'Big Daddy' LeBlanc and Staten Island Racing

For New Yorkers who drive, being hopelessly stuck in rush hour traffic is a part of everyone’s nightmare dreamscape, drivers aggressively competing for position through the dense gridlock on city streets.  Even non-driving residents of The City have an (understandable) love/hate relationship with cars.[1]  It’s hard to imagine, then, that New York City had its own NASCAR sanctioned stock car track, Weissglass Speedway on Staten Island, from 1953 to 1972. George ‘Big Daddy’ LeBlanc (1947-2023)[2] built and wrenched his own stock car, raced at the track in his youth, and with the track’s closing became the raceway’s historian. Without George’s dedication to collecting stock cars, track ephemera and the histories of cars and drivers, there is a good chance Weissglass Speedway‘s obscure story would have faded from view.

Staten Island was consolidated into New York City in 1888 as the Borough of Richmond, and was formally named Staten Island in 1975. Life there is rural/suburban, and the local culture is individualist. Some say that Staten Island natives speak with a distinct inflection, and those who live there consider theirs the ‘Forgotten Borough’. Staten Island has a very open landscape, and a large parcel of the island was owned by the Weissglass family dairy that supplied milk for Staten Island and the city.  The flat and open terrain sparked the imagination of promoter/developers, who built a racetrack on the property. Post-WWII America was nurtured by a new, expanding, automobile-based infrastructure, that ended up reshaping the culture as a whole. George LeBlanc lived on Staten Island near the new track, and in his early teens was drawn to the hand-lettering he saw on the stock cars. On race days he made his way into the pit area where he studied the various paint styles. At home, he practiced brush lettering techniques, and offered his paint skills for free to car owners, as a way to gain access to secret garage spaces.

“My interest in hand-painted lettering and pinstriping was sparked at a very young age by the stock cars at Weissglass Stadium.” George said. “It was something that I noticed the first time I attended the races, that some of the cars were professionally lettered by a sign painter and some were not.  My attention was drawn to the nicely lettered cars.  During my teenage years I started lettering stock cars for free just to acquire the skills to do hand lettering.  This also was my ticket into everybody’s garage and I was able to be around the cars and go into the pits on Saturday nights.”

The small 1/5 mile oval Weissglass track had no straight-aways. The car engines were simple flathead 6-cylinders, with no overhead valve mechanics. Cars raced in a continuous oval, tire to tire, in a noisy competition that rarely exceeded 65 mph. NASCAR had strict rules about driver and car registration that a few drivers sidestepped by racing under alias names at other area tracks, and these rules reinforced a ‘local’ feel to the Weissglass track. Drivers developed local reputations and rivalries, pit crews were often family members (including women) and the home-spun nature of the races encouraged homemade pit crew uniforms; some crews wore outfits color-matched to their cars, with special derby hats. The atmosphere at Weissglass split the difference between a townie summer carnival and a loosely supervised, death defying, multi-player car accident.[3]

George lived on the Staten Island property on which he’d been born and raised. There were several out-buildings where he collected and stored Weissglass racecars and track ephemera, as a kind of personal museum. His enthusiasm for Weissglass history was available for anyone who wanted to stop by and learn about the racetrack, and his openness has served to preserve the story. George remembers[4]: “From 1953 until 1972 stock car races were held weekly from May until October at the 1/5th mile asphalt racetrack here on Staten Island.  The local dairy, owned by the Weissglass family, sponsored the track upon its opening.  The first three years of operation were NASCAR sanctioned and beginning in 1956 the races were held under promoter Gabe Rispoli’s own Hollywood style stock car racing club.  The track was unique in the fact that it had no real straightaways and was one constant sweeping turn.  It became nicknamed ‘The Flying Saucer’ by some of the early drivers because of this.”

“The track’s first champion in 1953 was Frankie Schneider. Other drivers who achieved notoriety at the track included Howie Brown, Jake Goodski, Bruno Brackey, Tiny Milano, Red Hammersly, Sonny Mims, George Kaufman, Earl Elzer, Norman Tryde, Dennis Dibrizzi, Buddy Laureno, Jerry Dunklemen, Al  Lucky, Jack Duffy, Jack Zakian, Jim Long, Johnny Popick, Johnny Lee, Doggie Hewitt, Cliff Ryerson, Lou Bonin, Joe Urciuoli, Bobby Doyle, Dick Hirsh, Les Carajat and a host of other local stars.  Under the NASCAR sanction, which were drivers from New Jersey, promoter Rispoli started a Staten Island Division to build local interest and held a special NASCAR vs Staten Island drivers race at the end of the night, which was very popular with Staten Islanders. The track enjoyed packed grandstands and quality cars and drivers into the early 60’s.  In 1966 the top division drivers held a strike and left.  The promoter moved up one of the lower divisions to fill the void but the racing never really recovered leading to smaller crowds and poorer fields of cars.”

“George Kaufman is the all-time feature winner with 45 feature wins.  Howie Brown is second with 20.  Every kid’s favorite had to be Tiny Milano with his sharp looking cars and whitewall tires that always were spotless at the beginning of the night.  Pit crews competed for best uniforms in those days also with probably Doggie Hewitt’s crew being the most unique as they all wore derbies and had matching red shirts.  One of the most spectacular accidents in the history of the track had to be the time that Dick Hirsch hung his 40 Ford sedan, #227, in the catch fence, nearly getting into the grandstands.  The car was left there for the remainder of the night’s show and removed the following morning with a crane.”

“Cars from Freeport Stadium invaded quite regularly and ran very well, sometimes winning the feature.  Freeport regulars included Bruno Brackey, Cliff Ryerson and Lou Campa. There were two special 75-lap extra distance races held every season up until around 1967.  The first of these races was referred to as the ‘Mid-Season Championship’, unless a local business sponsored the race by paying for the trophy.  In this case the race was referred to as the ‘Gold Seal 75’, (Weissglass Dairies Brand name for their milk), or the ‘Bardahl Sweepstakes’ (Bardahl Oil Additive was a major sponsor of the track) or the ‘Parrish Cup’ (Monte Parrish owned a big hardware store near the track).  The other long distance event was the 75-lap Langhorne qualifier.  Every October there was a 100-lap race held at mile-long Langhorne Speedway in Langhorne Pennsylvania called the ‘Race of Champions’.  The starting field was made up of winners of these qualifying races throughout tracks in the north and southeast.  This was a prestigious event and Weissglass Speedway was represented by such drivers as Howie Brown, Jake Goodski, Al Lucky, Lou Bonin and several others.  Howie Brown was able to have a top 10 finish in this race on one occasion.  Eventually, the extra distance races were reduced to 50-lap and finally 35-lap as the cars were unable to complete the extra distance.”

“Upon Howie Brown’s untimely demise in 1967, promoter Rispoli held a memorial race for him every season until the track closed.  Carl ‘Pop’ Carlson, a local engine builder, also had a memorial race in his honor when he passed away.  Promoter Rispoli tried to limit the cars to flathead V-8s and 6-cylinders as long as he could but finally in 1966 he allowed overhead valve V-8 engines in the cars.  This change made the cars almost too fast for the tiny track and with the wider tires needed, side by side racing became more difficult.  Track records for a 10-lap heat and a 25-lap main event were established by Jake Goodski in the 1960 & 61 seasons and were never broken.  One reason for this is that non-stop caution-free races became non-existent after the 1965 season.  A non-stop 25-lap feature was over in about 5 1/2 minutes indicating an average speed of about 65 miles per hour.  The site of the racetrack today is a garbage strewn field with no traces whatsoever of the racetrack being there.”

The photos from Weissglass Speedway are a unique window into the grass-roots culture of fast cars and a largely unregulated thrill of going fast.  To several generations of Americans, that simplicity felt a whole lot like freedom.

[1] Believe it or not New York is one of the world’s most sustainable cities. Unlike other parts of America, New York City’s transportation system produces fewer greenhouse gasses than the buildings. Most of the transportation is via mass transit or by foot. Today, the 8.336 million residents of New York City only own about two-million cars.

[2] The expression ‘Big Daddy’ is traced to North American English, informal slang: ​a man who is powerful, important or rich, or all of these. He is usually a man who acts like a father to people who work for him or depend on him. In downtown Manhattan 1940s-50s Bohemian/Beatnik coffee house culture, the man in charge of making the coffee was called the ‘Big Daddy’. The Beatnik use of the term was picked up by car and motorcycle culture Bohemians in the 1950s, like ‘Big Daddy’ Don Garlits and Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth.

[3] 1960s footage of racing at Weissglass Speedway- Youtube Weissglass Speedway-  Staten Island, NY  kingdezign

[4] From: A Little Background on Weissglass… from George LeBlanc, www.weissglassspeedway.com