From the Long Island Automotive Museum and the cover of Automobile Quarterly, 1st Quarter, 1976
|
|
|
Sheepshead Bay Speedway
Brooklyn, New York
1915 -1919
The photographs on this page have been provided by Bill Spink Collins, whose grandfather, Al Spink, Jr., collected them when he was an official at the speedway.
Bill is looking for information about Al Spink Jr., and about Al Spink Sr., Bill's great-grandfather. Bill can be contacted at:
billcollins@gwi.net
|
American Heritage writes about the boards. Click here.
This article, an interview with Everard Thompson, appeared in The New York Times on Aug. 1, 1915:
Read the Article
|
|
|
|
|
|
Section of a "bird's-eye" view of Brooklyn, published around 1907 by August R. Ohman & Co. Drawings like this are fanciful in that the buildings, for example, are more representational depictions than historical re-creations. The same applies to parks and residential clusters. However, the general layout is reasonably accurate. The Sheepshead Bay Speedway, a two-mile oval, was built on the site of the Coney Island Jockey Club at Sheepshead Bay, which is the largest oval in this drawing, just right of center. The oval at the lower left was the Brighton Bay Race Course, a horse race track that was the location of auto races from roughly 1912 to 1914.
|
A. H. Spink Jr.
|
| . |
|
| . |
 |
|
Harry Harkness, left, and Everard Thompson
|
|
|
|
|
Astor Cup Race, 350 miles, Oct. 9, 1915, the first event at the Sheepshead Bay Speedway. The winner was Gil Anderson in the No. 5 Stutz. His teammate, Tom Rooney, No. 7, finished second. No. 4, a Peugeot driven by Bob Burman, was seventh. The crowd was estimated at 70,000
|
|
|
|
Rooney, finishing.
|
|
|
|
Lining up for the 250-mile Astor Cup Race on Sept. 30, 1916.
|
|
|
|
Start of the 250-mile Astor Cup Race on Sept. 30, 1916. The front row, right to left, consisted of Josef Christiaens, in a Peugeot, who finished 28th; Jim Myer, Pugh, 11th; George Buzane, Duesenberg, 18th, and Bert Wilson, Olson, 31st.
|
|
|
|
Astor Cup Race, 250 miles, Sept. 30, 1916. Identifiable by car number are No. 25, Dave Lewis, Premier, who finished 19th; No. 33, Otto Henning, Ogren/Duesenberg, 23d; No. 14, Pete Henderson, Maxwell, 15th; No. 37, Andy Burt, Ogren/Duesenberg, 14th; No. 27, George Adams, Adams, 12th.
|
|
|
|
The cars of Dario Resta, left, and Josef Christiaens return home after failing in the 250-mile Astor Cup Race, Sept. 30, 1916. A broken valve for Resta and a broken piston for Christiaens.
|
|
|
|
Johnny Aitken wins the Harkness Trophy Race, Oct. 28, 1916
|
|
|
|
Aitken stalks Dario Resta's Peugeot (4) and Tommy Milton's Duesenberg (25).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Probably the Astor Cup Race, 250 miles, Sept. 30, 1916.
|
|
|
|
