I recently took a trip back in time to Long Island NY’s past! No I was not in a Delorean. I was actually in a 1929 Model A Ford,It was one of many in a pack of Model A Fords.My trip back in time was hosted by members of the Model A Ford Club of Long Island. The Club Established in 1959 is one of the oldest and largest Model A Clubs in the U.S. The Trip took me back in time to Long Islands distant past,Way Back before the LIE back before even the Northern and Southern State Parkways.All the way back to the glory days of William K. Vanderbilt Jr’s Long Island Motor Parkway. The Motor Parkway or the LIMP has been forgotten by many.Portions of it can still be found across the Island some parts are even still in use now going under other names. I must admit I knew almost nothing of the Long Island Motor Parkway before this trip back but as I learned about its history and how it was a major part of shaping the Island we all know and love today, I became very interested in learning more and I would like to share with you a little of what I have learned.

The history of William K. Vanderbilt Jr’s Motor Parkway began on June 6th 1908 when its construction started. It was one of the first concrete roads in the Nation and it was the first to use Bridges and over passes so as to not have any intersections. The Motor parkway reached its almost full length of 45 miles from Queens to Lake Ronkonkoma in 1911 with 65 Bridges and many twists and turns.(There was a 2 and a Half mile western extension built in 1928)

The Motor Parkways History of racing is that of legend and still remembered by many Long Island race fans, William K.Vanderbilt Jr was an avid race fan and racer. He often raced in America and France. Disappointed by the lack of Americans winning any of the races he started the Vanderbilt Cup races in 1904 here on Long Island. The race was an international event and would pit 16 Drivers against each other for the prize of the $2000 Silver Cup which was designed by Tiffany & Co.The Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. The Races where first held on 30 miles of local roads in Nassau County.These Races where the Beginning of America’s love affair with auto racing.In 1906 when two spectators where killed and many others injured by a racing car on Jericho turnpike near the intersection of what is known today as NY Routes 106 and 107, Vanderbilt and friends soon came up with the idea for the Long Island Motor Parkway. The Cup Races where Successfully held on Long Island in conjunction with the Motor Parkway Until 1910 when four spectators where killed and twenty injured.

With the Cup races gone the Motor parkway became purely an access route with a toll of $2.00 and was used mostly by New York’s rich looking to hit the party circuit or to go for Sunday Drives and of course by those just looking to drive really fast.The Motor parkway was a privately owned toll road with no speed limit, No Commercial Traffic and because it was privately owned it was off limits to law enforcement. During Prohibition the Parkway gained a reputation as a rum runners road as bootleggers started using the road to transport alcohol.In 1917 the toll was lowered to $1.00 and when more Drivers started using the Motor Parkway to travel across Long Island the speed limit was reduced to 40 mph and local Police where aloud to begin patrolling the parkway to improve traffic safety. An estimated 150,000 cars per year used the Motor parkway at its prime. There where 12 toll lodges along the parkway and the toll lodges have a great story all their own. The Long Island Motor Parkway Continued on until Easter Sunday,April 16th 1938 when it was forced to close. The Motor Parkway even after reducing its toll again to only 40 cents was No longer able to Compete with Robert Moses State of the art Toll free Northern State Parkway. After its Closer the Motor Parkway was split up and sold off, Many of its Bridges destroyed and roads forgotten.Although some Remaining Sections of this Historic Parkway like the 13 Mile eastern most Section in Suffolk still remain in use Most of the Parkway and its History has gone forgotten until recent years.

Members of the Model A Ford Club of Long Island had known about a section of the Long Island Motor Parkway with one of its Bridges still standing hidden away behind Old Bethpage Village and Restoration on Round Swamp Road in Old Bethpage Where the Club holds its Monthly meetings. For those of you who don’t know Old Bethpage Village and Restoration is a pre-Civil War Long Island Village with more than 55 historic buildings and a place where anyone of us can travel back in time for the day.I’m sure most of you out there from Long Island will remember it from field trips back in your School days.Well It is all still there with its same historic Magic and those old fashion Sodas and Candies you remember. I have found Old Bethpage to be the perfect place for a first Date! It will not only take you back threw time but it will make you feel like a Kid all over again. In the early Months of 2007 the members of the Model A Ford Club of Long Island started Clearing away what time and neglect had covered up. Then in May 2007 after much hard work the Members of the Model A Ford Club of Long Island got together at Old Bethpage Village and Restoration and took the first Cruise since its closing on their own private piece of the Motor Parkway and Long Islands History. Mark Adler and his 1931 Model A Coop had the Honor of leading the Group and being the first the travel on it! Long Island has some great History and We must always remember We need to save our Historic Buildings and Land marks!!!

For more info about this article go to the Model A Ford Club of Long Island’s webpage at www.freewebs.com/modela

While researching this story one thing that kept coming to my mind was that if Long Island is one of the first place’s where Auto Racing in the US began then doesn’t that mean that Auto Racing really needs to stay here? Lets reclaim the Glory!!!

Till next time this is your Bro L.J. James AmericanBikerX.com

LJ is a independant author on the Biker world and does an online Radio Motorcycle Show LJ has spent many years working to let all in the Biker world know that TV programs like Sons of Anarchy while entertaining are Fiction and being a Biker is about loyalty and freedom !

categories: Long Island,Model A Ford,William K. Vanderbilt,auto racing,Vanderbilt Cup races,NASCAR,Village and Restoration,Motorcycle,rum runners road,Prohibition

Tags: Long Island, motorcycle, Vanderbilt Cup races

Kasey Kahne’s chances for capturing the Sprint Cup rose massively after he finished first in a huge race on Sunday in Georgia.

Beforehand, Kahne found himself at eleventh for the season in the chase for the cup, however this win jumped him 5 places, all the way into sixth place. With the post-season composed of 12 drivers and simply one race left before the playoffs are made firm, Kahne’s chances of reaching the post-season attempt particularly better than they previously did.

In the course of the race, it looked that it was Kevin Harvick’s race to victory Harvick, who came up triumphant at the Nationwide race the night before, was looking good until Clint Bowyer came into danger with just 15 laps left. Bowyer, Harvick’s teammate, blew his chances for winning the event, as Kahne exploited the caution and finished first by just under two seconds.

Harvick, who concluded in 2nd overall, just fell short of his first victory during the 2009 race season. Coming in 3rd place was Juan Pablo Montoya, who is now striving for his 1st playoff berth and looks like he might be able to make it happen.

Kahne was happy with the race overall. Pleased with the car, he attributed his brilliance in the race to the car’s attributes – and naturally, a bit of assistance regarding Kevin Harvick’s struggles.

Ending up in 6th at the event was Denny Hamlin. With this finish, Hamlin is now the 4th NASCAR driver to get a playoff entry in the chase for the cup. Hamlin joins Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, and of course, Jimmy Johnson, who has won the most recent three seasons.

When asked about his prospects, Kahne expressed great hopefulness.

Having had the benefit of a great performing auto throughout the race, Kahne credits its durability to his success in the race.

Though there was a little change between the 12 seedings for the Chase, no one was removed from the top twelve last weekend. The lead is held by Tony Stewart, with Jeff Gordon and Jimmy Johnson close behind. Additional racers include Denny Hamlin, Carl Braylon, Kurt Busch, Kasey Kahne, and five others. Holding the thirteen and 14 spot are Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch, who both require great races next weekend if they seek out a chance at the cup.

Tags: news, racing, cars

The ability to define any type of American muscle cars lies more on the time era than anything else. When a person thinks of muscle cars, there is always a smile attached especially because the person has fond memories of things that were happening at the time muscle cars were a way of life for everyone.

There are laws being kicked around in legislation at the present time attempting to limit the amount of big block motors and very enjoyable sounding exhausts which were initially found on the American muscle cars, to become obsolete from the automobile world. This is a lame effort by third world country leaders to diminish the American lifestyle.

In the present day, muscle cars have become a hobby for the motor loving individual. There are shows that people from the muscle car group can gather and exchange stories that involve the exchange of stories involving the muscle cars, that are presently parked in a garage, and are mostly only driven on sunny Sunday afternoons. In most cases, these cars which are only driven on good weather days, are on their way to compete for the best looking, best kept, Classic muscle car.

The American muscle cars were a symbol of the competitive and ability to win, American pride. Some religions believe pride is evil. Although, pride has quite a few interpretations. When American muscle cars were built based on the blue collar American worker, and the product bearing the sticker stating made in the U. S. A., any person would take pride in the finished product.

Chevrolet had many muscle cars also, and the sound was unique in toughness. The cars were camaros, corvettes, chevelles and the list goes on and on. Chevrolet may have been more popular because the cost of making these cars more powerful was less than the enhancement of an original ford muscle car.

There is no better feeling of freedom in the world. When political leaders are attempting to limit these feelings from Americans, this is happening because these people have not had the opportunity to ever be free. Therefore, how is the typical American suppose to roll with changes from other cultures, when there is an invasion to completely separate the American Pride culture, and it is still America.

To sum it all up, American pride is one of the most competitive attitudes to have in the world. American muscle cars reflects this image, owing to the fact that the automobile manufacturer’s did an excellent job of competing to make the best cars, in turn there are so many to decide from and most all of them are good automobiles.

Dawn Enstruthe writes on website EAC Atlanta which has details of best price auto window repair, affordable DUI attorny Atlanta and much more.

Tags: muscle car, Automobile, auto

Many NASCAR fans are angry in the face of an event (or I should say non-event) that took place during this week’s race at Watkins Glen. While NASCAR should have clearly acted out, the organization sat quietly while one of its drivers put the well-being of another driver at risk.

To give a little background about the situation, the previous week’s race at Pocono saw Robby Gordon and David Stremme both slapped with penalties due to overly aggressive actions while racing. Gordon was at it again at Watkins Glen, as he very aggressively roughed up Joey Lagano on the track, forcing him into a crash. Nothing happened to Gordon for this.

Yes, I know the Pocono incident was during the Cup race and the Glen incident was Nationwide, but aggressive driving is aggressive driving and the penalty has been issued in both series many times. What is a mystery is how NASCAR officials could watch the on-track actions of Robby Gordon and just see them as a “racing” deal. This was one of the most blatant cases of aggressive driving with the sole intention of wrecking a driver I have seen in quite some time.

The fact that Robby intentionally forced Logano off the track right after a car had spun and the field in that area was under a local caution, which resulted in Logano’s car suffering enough damage that it caught fire and his day was done, should have been enough to put Mr. Gordon behind the wall for the day, but no, he was allowed to continue.

NASCAR has been disciplinary in recent times and has no reason whatsoever to condone behavior like this. Somehow, the organization completely overlooked actions on Gordon’s part that nearly every fan of the sport knew was intentional.

For those who say he didn’t announce over his radio that he was trying to wreck Joey so how could NASCAR know his intent, I say BULL!! Even a non race fan who watched that event could see what Robby was trying to do and the fact that NASCAR allowed it to continue to the point of a crash that resulted in a car on fire is ludicrous. If safety and fair racing are what NASCAR is really interested in then sometimes they need to step up and show it.

I’m sure that NASCAR will probably end up hitting Gordon with some kind of penalty during the days that follow the race, but that’s not what it’s about here. NASCAR needs to be proactive as an enforcer, and not reactive. Gordon should have been pulled from the race on the spot.

I’ve never been a big fan of Gordon, but he just made the bottom of my list. His actions are unforgivable, and I can’t believe that NASCAR doesn’t see things the same way.

Tags: media, sports, hobbies

Though his fame would be eclipsed by his son Richard, Lee Petty was a very successful race car driver in his own right and a pioneer during the early days of the sport. His legacy includes not only his son, better known to NASCAR fans as “The King” Richard Petty and Petty Enterprises has fielded race teams for four generations.

Lee Petty was one of the first to take a businesslike approach to the sport of stock car race in an era when many teams and drivers still supplemented their income via bootlegging and running moonshine. He raced in the very first NASCAR stock car race ever on June 19th, 1949. Among his many firsts in the sport is the dubious distinction of bringing out the first caution flag in NASCAR history. To chronicle his achievements in the sport in a nutshell, he won 50 Cup races, including the first one ever on a paved track. He also caused his share of trouble and was never afraid to mix it up. He once hit Curtis Turner over the head with a wrench after a race, and another time got into a fistfight during the pre race festivities. Lees two sons quickly joined the skirmish but the fight was ended by Mrs. Petty (Richards grandmother) swinging her purse”made heavier than the typical pocketbook by the .44 handgun she carried inside.

His greatest accomplishments on the track were three NASCAR championship victories. He also brought his son, Richard, into the ‘family business’ and after a rocky start in his first season the Petty offspring would go on to win 200 NASCAR races. That mark may never be broken and earned Richard Petty the sobriquet of ‘The King’.

Lees career was cut short by a nasty accident at the 1961 Daytona 500, where his car hit a guard rail and flipped a few times. Lee suffered a number of broken bones and internal injuries. He raced a few more times, but hung it up for good in 1964. He left the management of Petty Engineering to his sons Richard and Maurice and spent his time enjoying friends and family and playing golf. He played frequently until a few months before his death in 2000 at age 86 after surgery to treat a stomach aneurysm.

Lee Petty holds a few NASCAR records that may never be broken. He finished in the top five 231 times out of 427 races, and still holds the mark for best average finish for a full time driver at 7.6th place. Making this level of success all the more impressive, it was done in an era before big money sponsorships, on poorly maintained tracks and against legitimate criminals who spent most of their time bootlegging moonshine. The fact that Petty enjoyed so much success in that era is a credit to his toughness, dedication and courage.

Tags: a, t, sport

The Darlington Raceway in upstate South Carolina is considered one of NASCAR’s most challenging tracks. It’s shaped like an egg and has earned the moniker ‘the track too tough to tame’. That applied to everyone except David Pearson, who won 10 races and took 12 poles at Darlington. These records will likely never be challenged, let alone broken. Pearson’s ability to get around the track was almost instinctive. In fact, he made it look easy.

David Pearson was born on December 22, 1934 in Whitney, SC”a textile town near Spartanburg. Like most of the locals, his parents worked in the local cotton mill and did their best to provide. David dropped out of school after the 10th grade to work in the mill, but soon quit that life as well–he was drawn to racing cars and began running at short tracks in the Carolinas. He ran his first race on 9/19/52 in Woodruff South Carolina. Within a few years, he won his first championship at the Greenville”Pickens Speedway in 1959.

Pearson never really sought much more than this local fame and success, but a couple of his friends and some fans had loftier ambitions”they began raising money to buy a car to compete in the NASCAR Grand National series (which was the forerunner to todays Sprint Cup series). With the financial backing from friends and family, David began racing a limited schedule on the Grand National circuit and was named the 1960 rookie of the year. In 1961, he became the first driver to win on 3 of 4 superspeedways in the same year (Charlotte, Daytona, Atlanta). Success beget sponsors, whos dollars allowed him to afford better cars and crew. This brought about championships”he won three Grand National titles in 1966, 1968 and 1969.

In 1972, he started driving for the Wood Brothers in the #21 car that he was to make a legend. In 1973, he won 11 races in 18 starts”an incredible feat even by todays standards. He cut back his schedule in those years to focus on superpeedways. Through the end of the 1970s, Pearson won 43 races. In addition to his mastery of Darlington, he posted remarkable numbers all over the circuit. He is one of two men to have won more than 100 races, and his 105 is second only to The King Richard Pettys 200 wins. Hes also second on career poles (113) to Petty. Head to head, however, he has a slight edge over NASCARs legendary King: in races where he and Petty finished 1-2, Pearson won 33 to Pettys 30. His 11 consecutive poles at Charlotte is a feat that will likely never be matched. Another record that may never be broken is his 18.29% winning percentage, as well as his record of starting from the pole in 20% of the races he ran.

In March, 2000, SC Highway 221 through Spartanburg County was renamed David Pearson Boulevard in his honor. He lives in Spartanburg to this day. Pearson still takes to the track occasionally–he and current NASCAR driver Carl Edwards were the first to race on the newly repaved Darlington Raceway last Spring. And he’s still known as ‘The Silver Fox’, a nickname given to him for his prematurely gray hair.

Tags: nascar greats, sports, Automobile

Although he’s now better known as ‘Richard Petty’s dad’, Lee Petty had a very successful career behind the wheel himself. More significantly, he played an important role in the development and growth not only of his own family business but of NASCAR racing as a whole. Petty Enterprises has now owned race teams for over four generations and Richard Petty–aka “The King” is considered the greatest driver in stock car racing history.

Lee Petty was one of the first to take a businesslike approach to the sport of stock car race in an era when many teams and drivers still supplemented their income via bootlegging and running moonshine. He raced in the very first NASCAR stock car race ever on June 19th, 1949. Among his many firsts in the sport is the dubious distinction of bringing out the first caution flag in NASCAR history. To chronicle his achievements in the sport in a nutshell, he won 50 Cup races, including the first one ever on a paved track. He also caused his share of trouble and was never afraid to mix it up. He once hit Curtis Turner over the head with a wrench after a race, and another time got into a fistfight during the pre race festivities. Lees two sons quickly joined the skirmish but the fight was ended by Mrs. Petty (Richards grandmother) swinging her purse”made heavier than the typical pocketbook by the .44 handgun she carried inside.

Back on the track, Lee won three NASCAR championships (the forerunner to todays Sprint Cup) in his career. He also got his son in the business, but things didnt get off to a good start for his offspring. Lees son would only race 9 times his first season ending up in the wall more often than not, and more than one occasion being put there by his own dad. Of course his son eventually turned things around, and went on to win a staggering 200 races. He is now known simply as The King”Richard Petty.

Lees career was cut short by a nasty accident at the 1961 Daytona 500, where his car hit a guard rail and flipped a few times. Lee suffered a number of broken bones and internal injuries. He raced a few more times, but hung it up for good in 1964. He remained involved in the Petty Engineering team for awhile, but soon figured it was in good hands with Richard and Maurice running the show. Never a publicity seeker, he lived out the rest of his life enjoying the fruits of his labor. An avid golfer, he played frequently until a few months before his death in 2000 at age 86.

Lee Petty holds a few NASCAR records that may never be broken. He finished in the top five 231 times out of 427 races, and still holds the mark for best average finish for a full time driver at 7.6th place. Making this level of success all the more impressive, it was done in an era before big money sponsorships, on poorly maintained tracks and against legitimate criminals who spent most of their time bootlegging moonshine. The fact that Petty enjoyed so much success in that era is a credit to his toughness, dedication and courage.

Tags: m, stock car racing history, nascar