Jerry Palfenier, that name sounds familiar. Probably met Homer Wooden and I can assure you I raced with Phil Pfau from the Salem area. He was the first guy I saw race that if he wasn't on the money he'd just pull his controller, grab his car, and head home.
And I remember some of the tracks we raced at back then. McMinnville had a tricky track - for me - and I liked the Uptown Shopping Center in NW Portland and Petite Carts where I smoked a motor but kept the car slowly moving making just enough laps that we wound up pretty good for a 4-man team race as other teams developed problems. And there was the Hollywood Speedway on Sandy Blvd. that had the Mr. Fast Championship each year. I won a Concourse trophy there one year. And St. Helens also chipped in with the Formula Libre Raceway. The first day it opened I stood in line to get track time. My slot - 7:30 that night! The place was packed. Ah, the 60's... We didn't know much yet but we sure had fun.
Yep, it's coming back to me, I may have bought Homer's slot box when he gave it up. I think I spent $20 and had to have him drive me to Scappoose so I could get the money from my dad. Whoa.
So I had a school buddy that knew the owners of the track in St. Helens - Bill and Carol Heilers - so he took me in there before they were opened and I had my one 1:24 scale car - a GarVic! There was no power setup yet so he stuck my car on the track, touched two wires to the tape and off it went. He didn't reduce the power soon enough and it went down the back straight at full power and off the big bank into the air. As fortune had it, the car was fine. Next time I was there it was opening day and we got to use real controllers. For me - a brown COX with the plunger.
To be a 60's kid was a special time. We had it pretty good.
Dave Sukau was a pretty fun guy at the track, he stopped soon after this picture, bought a stock car and took to the local dirt track circuit.
