Route 213, Olivebridge, Town of Olive, NY
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Please feel welcome to share your stories in the comment section of this website about anything Onteora. Personal stories make history more enjoyable and interesting. I will do my best to interweave some stories. If anyone can identify cars/drivers/owners, I will thankfully add the information to the photo captions.
Larry Shurter, whose racing career began with open cockpit midgets in 1938, retired from driving race cars in 1959 to help plan and build Onteora Speedway in Olivebridge NY. He became Director of Racing and Vice President of the track and his days behind the wheel of a racing machine were finished – except for the occasional novelty race which he secretly never liked, because he loved going for it – the speed and the competition.
Larry Shurter and Raymond Davis before they broke ground. Raymond Davis owned the 65-acre tract of land and was in the construction and excavating business. He did much of the excavating work with his machines and Larry was often operating one machine or another to help build the track.
Bud was part of Larry Shurter’s’ pit crew throughout most of the 1950’s, along with Joe Goldsmith. Almost every Friday nite during race season, Bud and Mary Shank and Joe and Mildred Goldsmith came to Larry’s garage to get the car ready to race on Saturday nite. Mavis, Mary and Mil either cooked dinner for the gang or told the guys they were taking them out for dinner. Mostly that decision was made by how much work was needed on the race car. Some nites the guys would come in for dinner then head back to work on the car until they couldn’t keep their eyes open. I called them aunts and uncles. They remained a circle of dear friends until their passing.
Mavis Shurter did a lot of the handicapping at Onteora – positioning the cars in the race lineups based on the results of prior races or whether they were new to the track or their skill and car were known or unknown. She and her sisters, Doris Glass and Sarah Vansteenburgh, along with Sarah Ryan were the score keepers. And in true Mavis style, she took little credit for her constant behind the scenes work which included drafting public relations releases, rules and regulations, and organizing special events like the Joie Chitwood Thrill Show.
She was instrumental in planning and organizing the memorial benefit for race driver D.D. Harris after he died in an accident at Onteora Speedway. Larry and Mavis delivered the proceeds to Mrs. Harris. The two Harris kids were roughly my age so I went with my parents to deliver the envelope of money. I remember sitting in the Harris living room, in, what I can only describe as an odd sort of suspension. I remember that us kids didn’t make a sound other than the correct pleasantries of hello and goodbye. No one suggested that we go play and we knew enough to know we were expected to sit quietly and wait until the adults had finished talking. Mrs. Harris was kind and gracious. I was too young to feel the pain of death though I felt the sadness. I was somberly grateful that I could climb in the car with my mom and dad and go home. My parents; the car ride; the day; all; was surrounded with quiet.
Mavis and Larry bought Ted and Marge Ehrishman’s restaurant and bar directly across from Onteora Speedway. Prior to Ted and Marge, Dick Darling owned the bar. He wasn’t the first owner as it had been part of the village for many years and continued until the bar and restaurant were dismantled in the 1980’s and sold as a house.
note from Raecine 6-24-25 I’m adding to this every few days. A big thank you to Don Beesmer who just give me one of his racing albums to scan into the Onteora Speedway catagory.
Onteora Speedway envelope
Onteora Speedwaystickers
Onteora closed in 1965. Some locals tried to keep an eye on the infrastructure: the bleachers and two concession buildings. The main concession building housed the scoring booth on its roof and the track office where all the records were kept. Bit by bit, vandalism took its toll. The office was broken into; file cabinets and desks smashed and thrown around the room. Papers, race records, photographs, all the history of the track strewn on the floor; trampled. I remember standing there with my parents but can’t remember whether the moldy stinking liquid that was poured on most everything was from beer or soda cans. My parents spent only a minute or two, then motioned me out, turned their backs and shut the door.
Well into the 1970’s, some of the locals would get together each year and stage a race for the sole purpose of maintaining the granfathered-in status of the track. A meeting was held at the Olivebridge Firehouse to assess the possibility of reopening the track and to get a feel for how the community felt about a reopening. The story below was not told to me by Larry but is a story I have pieced together from other people’s memories. I would appreciate feedback from anyone who attended the meeting as I have not been able to verify the details of this story. “The Olivebridge Firehouse was overflowing with people. Many were forced to stand. Lining the walls, they spilled down the steps into the parking lot. Hand upon hand was raised and many voiced their opinions, both pro and con. Someone proposed a show of hands vote to get a clearer idea of the number of yeas and nays to a proposal to reopen the track. The yeas far outnumbered the nays. A feasibility committee was to be established.“
Soon after, a respected benefactor who attended the meeting bought the property and donated it to the Town of Olive.
People continue to ask me why the track closed. While I had asked my father a number of times, the best comment I could get from him was, “a number of reasons”.