Aquasco Speedway

[Dan Lattimore]

Originally Posted by Mike Bassin

What a great thread! Thanks Wade for the history/story and photos of Aquasco. I spent nearly all my time in the '60's at 75-80 but would venture to Aquasco 4 or 5 times a year during the early/mid '60s. About two of the cars mentioned, Al Sylvester's SD '62 421 Pontiac, it was a street driven car, could run 12.70's @ 110 mph on good days, that was real fast at the time. I can remember Dave Strickler's '62 409 and Al heads up at 75-80 on a real hot day, if it had been an 1/8 race Al would have won, Dave just got around at the stripe, that was impressive to me then. Gene Calhoun's "Arapaho" '60 Pontiac tri-power car was real fast also, ran everywhere in Md. There is a re-creation of the car running, can't recall the owner, ran 6.90 at Quarter Aces in 2011 at a Nostalgia event [1/8 mile]. Very period correct car, brought back memories.

Mike Bassin

Hey Mike , Great old storys. The owner of the old Arapaho is Troy Tribby. I sold him the remains (pretty rough) along with a nice maroon ventura and several others and a ton of parts about 20 years ago. I believe he used the maroon one to recreate the current Arapaho. I've seen him run it a couple of times 10.00 and shooting for 9's. Really brings back memorys. By the way the name came from Gene's father ( Pappy Calhoun ) a great friend and true gentleman, a mans man and a full blooded Arapaho Indian.-----------Danny