"The Fabulous Mr. Marchbanks"

Reader Richard Hodges wrote to me from the United Kingdom and shared some copies of MotoRacing that chronicled several California Sports Car Club races at Marchbanks in September 1960 and July 1961. I'll add that info to the Marchbanks history when I get a few minutes.

Of particular interest in the 1960 MotoRacing coverage of the Cal Club's race was a nice feature story on track owner B.L. "Bircha" Marchbanks, of which I've been hard-pressed to find good information. MotoRacing said Marchbanks ran the track with the help of son B.L. Marchbanks Jr.

The feature titled "The Fabulous Mr. Marchbanks" includes a photo of Marchbanks, looking ever the hardworking farmer with worn work boots and ever-present cowboy hat.

"A cattleman at heart, the lean, angular Texan today has 300 head of cattle on his land, and, at 65, he is still breaking in his own horses," MotoRacing's Gus V. Vignolle reported.

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Additions to Marchbanks Speedway history

Just a quick update for my Marchbanks Speedway readers:

I recently made a few additions to "History of Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway" that include:

1) Comments from several people who emailed me their recollections of the track. Keep those coming.

2) Added some detail from "The History of the American Speedway" regarding the track's different configurations over the years. However, the info seems to conflict with other sources, so there's still a ton of digging to do there in terms of distilling myth from reality.

3) A bit about a CRA sprint race in 1969 that was one of the very last events at the track.

And there wasn't anything new to me in this story, but Cox Newspapers recently gave a shoutout to Marchbanks in a look back at the birth of NASCAR superspeedways.

I've stumbled across a few more photos so will try to find the time to plop them in a Marchbanks gallery soon.

In the meantime, please share any new info, photos, stories or anything else Marchbanks-related. 

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RELATED STORIES: Read more about Marchbanks Speedway and Hanford Motor Speedway in my Marchbanks section, including the regularly updated "History of Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway."

History of Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway

Updated on Friday, March 18, 2011 at 8:32 AM by Logan Molen

Updated on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 12:02 AM by Logan Molen

Updated on Saturday, December 16, 2017 at 9:40 PM by Logan Molen

Start of the March 1968 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor SpeedwayThis is an evolving history of Marchbanks Speedway, a racetrack just south of Hanford, Calif., that went by several names and layouts over its two-decade life.

Marchbanks, aka Hanford Motor Speedway, remains little known today but was the first superspeedway west of the Mississippi, and hosted big-name NASCAR and Indy Car races in the 1950s-60s. These days, the track ceases to exist physically and its history lives online only in scattered references on racing forums and enthusiast sites.

My goal with this post is to try to build a history of Marchbanks and give it the legacy it deserves. In light of recent efforts to build a $400 million track in nearby Tulare County, I think it's important for people to know the area already has a rich history in hosting some of the greatest racers of all time. It's amazing to me that a track that brought national attention to the small town of Hanford, in the heart of Central California, has been left out of local history books and mentioned sparingly in racing publications.

Bill Vukovich II drove four races at Hanford for car owner J.C. "Aggy" Agajanian, who doubled as Hanford's promoter. This shot was in the 1967 Hanford Champ Car race program.Billl Vukovich II told me, "Why would anyone want to write a history about Hanford (Motor Speedway)?" Vukovich was not a fan of the track despite two Top 10 finishes in Champ Car races there in the late 1960s, and had nothing good to say about the speedway (maybe it was the fact they misspelled his name in the 1969 race program). "That place was in the middle of nowhere." Indeed it was, but for any number of reasons, a lot of people have good memories of the place.

My quest to look into the Marchbanks story began with a 2009 blog post and I’ve since dug deeper by visiting Hanford, interviewing people who were closely involved with the track, purchasing photos and videos, and poring over more than 50 web sites (complete list of sources and links are at the bottom of this post). Of particular value were personal recollections from hardcore fans on Track Forum who spent time at the track during its heyday. There's much more to uncover, and I’ll add other information, including more personal interviews, as I can. But this is a start.

I’d love for this track history to be collaborative. Please share any knowledge, tips, corrections or other information, either by commenting below or by contacting me directly. And while I constantly update this general history of the track, I regularly post interviews and more detailed updates in my Marchbanks section.

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