My locale 1/8 mile Owner Passes

SSpev

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
This is written by

Van Abernethy


News has reached me that Sandy Fields passed away this morning after battling cancer. Sandy owned and operated Brown County Dragway, a vintage 1/8th-mile track in south central Indiana in Jackson Township, just outside a town known as Bean Blossom. Sandy was tough as nails and did much of the heavy lifting associated with owning a drag strip. When we met in 2014 she told me she took a “wild chance at an investment 22 years ago” and that’s how she came to own and operate Brown County Dragway. She was a fascinating person, who also drove across the country and bought and sold horses on occasion. She was a championship coon hunter, who once won the South Indiana State Championship Coon Hunt. “I’m the only woman who’s ever done that!” she told me during an interview once, which would become one of the most memorable “On the Road” columns I’ve ever penned. Speaking of, Sandy was also a writer, who for a decade wrote a column for a nationally published hunting magazine. I stood in the tiny wooden tower that’s built above the starting line of Brown County Dragway 7 years ago and listened to one fascinating story after another. “See all those little dings and dents in the guard rails?” she asked me as she pointed down track. “They represent a piece of history and to replace them would be like erasing history,” she said. She pointed to a dent in the right lane nearing the finish line and told of how Pro Mod pioneer, Wally Bell, tagged the wall back in the mid 1990’s. She excitedly told of how the Midwest Pro Stock Association came here and how she also booked Animal Jim Feurer for a Pro Mod match race. “He rode through the pits on a bicycle wearing different colored socks!” she laughed. She later invited Fuerer to their banquet that year and he indeed came. “He drove through an Illinois ice storm just to come to our banquet!” she told me. Sandy could multi-task like few others. She was telling me one story after another while also announcing the race at Brown County! She would stop long enough to collect a racer’s buy-back money, then continue with her story and also with calling the action over the PA. She had this catchy phrase she’d say every weekend as the finalists were pulling into the waterbox. “You’ve seen the rest, here’s the best...for today.” She had a twinkle in her eye as she exclaimed, “Everybody waits for me to say that each week,” she laughed. Sandy pointed to the walls of the tower and showed me lots of baby pictures. When her racers start having kids of their own, the baby pictures all get placed on the tower walls. She then told me another story I’ll never forget about how she and a group of friends were out riding horses one night in the dark, Indiana woods when they stopped and built a fire. There was an old Indian friend in the group and he began to speak what was on his heart. "He had this word he used which meant 'chosen family' in his language. He spoke of how you can not choose who your blood family is, but he explained how we were family none-the-less because we chose to be. That's how I feel about my racers, we're 'chosen family' and we're constantly welcoming new members into our family,” she said. I had the opportunity to visit Brown County Dragway only twice over the years, and I can honestly say that Sandy Fields is among the most memorable drag strip owner/operators I’ve ever met. Her passion was so deep for her racers and her track. “I don't know of any other job that you could have so much fun...get so mad...get so glad...and meet some of the greatest people in the world!" she told me. Drag racing has lost a true original in Sandy Fields. Tough and passionate, with a huge heart for the sport of drag racing and especially her ‘chosen family.’
 

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1964SuperStocker

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
What a great story!! Those are the kind of tracks i love to race at. Still have a few close to the Dallas area. Your a great storyteller yourself!! Thanks, BT
The very day I drove down to Dallas to go to school I saw Red Line Raceway on I-30. I was like heck yes! Then I seen half a dozen real Shelby Cobras jump on the interstate just after we passed Lake Ray Hubbard. So I followed them to AER where there was a private car show going on. This was back in 2002, they have grown even bigger but there were dozens of Shelby's there including some newer exotic prototypes. Talk about luck. I'll see if I can find some pictures from that show. Found out they held it each year and I guess now they have a museum of classics.
 
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