Solving the Mystery of NASCAR's Ghost Track: Air Base Speedway

After having put up a bounty for more evidence of Air Base Speedway, mostly as a joke, I was inundated with DM's containing articles, newspaper clippings, and photos. I sifted through the info and with some help from the people at Speed Sport Magazine, it all came together.

Thanks to Justin Nguyen and Matthew Ludwigson for finding the photos and claiming the bounty! Check them out here:

And huge thanks to Speed Sport Magazine and all the people who work there, especially Adamn Fenwick, Tom Schmeh, and the master sleuth himself Jonathan Nelson. You can checkout the article in full for yourself at their website:

#NASCAR #AirBaseSpeedway #GhostTrack

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[Raycevick]

Excellent work to everybody that helped.
Can't wait to see what's left of the real thing.

[mitchell-wallisforce]

I am so glad I ran into this channel. And I have never seen the internet racing community come together on a scale this large to hunt down a racing circuit that is likely little more than ancient history at this point...



To all of those madlads on Twitter who dedicated hours of research to this, and to you SlapShoes, I salute you.

[VirtuellJo]

I have said this before, NASCAR should pay you for doing these videos.

[linkfan]

Thanks to you and your efforts S1ap, there is now a marker on google maps where the track used to be. It's amazing that you brought this much light onto something that would've just withered away into existence otherwise.

[buckodonnghaile]

Pretty much every small town regional track we've ever raced at or a claimed they they were the fastest (insert track length here) speedway. The go kart track we built behind my dad's barn is "The world's fastest 1/10th mile dirt go kart track owned by an aging Canadian named farmer named Brendan" (although if my brother builds his it might lose that designation). Cheers, great video.

[nikolasjohnson]

All I could hear in my head at the end was a new reporter reading a headline that says

Man kidnaps classroom and takes them for a field trip. When pressed for answers he responded "I don't need no damn permission slips to take these kids where I want."

[FearDaFro]

So we are storming Air Base Speedway instead of Area 51.
Really great series, with tons of history. Keep it up!

[jimbo-fkdq]

This is the beauty of the YouTube, and internet as a whole. A big television channel wouldn't have a community to work on something like this, but YouTube does, and it makes YouTube more entertaining than television.

[M]

Dude, you're crushing it. Congrats on the exposure on other outlets, hope this means more race history I never knew I cared about

[adamcichon]

I am from Poland, don't know a dang about the NASCAR, but i LOVE the whole story of restoring the knowledge about forgotten NASCAR race and racetrack. Those information should be published on the web site, that start this whole research ;).

[Nitro]

Not only a huge day for the channel, but a huge day within the whole community as a whole. I’m super happy with all of the support and glad we tracked all of this down.

[stephenmcbride]

It is so great to see a you-tube channel that not only talks about history, but helps uncover and document it. Historical archeology at it's best. The cars are great too (lol).

[QuicksilverJono]

I am so satisfied that we know more about the speedway. Love your videos. (Edit was spelling mistake)

[joshmanis]

Cleetus in a few years be like: WE BOUGHT ANOTHER TRACK

[diogosousa]

This is mindblowing! Good job to all who helped
Amazing video as always

[mrredchevelle]

Easily one of my favorite episodes. Thanks to everyone who hunted for information, this is so amazing. Thanks SlapShoes for posting what could easily be the most complete information about this forgotten track. Cant wait for the on location video.

[dportillo]

I never imagined that the small town I stayed at my first time in the US would have a secret like this. It’s cool to discover historic stuff like this.

Greenville SC was the place I found out cars were really cool, went to the BMW factory in Spartanburg and a Corvette dealership cuz it was the first time I saw so many corvettes and thought they were cool af (I’m Spanish). Wish I went to a race

[charlesmoore]

This is history that deserves to be remembered. Someone contact The History Guy, right now!

[frazerguest]

It’s always a good day when SlapShoes uploads. If you’re ever over this side of the Pond, (England), it would be a pleasure to show you and your family around.

[fdube]

Taking a look at the Bob Flock image. The #128 with Charlie (Charles) Gattalia behind him is not listed on the Air Base Speedway results. Also Charlie's history in 1951 never shows him going south of New Jersey to run a Grand National race. Pretty sure that image is a no go.