Old Pictures, Deer Park Sept 1964

rons

Ron Standley
Salvaging some old slides that are starting to deteriorate, sort of like me.

This set is from a road race at Deer Park, just north of Spokane.
Deer Park Road Race, Sept 1964

Check out the crowd security.

I have a few more on the way as soon as I can scan them. A few from the drags and another road race at Deer Park. Also a SCCA race at Pacific Raceways, 1967.
 
the pics are in good shape! Yes its funny to see the crowd just standing on the side of the track, no guard rail. I see one of the cars has competition motorsports, portland OR. Other than that no other "sponsor" stickers on the cars, just the number. :)
 
Extremely cool Ron! I hope the pilot of the upside down car wasn't very tall.

I like the O/W drivers with open face helmets and the scarf over the mouth. That could not have been very comfortable.
 
I always enjoy the old photo's. One thing about Deer Park was if you get off track just a little bit you will just vanish in the tall weeds or maybe it's scotch broom. The majority of the cars are collector cars today but back then just slap a number plate on and run what you brung...
 
I only got to race deer park a couple of times in the early 70's. It was wind, bees, and sunburn. But they had a secret ingredient: A club that really had pride in putting on a fun race and making you glad you made the drive.

My first race there followed my first (and only) rosecup race, and the contrast of how a beginning driver was treated made me pick conference as the organization i wanted to run with. This is my 36th year in racing and i have never run another s.c.c.a. Race.

Although i have told this story many times over the years, and oregon region has become much more user friendly i never went back. I would however be ungrateful not to remark that they were very good to my son when at age 16 he had to go that route because conference could not accommodate him.

But i digress, the point is: We choose where we spend our money and sometimes you never get another chance to retain a customer. I would gladly race deer park tomorrow if the same spirit and hospitality were there.

Bill murray
 
I think this is why ORP is so appealing to me, and why SRP feels somewhat nostalgic everytime I go over there. It was grassroots racing at it's best with family and camping and great comraderie, and I miss that. Deer Park was a hoot, and I was lucky enough to run there a number of times in the 70's and early 80's in various cars. Yeah I remember the heat, sand, wind, and the bees - but we had so much fun that none of that seemed to matter.
So I'm looking forward to ORP and it's old fashioned 'roughing it' feel.
 
Thanks for the comments and the interesting stories.

If I remember this was the only track for road and drags in the area. At least while I was growing up in Spokane.
 
Awesome pictures Ron, thank you for sharing.

I lived in Spokane and my dad took me out to Deer Park to see the races there when I was a kid. I vividly remember some Trans Am cars there that were VERY entertaining to watch at a time when that series was at it's very best. It was a great memory with my father and was one of the experiences that let me know I was going to have to drive a race car no matter what.

Did they ever have real Trans-Am races there or were they just local guys driving Tran-Am look cars. I would swear that I saw a Penske painted Camaro, and a Parnelli Jones color themed Mustang there. Is that just my rose colored memory or could those cars have been there?
 
Awesome pictures Ron, thank you for sharing.

I lived in Spokane and my dad took me out to Deer Park to see the races there when I was a kid. I vividly remember some Trans Am cars there that were VERY entertaining to watch at a time when that series was at it's very best. It was a great memory with my father and was one of the experiences that let me know I was going to have to drive a race car no matter what.

Did they ever have real Trans-Am races there or were they just local guys driving Tran-Am look cars. I would swear that I saw a Penske painted Camaro, and a Parnelli Jones color themed Mustang there. Is that just my rose colored memory or could those cars have been there?

Thanks Rick.

I don't remember a lot about the individual cars. Or what larger events they had. I seem to remember attending the local club sponsored runs and thats about it.

Where in Spokane? Anywhere around North Central HS?
 
My dad was one of the all-time North Central athletic greats. When I was born they had a custom made North Central Letter Sweater made for me so I could follow in my fathers footsteps.

In the following 16 years we moved to Portland for a very short time, then Federal Way until I was three, then back to Spokane until I left for WSU. We ended up out in the valley and I attended University High.

Why do you ask? Does the name ring a bell?
 
Deer Park

Great photos. I can remember going there with a friend, maybe 74 or 75, who was racing an early Honda civic, and then later in the mid eighties, I think, with an ex T/A camaro that I used to race, but by then had sold to another racer.

There was never a Trans-Am race at Deer Park. Does anyone remember when it closed as a track?

BTW, does anyone remember who the drivers were in those photos?

Robert Barg
 
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I remember running there for the last time in 1983, but I don't recall any events after that. I was Asst. Steward in 1985 and I'm sure we didn't go over there that year.
The next race was the Spokane GP which must have been late 80's perhaps, but that was only around a short while. It was fun watching Atlantics blasting around that street circuit though, and the Ford guys had a ball.
 
Deer Park is now being used by the local autocross club Autosports Northwest. You can link this club back to Northwest Motorsports. The surface was in pretty bad shape with lots of grass growing through the cracks. The autocross guys have been cleaning, and repairing the cracks, and it is starting to look pretty good. There is an active RC airplane club there, and one end has a glider base.

When we were cleaning out the old timing trailer we found some items from the old road race days in the trailer. I believe we put all of it in a boxes. I should check into where that stuff went. That poor timing trailer was built in 1959, and was still in use up to a few years ago.

The photo of the Datsun Roadster might be Paul Jaremko . He had a 1500 that they ran about that time. He owns that car again , and had it on display at the
Dealership a few years back.

Mike
 
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The last NWMS race in Deer Park was Labor Day weekend, 1985 according to the September 4, 1985 Deer Park Tribune.

--Bryan
 
Yeah Kenny, all of those old T-shirts have "shrunk" into oblivion. I actually have a collection of old shirts from some of the old races, but since they no longer fit they stay in their plastic bags to be someday handed down to, someone?
 
My dad was one of the all-time North Central athletic greats. When I was born they had a custom made North Central Letter Sweater made for me so I could follow in my fathers footsteps.

In the following 16 years we moved to Portland for a very short time, then Federal Way until I was three, then back to Spokane until I left for WSU. We ended up out in the valley and I attended University High.

Why do you ask? Does the name ring a bell?

Kind of. I was in the same years as a Pat. Any relationship? I don't remember her, I just now looked it up an the 58 and 59 yearbooks. I was in the marching band and got in free and good seats at the games.
 
Yep. That would be my aunt. One of several actually - pop came from a good Swedish family. Ten kids was about the norm.
 
Vince Howlett has id'd some of drivers in the Deer Park photos -

#41 Gerry Bruihl, Beaverton OR (now Spokane), Lotus 23-OSCA
#81 Jerry Lindvall, Spokane, Datsun SPL-310=U
#208 Eric Falks, Vancouver BC (now New Denver), Lotus 20B Formula Junior and #66,
Russ Harness, Portland, Lotus 18 Formula Junior (photo #3)
#356 the late Gary Wright, Portland, Porsche 904
#521 Spence Stoddard, Seattle, Shelby Cobra
#111 Steve Crouch, Seattle, Mini-Cooper
#84 Don Shervey, Portland, TR3, #167, the late Chas. Barett, Vancouver BC black TR3,
#212, the late Dan Sherwood, N. Vancouver BC, Sprite MK.II (photo 10)
Joe Naermura was in one of the white Corvettes.

Robert Barg
 
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