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Another piece of Colorado karting history. This is from the April 1961 edition of KART magazine, as a letter to the editor. Note the varied karting organizations listed. I also find it interesting that she refers to “tracks”, as in multiple ones. I’ll have some more info on this in the future.
Today I was going through some old files, and came across one labeled “Karting”, and in it I found this plaque. Not sure what they were racing there in 1955, given that the first kart was invented in 1956. It was a fun track to drive. Still hoping for some pictures of that track.
Update to what I posted regarding Second Creek, based on some additional information I discovered. It was originally a drag strip called Rocky Mountain Dragway and was in existence sometime in the early 60s, if not the late 50s. After that it was Dragway Denver (75-77), Thunder Road or Thunder Road Race/Dragway, and finally for its last two years as a drag strip Mile High Raceway (79-80). Then it was cut in half – on the north half Rocky Mountain Speedway, a dirt oval was built, and the southern half was converted into Second Creek Raceway. You can actually see the very northern part of the old dragstrip in an expanded photo from what I posted before. The southern part of the dragstrip became the front straight, also know as the Buckley Straight, of Second Creek.
It turns out that there is a connection to karting all the way back to the Rocky Mountain Dragway days. I found a post on vintagekarts.com with a caption regarding kart races at the dragstrip (parking lot?) in May 1966. So karting at this site actually goes all the way back to the 60s. Photo below.
Would have loved to see the shifter karts there – there weren’t any running here in CO at the time I had to quit. Saw them for the first time in Texas, where I had to move for a job – I would have to say they are my favorite class to watch now.
Josh Ferguson – I had forgotten that they called the track “Curley’s” – you are correct, although I mainly just knew it as the Boulder track. By all means if you have photos, post them, even if they aren’t the whole track.
As far as Mead goes, I agree completely about the safety of the track, which is why I only raced there once. 55 gallon drums are not what you want to hit in a kart. I identified the track incorrectly in my first post, which I have corrected. It was actually called Continental Divide Race Park, similar to the sports car track that was down by Castle Rock and now completely gone. They did actually run some enduro kart races on the one at Castle Rock at one time. As far as Mead goes, we all just called it that. For those who never raced there, you can still see remnants of the track along I-25. The bridge over the track is the most obvious feature that’s still there – lower left in the photos. First pic is the track in 1999, the second what it looks like now.
EGunderson – Boulder was a fun track. I’m working on getting some better pictures of it. I’ve included a diagram of Second Creek below – we did not race the whole track in karts – we used a cutoff that I’ve attempted to indicate with a red line. You can still see the remains of the track on Google Earth – second photo.
I always knew that track as the Boulder track, even though it was in Superior. It was right at McCaslin and the Boulder Turnpike. I’ve found aerial photos of the area before the track was built, and after it was gone, but have no photos of the track. Any you can contribute would be great.
I don’t recall a lot of walls at Second Creek at the time – most of it was wide open except that last turn before the straight. I felt the same way about Mead – in fact I only raced there once. Some of their “walls” were old 55 gallon drums. Not so bad in a car with a full body, but hitting them in a kart would not have been a good thing.
Same with the races at Colorado National – the karts were very fast around it, and you could really draft. Only raced the first race – one of the guys slid up the track and hit the wall pretty hard and got hurt. I passed on the next one.
Too bad they didn’t add that section to SBR – looks like it would have added a couple of good passing spots.
Jeff – Regarding SBR: It’s pretty obvious that the track was there for quite a while and was also longer. Hopefully, I’ll be there next Sunday to catch the CKT race. I made it to the first one at Action and it was good to see so many karts. I think we were lucky to get maybe 30 back when I was racing.
Second Creek was actually a pretty good place to race. It seemed to be pretty tight for sports cars but a very good long track for karts. I had a friend who raced in the Spec Racer class in SCCA races there, and the karts were doing comparable lap times. I still haven’t found all of my pics since the move, but I have a few. The first one is me holding my very young son (now 30!) next to my first Hutless in the pits there. The second photo was taken at the end of the left turn as you head down the straight. You could really draft down that! I don’t recall that the track was as long then as it ended up – we didn’t race the whole section on the east side.
The website would only allow me to post three photos – here is one more – what the location of the Beacon Hill track looks like now.
I learned something interesting this week. I wonder how many current racers here know that at one time, the IKF Grand Nationals were held in Colorado? Much like most of the tracks I raced on here, the track where they were held is long gone. It was called Beacon Hill Sportkart Roadway, and was located 7 miles north of Pueblo. It really was quite an amazing track – too bad it didn’t survive. Interesting place to choose to build such a great track. The 1962 IKF Grand Nationals were held there.
