The inside walls of the Pelican Park facility are covered with posters and old photos of not only past Pelican Park events, but many photos of old tracks and events from throughout the Northwest. The Northwest has a long history of racing hardbody scratchbuilt cars, and the Pelican Park track is the oldest surviving track still holding events!
Everytime I visit I see photos I had never noticed before! This red track that was originally built and used in a commercial raceway in Lake Oswego, was later purchased by Tim Barnes and set up in his basement in Fairview. NASTE races were held on this track for a couple of years. The track was eventually sold and moved to somewhere in California. It's current location or status is unknown.
This blue track was built by Larry Cockerham in Carlton. The track hosted OSCAR, PASER, and NASTE events for a few years. The track was then sold to Jeff Courtney who set the track up in the upstairs part of his shop. Jeff held NASTE races on the track and hosted the annual NASTE Halloween races. Thetrack was eventually sold to Rob and moved to Vancouver where he currently holds PASER events.
This is an early photo of Pelican Park Speedway probably taken not too long after it was moved to Eugene and set up in its current location. In this photo the track still has the original copper tubing controller hookups designed by Hugh Ellsworth. Hugh came up with thsi type of controller connections when the track was originally restored in Portland around 1988.
