In 1971, Jerry Slusky called me to see if I could put my mini in the auto show along with Ronnie Wolf's "Asphalt Animal" '57 Chevy bronco car. I ended up getting 2nd place in the show, but there were only 2 cars, great fun anyway. When the season opened that year, I couldn't believe the difference in the speed of these cars from the previous year. Not quite the broncos but fun anyway, and a great bunch of guys to boot (Robin & Mack Chase, George Roseland and Jerry Tullington).
I started off the 3rd year with a mini stock for a few weeks then threw a rod and started into the roadrunner class the same weekend. With the stock motors and suspension, it made this class one of the funnest I was in. Running a '65 Dodge Dart with a slant 6, I couldn't outrun the Chevys but I could out corner them. I ended the season point champ.
The next year I started with a '66 valiant 6 cyl. and the only thing I could do was get out of the way. After a couple of weeks I came back with a '65 Dart with a 318, the drivers and cars were much improved from the previous year. We had guys like Bob Cave, Ken and Randy Wolfe, Greg Roseland, and George Tangeman. We all had great fun in a low cost class.
I didn't win the championship that year but won the season ending 200 lap race with Jerry Marco as my partner.
The last year I ran a superstock with very disappointing results---enough said.
To end this I would kike to say I have never had more fun or met a better bunch of people then I met at Playland Speedway.
Thanks for the memories and God bless
Joe Estes
