Car Race - Life in the fast lane 1925 Tissue Paper

Colorized photo 1925 Original title: Laurel Speedway's board track. Location: Intersection of 197 & 198 This is the Baltimore-Washington Speedway, and its also the original Laurel speedway before they closed this down and moved down the street a bit to become a horse race track. This track is comprised of wood, made entirely of 2x4's with their edge side up. It cost $500,000 to make, was 1 1/4 miles long, had a bank of 45 deg, the track itself was about 50ft wide. The place was on 80 acres of land, and people would watch from the inside, behind a flimsy chain link fence. Which was better than nothing, since in those days, they would do it on your street. Cars would race at speeds of 120-125mph, with no roll cage, windshield, and probably no belts, and no helmets. It was said that while there was little dust, there was splinters. Racers with their elbows out would be covered in splinters. Wherever there were missing boards, a child would sneak in, and pop their head out of those holes to watch, real close... Wooden race tracks were popular only for about 2 years. They needed constant maintenance, and there was little time to repair them. Often carpenters had to work underneath the track, while the race was going on, and repaired it there! And since there was no preservative then, it would rot much faster.