15 replies to this topic

[LucaP]

Reading several pages that list tracks, I've always been interested by this track... Oregon International Raceway located in Goshen.

 

It was built by the famous track designer John Hugenholtz... such a renowned signature indicates the fact that this circuit had high ambitions? 

I love the track design..deceiptively simple but quick

Apparently the track closed only after two years because it was flooded and there was no money to repair it..it is now a landfill, you can see present pictures here http://theracingline...hen/index.html 

 

Also, part of my interest lies in the fact that there seems to be no video of this track? (?)

So, I would really be interested in any memories of this forgotten track

 

Happy new year to all

 

[Ray Bell]

Surely Vince (raceannouncer2003) would have been there at some time?

He's located in Victoria, Vancouver Island, but often posts about racing in this NW corner of the US.

[Rupertlt1]

See: Weekends of Glory, The History of Northwest Sports Car Racing, Volume Two: 1962 through 1970, by Martin Rudow, with Gary Bannister and Dave Burngasser.

 

[I currently have Vince Howlett's copy on loan.]

 

RGDS RLT

[West3]

A quick search brought up this home movie. Looks like a lovely, picturesque little hillside track. Pity about the flooding issues, but the relative distance from any significant population center probably would have doomed it anyway.

 

[raceannouncer2003]

Would you believe I never did attend a race there ?  Looks like some pretty fast corners.

 

Great video...spotted the following:  Monte Shelton, Cobra; Jim Adams, Tiger; Jerry Titus, GT350; Wade Carter, Porsche 904; Al Brizard, Cooper-Alfa; Carl Knapp, LeGrand; also, I think Mike Fisher, Lotus 27 and Nick Reynolds, Lotus 22 were in there somewhere too.

 

Also, the cover of the September 18. 1965 Competition Press shows the following:

 

"Nick Dio trailed his GTZ all the way to Eugene, Ore. from Los Angeles for the OIR national Aug. 21-22, and then ran out of gas.  Dio, like competitors all over the nation, is traveling up to 1500 mi. to compete for enough points to qualify for the national runoffs at Daytona in November."  You can see the car in the video.  In the photo, he is pushing it.

 

Rupert, does Martin's book say who financed the track ?

 

Vince H.

Edited by raceannouncer2003, 05 January 2019 - 06:51.

[Ray Bell]

Yes, it looks like a pretty quick track, not a lot of turns in that 2.8miles...

It's not alone in being destroyed by flooding, either. A circuit was built around the edge of a little lake in the Western suburbs of Melbourne in the early fifties, just seal the rim of the lake and go racing.

But a wet season and the lake's level rose and Altona circuit was gone forever.

Mind you, it was nowhere near as adventurous as Goshen.

[David Birchall]

Vince,  The Alfa GTZ looks like the car that ended up in Vancouver owned and raced by Fritz Duernberger-certainly the same unusual colour for a GTZ .

[Cynic2]

Green Valley Raceway, north of Dallas, Texas, had flooding issues as well, but with the added bonus of the rising water in corners driving snakes toward higher ground.  Like the corner worker stations . . . .

[raceannouncer2003]

Vince,  The Alfa GTZ looks like the car that ended up in Vancouver owned and raced by Fritz Duernberger-certainly the same unusual colour for a GTZ .

 

David, Apparently not the same car.  I found this link:

 

http://www.zagato-ca..._TZ_750105.html

 

"Nick Dio" was apparently Nick Dioguardi, who raced a number of cars over the years.

 

Vince H.

[David Birchall]

Thanks Vince,  I have a couple of connections to that GTZ serial #105.    In the first photo I am in the sports racer "Climax Special" number 69 beside Fritz in the GTZ.   Those were the days!    I was just down the road when Fritz crashed the car into a traffic island at Monterey when he was blinded by the setting sun-we managed to get the car onto a trailer and back to the hotel but it was a very sad end to a weekend where Fritz was due to race the car and could realistically have expected an invite to Pebble Beach for Sunday--the car had just been given a total restoration by Ed Arnold-which included removing the body from the chassis.  Do not try that a home with a GTZ!

[Jim Thurman]

It's not alone in being destroyed by flooding, either. A circuit was built around the edge of a little lake in the Western suburbs of Melbourne in the early fifties, just seal the rim of the lake and go racing.

 

Sadly, Ray, it is quite common in the states. Many tracks, ovals and road courses, have been built on marshy land or in flood plains. Some cut corners at the time, and without a decent base or paving job, quickly paid the price.

[BRG]

Green Valley Raceway, north of Dallas, Texas, had flooding issues as well, but with the added bonus of the rising water in corners driving snakes toward higher ground.  Like the corner worker stations . . . .

Ah, shades of Enna-Pergusa in Sicily whihc was notorious for snakes coming out of the lake that the track circles.

 

Sadly, Ray, it is quite common in the states. Many tracks, ovals and road courses, have been built on marshy land or in flood plains. Some cut corners at the time, and without a decent base or paving job, quickly paid the price.

Isn't this just what is happening to CoTA in Texas?  The track is getting bumpier and bumpier and I think that the MotoGP boys have been threatening to drop the track.

[LittleChris]

I thought the snakes at Enna stayed in the water, it was wayward cars rudely interrupting their home life that caused the problem 

[Jim Thurman]

Green Valley Raceway, north of Dallas, Texas, had flooding issues as well, but with the added bonus of the rising water in corners driving snakes toward higher ground.  Like the corner worker stations . . . .

 

Another Dallas area track, the short-lived Dallas International Motor Speedway had a race cancelled due to torrential rains, which drove snakes into corner worker stations..

 

Isn't this just what is happening to CoTA in Texas?  The track is getting bumpier and bumpier and I think that the MotoGP boys have been threatening to drop the track.

 

Pretty much. Race tracks are usually built on large parcels of land that can be acquired cheaply, which usually means land that isn't any good as farm land and often isn't suitable to build housing on.

Edited by Jim Thurman, 23 January 2019 - 22:51.

[raceannouncer2003]

From Monte Shelton:

 

"The video brought back lots of memories of Goshen! Just south of Eugene, Oregon.

It was indeed a National. I was driving an FIA 289 Cobra & having fun! Had a horrible misfire

in qualifying & Lew Spencer, who was crew chief for Jerry Titus driving the GT 350, came over

& installed new ignition point in my Cobra.

Mike Eyerly was driving the 904. Pierre Phillips was in the Lotus 20. Gary Wright was in the

Red speedster. Todd Webb was in the XKE. And I think John Stuhldreier was in a lotus 22.

 

What I do remember was the race was delayed until they could get power to the track.

Harry Eyerly, the chief steward flew his airplane & landed on the straightaway but hit

the power lines at the end of the start of the straightaway & pulled down the lines. About

an hour delay. Weather was good. Don’t recall any swamp issues with OIR though. I just

think it was economically a sinker! Monte"

 

Vince H.

[raceannouncer2003]

From Martin Rudow:

 

"I heard from several people that the problem was not flooding but that the track was built on unstable ground and kept settling, requiring continual repaving and resurfacing…got too expensive and the owners could see that no end of this was in sight."

 

Vince H.