch race.
I remember sitting there one night in particular back in '65 or so at the midget races, The crowd numbers weren't that impressivethat night. A group came in and sat right in front of me and my next door neighbor, who kindly took this 14 year old to the races with him.
He said, "do you know who that is in front of you?" No, I replied. "It's AJ Foyt", he said. I never considered myself a fan having been able to visit the pits at Daytona for a few years now, but I was impressed with AJ I will admit. In fact, he was and is my only hero in racing. The man could drive anything and win.
With him was another fellow and a couple of escort girls that were provided by Pure Oil or the like and one of them said, "I don't like this kind of racing, they don't go fast enough". AJ basically told her to shut up that these cars go plenty fast around the 1/4 mile flat track with concrete walls and protruding pilasters every 20 feet or so waiting to tear off your wheels.
That's one reason why I liked AJ so much, he told it like it was and still does. My kind of person.