Speedway 1972

While at grad school in the early 1970’s Henry Horenstein would attend Speedway races, in New England to see his brother in law compete. In front of his camera the drivers would fly around the track in beat-up cars customised for racing at break neck speeds in the hopes of small town glory.

Horenstein's joyful images present us with a slice now of what the world of motor racing looked like then, before racing became big business, as it slowly morphed into Nascar - the worlds fastest growing sport.

“I was still in grad school and I was looking for subjects. There had to be good pictures there for a wanna-be historian-with-a-camera. What better than an old-school sport that would certainly be extinct one day? I’m still waiting. My brother-in-law Paul raced stock cars—old. Paul’s cousin Dickie Simmonds owned the local Gulf station and modified the junkers that Paul drove at places like the Seekonk Speedway (Seekonk, MA) and the Thompson Speedway (Thompson, CT). Paul and Dickie had friends in low places.” Henry Horenstein

"As I started to look at the photos I recognized most of the cars and I began to marvel at the skills of some of these drivers and their teams for keeping these heaps going. They must have been geniuses... As I looked over the photos for a second time I noticed that for a book about stock car racing there are more pictures of the people than their cars and this is something else that Henry and I share. On Car Talk we used the cars as an excuse to talk to people and get to know them and their stories." Ray Magliozzi