Ohio

Brothers from Dayton gave us flight, and nearly seven decades later, a man from Wapakoneta set foot on the moon. Flip open one of our Ohio history books at random and you might run into Thomas Edison, LeBron James, one of eight U.S. Presidents. From a stroll down the once majestic Millionaires’ Row in Cleveland to a harrowing rollercoaster ride at Geauga Lake, from the sordid past of Steubenville to the famous Cincinnati chili, there’s something for every Buckeye in our Ohio history books. [View all Ohio books]
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Columbus Motor Speedway
Columbus Motor Speedway
$24.99
Middletown Pacemakers
Middletown Pacemakers
$24.99

Columbus Motor Speedway

9781467102599

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%

Columbus Motor Speedway: how this track rose to popularity, overcame several obstacles and became a community staple for 70 years.


From 1946-2016, the Columbus Motor Speedway, the tough one-third-mile track led primarily by the Nuckles family, presented numerous motorsport events ranging from motorcycles to coupes and, finally, to stock cars. Author and and racing historian Mike Garrepy takes you through the track's triumph and tragedy, rule changes and escalating costs, while showing how the track and weekly ranchers survived and prospered. During its 70-year run, the track witnessed the transition from home built race cars to sleek custom-built cars constructed on jigs to exacting specifications, with a corresponding increase in speeds. To keep up with a changing fan base, other events were offered in addition to weekly stock car shows, such as school bus races and thrill shows. Nevertheless, the core focus remained on the grassroots racers who supported the track on a weekly basis.

Columbus Motor Speedway

Middletown Pacemakers

9780738519579

$24.99 Save Liquid error (snippets/product-template line 248): Computation results in '-Infinity'%
Hot Rodding began in Southern California in the 1930s and had spread throughout the United States by the mid 1950s, spawning the sport of drag racing and the advent of the Detroit "muscle cars" of the '60s and '70s. Hot Rod Magazine and the National Hot Rod Association promoted the formation of responsible car clubs to combat the delinquent reputation of hot rodders, earned through illegal street races and Hollywood's portrayal in "B" movies. And thus were born the Middletown Pacemakers in 1951.

The Pacemakers brought southern Ohio its first reliability runs (1952), custom auto shows (1954), and drag racing competitions-setting national records (1958, '63, '64) and winning national championships (1963, '64, '65). When the hot rodders were not busy upgrading their drive train for more horsepower or "chopping" and "channeling" for improved performance, they could often be seen on the streets of Middletown feeding expired parking meters or rescuing motorists whose cars had broken down or run out of gas. By 1966, as was the fate of so many hot rod clubs, the mass production of Detroit muscle cars ushered the Pacemakers to fold.

Middletown Pacemakers