Thompson Raceway

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Thompson Ephemera

"Thompson Topics" postcards

The Weavers sent post card notices called "Thompson Topics"  for years to keep us all informed.  A comment from their daughter:

 "... the remark about "labor of love" has to have been so true, I remember my mother sitting at the typewriter for hours on end typing up those cards, one-by-one. She'd get particularly frustrated when they were long messages, you can imagine how slippery they were against the roll on the typewriter - seeing the crooked print on the cards brings it all back!"

"Thompson Topics" postcards

Below we have a "Thompson Topics" postcard courtesy of Duncan Johnson.  A lot of the "regulars" are mentioned here including Oscar Koveleski, who created the "Polish Racing Team" and John Keane who built the potent "N & B Special". I have it straight from the horse's mouth that "N & B" stood for "Nuts and Bolts"!

Thompson must have been a labor of love for the Weavers, as evidenced by the time they spent simply keeping folks up to date. A few items from Henry Savelli's collection are shown below. Be sure to look closely at the second postcard.

Shown below are every Thompson Topics postcard from mid-1963 to mid-1965 from David Meisner's collection. He also included some ticket stubs. It's interesting that only a single card, dated 1 July 1963, appears to have been professionally printed. The cards provide a capsule history of racing at Thompson - I wonder if Gus Andrey ever managed to break Sherm Decker's lap record.

From Lynda...

Here are some shots by Lynda W., another "paddock brat" of the era. Three of the four were taken at Thompson - the one at the lower right appears to be Lime Rock, from the paddock looking towards the esses. There was probably no car better suited to both tracks than a Porsche Spyder. The other cars in the pictures really provide a flavoring that vintage racing today doesn't have. Station wagons, Healey 100-6's, and furniture trailers hauling race cars have been replaced by motor homes and eighteen wheelers. The fellow in the kilt is, of course, Gordon MacKenzie. The #14 RSK was Bob Holbert's.