Last Day of Lake Hill

Trashdog

Trashdog

Moderator
The last race at Lake Hill was Rusty Wallace day it was an early November race held during the daylight. It was extreamly an cold day the asphalt tires wouldn't stick but the dirt tires would.

I don't believe it was planned to be the last race ever but it just worked out that way.

Here are some pictures that I shot during that last day of racing at Lake Hill.

John Barr
The Trashdog
 
News Channel 5 came out for the race to do a story on Rusty Wallace. They put a camera man in Gary Potter's latemodel and took some slow laps. They had Ed Dixon run out in front of Gary and spin it in the corner to make it more dramatic. I don't think they used that shot in the story...lol

Art Holiday was the anchor guy. Art didn't know much about racing.:D :D :D
 
Gary Potter won the dash. Gary pulled off a triple crown in 1980, he won the track championships at Godfrey, Tri-City and Lake Hill. Two dirt tracks and a paved track, a record that won't be repeated in the St. Louis area any time soon.
 
Lenny Garson was the last latemodel to cross the start finish line that day.

Lenny went to the school of if a little spoiler is good a whole lot must be better.:D
 
Dick Taylor won the last feature at Lake Hill, he ran on dirt tires because it was too cold for the aspalt tires to hook up.
 
This is the last shot I took at Lake Hill that day, I didn't think it would be the last time I would ever see the track again.

John Barr
The Trashdog
 
Nice pictures....

What year was this? Dick Taylor and Rusty Wallace look to be about 18 years old, lol! Thanks for sharing your memories.
 
TrashDog

TrashDog, you wouldn't happen to have any pictures of my dads car Larry Jones you could post? He drove a brown 57 ford with white lettering and a white frame, with the #31.
 
These pictures sure make me wish we still had a paved track in the St. Louis area. I know the debate has been kicked around here before, but I think there is still enough interest to open one and make it work.

Someone needs to put all of these old pictures into a book or something.
 
Are the officials in the pictures Robin Lowery and Larry Koch?
I was watching beyond the Glory the other night on Fox and they were showing the one on rusty and I believe I saw a photo shot of Larry Koch with Rusty could that have been possible?
 
Yep those are the officials and yep it is possible that Larry could of been in the picture with Rusty on beyond the glory.

Poor Rusty's most emotional ordeal was the fact he couldn't pull off a proper southern accent...lol

John Barr
The Trashdog
 
I remember that day like it was yesterday.The car that I was driving was set up for dirt and I did not own one asfault tire.Norm Cox came to my rescue,he had some of the old SPEC tires that they ran at Lake Hill and if I am not mistaken at Tri City also.They were arround 9 in. wide but would hook up really good.My car had a 302 Chevy motor that had just the right ammount of git-go with the tire and gearing combo I was running.I actually qualified mid pack which was good for me at that time.My time was in the high 16s in a car that was 8 or 9 years out of date.What made my day was the fact that had I qualified that fast 8 years earlyer,I would have been under the track record...I had a great time that day,followed Mike Null across the finish line.Jessie Tettaton (Tommys dad)was running the show.I think I got a $125 and Jessie thanked me for comming,something that some promoters forget to do now-a-days.I remember asking if he planed on running more races the following year..To this day I cant remember his exact answer but it must not have been positive as I remember leaving the track that day on a down note with the feeling that a era in St.Louis racing had come to an end.
 
Thanks

Thanks for posting the pictures Trashdog. Lake Hill was the first memory of a race track for me, must have been 72 or 73 when my uncle took my brother and I.
 
If I remember right, most guys had 2 cars. One for asphalt and one for dirt. The dirt cars had rub rails! But one year (can't remember the year) the mods protested and quit racing. Most of the hobby stock guys were asked to get someone to drive their dirt car on the asphalt to get the car count up. I had a great pic of my uncle passing Bill Hughes in Bills dirt car. Wish I could find it!
 
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