CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
M
any vintage aficionados
consider the early 1960s as
one of the most interesting times
in American road racing. Flat
track dominated the professional
racing scene in this country in
the years after World War II and
Daytona and Laconia were typi-
cally the only road races. There
was a bit of an anomaly in the
mid-1950s when road racing had
a surge at tracks like Dodge City
(an airport course) and Wind-
ber, Pennsylvania (a city park),
and Torrey Pines, California (an
abandoned Army base and now
site of a famous golf course), but
through the late '50s it was back
to just Daytona and Laconia.
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MEMORIES OF
MEADOWLANDS
the famous Italian circuit's Wall
turn. Meadowdale's Monza turn
was steep, and it got steeper the
high you went. Coming out of
the Monza Wall led to the front
straight with large grandstands
on the outside of the track and a
four-story scoring and announc-
ing tower overlooking the pits.
The paddock was complete with
covered pits with second-story
spectator viewing area on top, all
in whitewashed wood.
Anyone who talks about Mead-
owdale talks about the Monza
Wall. Jody Nicholas, who won
the first AMA National at the track
in 1963, said, "If you went all the
way to the top [of the Wall], you
Sports car enthusiasts began
building road-race courses at a
rapid rate in the late 1950s and
early '60 and a growing grass-
roots club road-racing scene led
the AMA to dramatically increase
it national road-race schedule in
the 1960s.
One of the most interesting cir-
cuits to host AMA Road Race Na-
tionals in the 1960s was Mead-
owdale International Raceway in
Carpentersville, Illinois, about an
hour northwest of Chicago. What
made the 2.5-mile Meadowdale
motorcycle course unique from
other road-race circuits was the
track's infamous Monza Wall.
The Monza Wall was inspired by
M
any vintage aficionados the famous Italian circuit's Wall Sports car enthusiasts began
Meadowdale
International
Raceway in
Carpentersville,
Illinois, in 2010.
