Jersey Shore Racing No More
The lone paved short track in New Jersey, Wall Stadium, is no more and has been closed ending over five decades of racing history.
Then owners Thomas and Jennie J. Nicol opened the gates of 1/3-mile asphalt Wall Stadium in May 1950. Since then some of Stock Car and Modifieds biggest stars have competed at the track.
Jennie J. Nicol was known as the First Lady of Short Track Racing and did nothing to disown rumors of $50 payouts to drivers to start fights on the track to get the crowd stirred up.
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Legendary NASCAR Modified drivers Maynard Troyer, Charlie Jarzombek, and Ron Bouchard have all tested their courage against the asphalt of Wall Stadium and won more than averages said were possible.
Martin Truex Jr., a two-time Busch Series champion and current DEI Sprint Cup driver, cut his teeth on the high-banked track. However the Stadium’s most successful alumni is Ray Evernham, whose Evernham Motorsports, (now GEM) has become one of the premier organizations in lNASCAR.
Although having a preference for dirt track racing Evernham chose to race at Wall because they ran the economical Modern Stock division. He soon graduated to Sportsman cars and then to his first love, Modifieds. He was a terror on the track and in every division he ran at Wall, from Midgets, to Modifieds, to Sportsman cars, to the Modern Stocks.
“Wall Stadium is different,” says Evernham. “Maybe a mini Bristol. (30-degree banking in the corners and16-degree banking in the straights) It’s fast. It’s only a third. It was always pretty narrow on the straightaways, so you could haul ass coming off the corner.”
“You had to get into a rhythm to where you’d be sliding that Modified up off that corner with the tail hung out. You almost had to over correct it and let the tail slide back to the left by the starter’s stand, or you’d clip the fence. Then you’d swing it back out to the right. So it was kind of a strange line you had to run to be fast.”
The Jersey Shore still has its ocean and it’s beaches and the boardwalks of Belmar, Point Pleasant and Seaside Heights, but Wall Stadium like so may before it has been felled by poor attendance, car count in the pits and to a certain extent the 9,000 pound gorilla known as NASCAR under the lights on Saturday night.
R.I.P., Wall Stadium.
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