Remember When by Don Gamble

Hall of Fame Drivers from Western Pennsylvania

The Pittsburgh Circle Track Club celebrated the 30th Annual Awards Banquet on January 27, 2007 at the Days Inn of Butler. The 2006 Hall of Fame inductees were a very prestigious group that included Joe Borandi, Carol Halbedl, Dave Hoffman, and Rollie Smith.   

Rollie Smith

Rollie got his start in stock car racing at Samson’s Speedway later renamed Mon Valley Speedway located outside of Monongahela , PA.   He started out as a mechanic on a car driven by a friend. Rollie entered four stock car events and won all of them.  He realized that racing the cars was a lot more fun than fixing them. 

He built and maintained several of his cars in the early days. He raced at Mon Valley Speedway and other tracks in the area until 1955 when he became a regular with the Pittsburgh Racing Association. He competed at Heidelberg , South Park , Mon Duke, and William Penn Speedway. 

His favorite car was the V8. Other cars that he ran in the PRA were, 38, 27, 44, and 24.  In 1962, he became a regular competitor at the Greater Latrobe and Jennerstown Speedways.  When Motordrome Speedway opened in Ruffsdale, he ran there on a regular basis.  Although the V8 was his favorite car, he had the most success running the George Kittey, McGill Motors #4.  He continued to race in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

Rappin' on Racin' and Trackside

Rappin' on Racin' can be heard live Mondays at 6:00 on WEDO 810 on the AM dial and is available over the Internet by way of our website www.speedwayproductions.biz. Trackside from Lernerville Speedway is on Friday evenings at 6:00 PM . The show is also available on the WEDO Website the Monday following the program at http://www.trackside.wedo810.com/