For years I've heard the rumor that there was once a "real racetrack" in Castle Rock but that it had closed many years ago.
Recently I learned the racetrack was called Continental Divide Raceways and was located just 4 miles south of downtown Castle Rock. It was a 2.8 paved mile road course, 0.5 mile oval and 1/4 mile drag strip that opened in 1959. Racing continued until 1979 and reopened in briefly in 1981. The land was sold for development and although little has been developed even now, the asphalt surface was plowed up to ensure cars would not return.
Using Google Earth I was able to find the location of the track. Although the pavement is long gone, the location had a distinctive grandstand cut into the hillside which is still visible. Finding the grandstand showed where the drag-strip was and it too is still visible.
Events held at the track include USAC Road Racing Championships, USAC Stock Car and Indy Car events, and SCCA Trans Am.
As early as 1960, USAC held a
Road Racing Championship event at the track.
Carrol Shelby in a Scarab Mk II held off 35-40 other drivers for 36 laps to take home $900 in the Continental Divide 100. Attendance was recorded as 8,500.
Here is an interview with Carrol Shelby discussing the 1960 race at CDR
Though lightly attended compared with the Riverside and Laguna Seca events, the 1961 even still attracted Ken Miles and Bob Holbert and their Porsche 718 RSs and collection of other including Ferrari 500TR, Maserati Tipo 61 and something called a Devin Volkswagen.
By the mid '60s attendance had climbed to over 10k for major road racing events.
The Rocky Mountain 150 held July 7th 1968 attracted Al Unser, AJ Foyt, Lloyd Ruby and Mario Andrett. Ronny Bucknam lead from pole until a half-shaft failure on lap 23 gave the lead to A.J Foyt who held it to the end.
An entry list for the first of two SCCA Tran-Am races held August 26th, 1967, is a Who's Who of American Motorsports:
Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, Dan Gurney George Follmer, Jerry Titus and Milton Minter were all there. Titus took the win in 1967 and Donohue won in 1968
Evel Knievel performed at CDR July 30th 17972.
The last recorded race I find is a
Winston West event August 15th, 1982 won by Rick McCray
According to the Chicago Herald-Tribune Driver Jim Mulhall of Littleton was killed on June 8th 1969 at the 1969 Formula A Grand Prix, in a accident that later took the life of mechanic Michael DesJardins.
According to witness Paul Bredenberg;
"I was also at that race. We went to the '69 and '70 Indy car races and the '69 First (and only) Annual Denver Post Grand Prix for SCCA Formula A cars. The Post GP was the eventual demise of the track. The dragstrip was used as the front straight ("The Andretti Straight") and the return road was the pit road. They were separated by a row of 55 gallon rain barrels that were to be filled with water and cabled together. Jim Mulhall was a small-time local Corvette racer who had a chance to drive one of the Indy cars that day. It was a Halibrand Shrike chassis and was offset for oval track racing. It was a yellow #77.
During the race, an absolute DELUGE hit the track in the form of a typical spring storm. Cars tried to stay out on their dry tires but it was senseless to do so. Mulhall's crew signaled him next for rain tires on the next lap. He took one hand off the wheel to signal that he got the message off the board, hit a puddle and aquaplaned 270 degrees, so that the back of the car headed towards the barrels at about a 30 degree angle. Mulhall's car hit the barrels at about 155 mph.
Guess what? Somebody forgot to fill all of the barrels with water! Barrels went flying into the pit area and the cable snapped and hit Mulhall's helmet, breaking it into several pieces. The car went across the return road, hit the Armco barrier and slid to a stop almost at turn 1 ("Foyt's Corner") with a smashed barrel underneath it. Mulhall died on the way to Swedish Hospital without regaining consciousness and three people in the pits were hurt.
After the lawsuits flew and damages were paid, Sid Langsam lost his heart for the track, and then later was diagnosed with cancer; I think it was prostate cancer, but I'm not sure on that."
Today, the Colorado Region of the SCCA give an award for outstanding contribution to racing in Colorado called the Sid Langsam Award.
Here is a video by the Castle Rock Historical Society showing some great period racing at CDR
Here is video of a sprint car race on the CDR oval in 1960
I've been carrying the same tool box to the track since I started racing my first M3 in 1997. The large metal box, a Kennedy 1022 I think, was a gift from my father many years earlier and sat unused under the workbench for a while after upgrading to a full-sized roll-away in the garage. While it has served faithfully for many years, it's size and weight -- 22 Lbs empty -- have become more of an issue while loading and unloading the car. The large size of the box makes it too easy to throw in parts and tools, and the lay-out of the box was not particularly well suited to storing auto repair tools.
I knew I wanted a tool bag instead of a tool box -- the soft construction makes packing the car easier -- but I initially wanted a bag large enough for my Snap-on Torque Wrench which is over 24" inches long. An on-line search showed few soft bags in that size, so I decided on a smaller bag and to keep the over-sized torque wrench in my 16 Gal. Tote instead.
Car-related forums are littered with the same n00b question: What coilover should I get for my Blah-Blah-Blah car. Most of the time the poster is only concerned about lowering the car for looks and will never use any of the adjustments available with a coil-over suspension. If, however, you want to really use these adjustments, you've got to learn the fundamentals. You need to know how camber and caster interact as the car turns in. You need to know how ride height changes at one end of the chassis effects mid-corner balance. There are a number of books on chassis engineering and a number of great web-sites that cover everything you would need. Now you may know what each adjustment does, but you won't make proper use of your new knowledge until you learn to think like a test driver and a race engineer. You have to measure and record everything. You have to take copious notes and be organized, methodical and work to a plan. Every session has to be on the clock and all performance measured. Now are you can start to use suspension adjustments to "tune" the suspension and gain real performance results.
Baselining:
For years I've heard the rumor that there was once a "real racetrack" in Castle Rock but that it had closed many years ago.
Using Google Earth I was able to find the location of the track. Although the pavement is long gone, the location had a distinctive grandstand cut into the hillside which is still visible. Finding the grandstand showed where the drag-strip was and it too is still visible.
Though lightly attended compared with the Riverside and Laguna Seca events, the 1961 even still attracted Ken Miles and Bob Holbert and their Porsche 718 RSs and collection of other including Ferrari 500TR, Maserati Tipo 61 and something called a Devin Volkswagen.
Evel Knievel performed at CDR July 30th 17972.
On Sunday I'll be taking the car to High Plains Raceway for a shakedown/test session. I hope the weather holds. Beyond making sure the thing works on the track, I'm focused on getting the alignment and overall balance sorted. The main tools will be my new (to me) Longacre tire temp gauge, stopwatch and driver feel.
After nearly three monts in the shop I got the car back yesterday. It sits a little lower (and a lot stiffer) on the new Ground Control D/A suspension, has a new (used) transmission and a electric cooling fan.
