Long before Bruce Springsteen
ever belted out the words to "Born to Run", the Jersey Shore has been the
place to be for fun and excitement during the summer months for inland Northeast
residents.
The lure of the Atlantic
Ocean and all of the entertainment hot spots that it has spawned continually
draws vacationers from thousands of miles to the North, West and South to
enjoy it's recreational pleasures. Among the many items on the seaside menu
to enjoy are the ocean and it's beaches and the boardwalks of Belmar, Point
Pleasant and Seaside Heights. Lounges and nightclubs abound near the shoreline
making for after hours fun for the many local inhabitants and the vacationers
that are drawn here. The Great Adventure amusement park is just a half-hour
inland from the beaches yet adding another place of interest to an already
exciting area for summer fun.
Nestled among all of this
activity is one of the most successful stock car racing short tracks in the
country. Strategically located at the intersection of the Garden State Parkway.
Interstate 195 and New Jersey Highway 34 is Wall Stadium, a high
banked third-mile paved oval that has been hosting exciting racing events
for the past 59 years!
The founders of the speedway,
Thomas and Jennie Nicol, first fell in love with the sport by visiting the
Long Branch Speedway. Once the Nicols assembled a 55-acre tract of land off
Route 34, they began to visit speedways from New Hampshire to Virginia, noting
the bad points to avoid and the good ones to incorporate into their design.
Thoughts of the future were
obviously in Mr. Nicol's mind as the track was constructed with a steep 30
degree banking in the corners and 16 degree banking on the straights which
allowed the speeds to increase while still keeping a margin of safety intact.
The comfort of the spectator
was also a first priority from those early days as the track and it's
grandstands, which line the front straight, were built in a man-made bowl.
This procedure allowed the foundation of the spectator seating area to be
formed of poured concrete.
Although the Nicol's original
design was a good one, new owners took over the speedway in February
26, 2002,
and immediately began a massive renovation and improvement plan. The Creamer
family, Joseph Sanzari, Tim Shinn and Fred Archer, partners in Wall Township
Speedway, knew that an update was needed to ensure that the race fans to
today were comfortable.
Although the improvements
are ongoing at Wall Stadium - "Racing At The Jersey Shore Since 1950"
thus far the owners have rebuilt the
grandstand seating, renovated the restroom and food concession facilities,
paved the pit area, added a one-fifth mile "inner oval" to the speedway which
also serves as a safety apron and recently replace the famous wooden guardrail
with steel in the turns of the the ultra-fast oval.
On
March 14, 2008 the partners released a letter stating the famed
jersey shore speedway would be closed despite every effort
to keep the track open. It further read, without going into the whys
and wherefores, numerous attempts to create a scenario to keep the
track in continuous operation were looked into, all to no avail. The
roadside billboard sign outside the speedway read "CLOSED FOR
GOOD".
Jim
Morton, the former track operations manager secured a lease of the speedway in 2008
to hold the 35th annual Turkey Derby, as the track had sat idle
since November 2007. The large turnout and support for Morton's
first promotional event at the speedway brought on another entire
racing season at the Jersey shore oval in 2009 under another lease
agreement. After Morton's successful 2009 season, the lease
agreement was even further extended.
