These are listed in the order I originally posted them (some, particularly the main history, have been updated multiple times). 

1. History of Marchbanks Speedway, aka Hanford Motor Speedway
2. 1967 Champ Car race program
3. More photos from the 1967 Champ Car race
4. 1970 stock plan tried to keep Hanford Motor Speedway alive
5. March 1968 Champ Car race program
6. Second death at Marchbanks/Hanford speedway
7. November 1968 Champ Car race program
8. April 1969 Champ Car race program
9. Additions to Marchbanks Speedway history
10. "The Fabulous Mr. Marchbanks"
11. Cool photos of the Marchbanks road course
12. Reader: Hanford 250 "the best auto race I have ever seen"
13. My interview with Gary Marchbanks
14. My interview with Tommy Trader
15. Details of 1957 death at Marchbanks
16. Updates to Marchbanks history
17. Readers share recollections of racing at Marchbanks, Hanford
18. My chat with racing legend Mel Kenyon
19. My chat with Bobby Unser
20. My interview with George Benson
21. My interview with Mario Andretti
22. Hanford through the lens of a teenager
23. More great photos from 1968-69 Champ Car races
24. Fresh updates to Marchbanks Speedway/Hanford Motor Speedway history 

I just finished making a bunch of updates to a variety of stories in my Marchbanks Speedway section, including lots of fixes and additions to the main track history. 

Some of the more noticeable changes include:

• Interviews with Champ Car drivers Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, Mel Kenyon and George Benson.
• Wonderful photos and memories from motorsports journalist Ken Durham, who shot photos of the Champ Car races as a teen-ager. 
• Other reader stories.
• A 1951 ad and article clipping for the NASCAR Grand National race.
• An update to the Ernie Cornelson obituary.
• Specifics on when the track changed names.
• Specifics on management and leasing deals from 1958-70.
• More 1953 photos from the Tommy Trader collection.
• A breakdown of 1969 Champ Car race revenue.
• A photo of Joe Leonard driving Parnelli Jones' Lotus-Pratt & Whitney during the Fall 1968 Champ Car race.
• Tidbits about the King School house being moved to Marchbanks, drag racing and boxing matches.

Please continue to share your ideas, stories and feedback. I've gotten great reaction and help from people around the world, and I'd love for that to continue. You're invaluable in helping me fill holes, correct mistakes and find new sources. 

You can add your comments to the main history or email me directly.

Well, good news: Durham, a longtime motorsports journalist, has dug even deeper into his files and shared more than a dozen fantastic shots from the 1968-69 Hanford races, including several terrific portraits of Bobby Unser, Johnny Rutherford and Joe Leonard. 

I've included Ken's captions pretty much verbatim because he's provided nice detail that kinda puts you at the track and draws on his experience as a racing journalist. And remember, Durham was only a teen-ager when he snapped these images, setting the stage for a future career. 

Thanks again to Ken and GearHead Photography for allowing us to share these treasures. 

Bobby Unser leading in '69. I'm including it for the view of the main grandstands, which sat all the way down at the entrance to Turn 1. [Promoter J.C.] Agajanian rented temporary bleachers for the rest of the seating. (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)

Johnny Rutherford, November '68. What's crazy is that I did numerous interviews, articles and columns on Rutherford when I was writing the motorsports column for the Dallas Morning News, and never realized I had this shot sitting around. It would have been fun to give him a copy. Rutherford is one of the most decent people I've ever worked with. One of his last years at Indy, he had promised me a phone interview -- and called me at 1 a.m. his time, from a phone booth in the RV parking lot. How many drivers would do that? (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)

Lloyd Ruby, Jigger Sirous and George Follmer caught in a nice three-car battle during the 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway.(Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Reader Ken Durham shared some wonderful photos from the Champ Car races at Hanford Motor Speedway that he shot as a teenage fan. 

Art Pollard's beautiful Gerhardt Offy sits in the infields after retiring halfway through the 1969 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway. (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Durham recalls that he was 15 and 16 years old when he attended the four Champ Car races between November 1967 and April 1969. He had some great access and was able to snag some nice shots using a Yashica D camera.

Durham shared four of those copyrighted photos (©2011 Ken Durham, GearHead Photography).

The top photo comes from the April 1969 200-mile race and shows Jigger Sirous' #14 turbocharged Gerhardt Famed car owner Andy Granatelli "builds a sandwich" at Hanford Motor Speedway. (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)Offy leading George Follmer's #62 Cheetah Chevy and Lloyd Ruby's #25 turbocharged Laycock Offy. Ruby would finish second and Follmer ninth. Sirois would later wreck, finishing 18th. Look how far down on the apron Follmer is, either by choice or not. Note at least one person standing on the other side of the wall. 

The second shot shows Art Pollard's bright red STP Oil Treatment turbocharged Gerhardt Offy sitting in the infield. The car caught fire and retired after 67 of 134 laps. The infield doubled as a dragboat lake in earlier years, and you can see some of that uneven dirt amid the weeds. 

Durham snagged a few lighter moments, including famous Andy Granatelli "building a sandwich" at the track and a nice moment with Lloyd Ruby in the infield after one of the 1968 races. To the right are fellow drivers Roger McCluskey and Bobby Unser (back to camera). 

What wonderful moments. Thanks, Ken and GearHead Photography, for sharing them. 

Lloyd Ruby chats with Roger McCluskey and Bobby Unser after one of the 1968 Champ Car races at Hanford Motor Speedway. (Photo Copyright ©2011 Ken Durham, www.GearHeadPhotography.com)

In a telephone interview with me from his Pennsylvania offices, Andretti recalled his five appearances at the Hanford tri-oval: a 1965 USAC stock car drive and four Champ Car races from 1967-1969 that resulted in one win, two third-place finishes and two DNFs from the third and fourth starting spots. He obviously found the speedway -- the rough 1.4-mile 1965 version and the renovated 1.5-mile late 1960s version -- a good match. 

Andretti heads down the front stretch in the 1967 Champ Car race at Hanford"I liked the layout," Andretti said. "I liked that it had different radius corners. It required a compromise in the setup. I liked that extra challenge." 

But Andretti's only vivid memories of his time at Hanford were of the April 1969 200-miler, the second race of the Champ Car season and the one immediately preceding his only Indianapolis 500 victory. A key to his Hanford win was to add stagger -- using tires on the outside wheels that were larger than the inside pair -- and therefore pick up speed through corners. 

George Benson in driver's suit by the Watson-Offy he drove at the March 1968 Hanford 200-mile Champ Car race. Oliver Johnson, owner of the midgets Benson drove from 1963-70 is just right of Benson. Benson's fishing buddy Ted Matta is at the far right. A friend of Johnson's is at the far left. (Photo courtesy of George Benson)

Benson's time at the Hanford track covered a half-dozen races, beginning in 1955 in a jalopy and ending in two 1968 appearances in Champ Cars. His high finish at the track was a 1959 hardtop win. 

Benson is the author of "The Racing Years: A Memoir of the Life and Times of a Racer, 1952 to 1987." The 472-page book has 157 photos and tons of info on West Coast dirt track racing during that period, as well as a few branches into race trips in the Midwest and Indy. There's also a complete history of the 26 GMB midget race cars Benson built from 1968-85. If you're an aficionado of West Coast racing during this period, particularly at San Jose and Kearney Bowl speedways or car design and construction, you'll appreciate the detail.

Mel Kenyon, left, and Thermo King teammate Art Pollard in 1967 promotional photoBut Kenyon also raced Champ Cars in three times at Hanford Motor Speedway in 1967-68, driving for Fred Gerhardt of Fresno. 

"I thought Hanford was a pretty nice racetrack," Kenyon told me in a telephone interview from his home in Lebanon, Ind. "It was smooth and you could see all the way around it. No trees -- not like Indy, where you can only see a straightaway at a time -- you could see all the way across it." 

Kenyon recalls the 1.4-mile Hanford tri-oval being a challenge to drive, like the similarly shaped Pocono.  

"Set-up was a challenge because of the three corners and the different degrees of banking, Kenyon said. "One was always good, one was medium and one was 'hang on!' " 

First was from Bob Dayton, who shared a great story of being a Fresno State student who took a road trip in 1959 that led he and his Porsche 356B coupe to what must have been the brand new 2.5-mile Marchbanks road course. In a series of email exchanges, Dayton wrote:

"It all started at a PCA (Porsche Club of America) meeting one night to go find this 2 1/2-mile high speed racetrack, Marchbanks Stadium. Oren Crumbly wanted to test his tube frame VW & I wanted to try racing the Porsche. Ken, a possible buyer for my Porsche, and I set out for Marchbanks with Oren. ...

But I wanted to add this quick note about a third death at Marchbanks Stadium/Hanford Motor Speedway.

You may recall in my interview with Gary Marchbanks that he mentioned a third death at the track, of which I had no knowledge. I previously had uncovered details about the deaths of Arlen Smith in 1956 and James "Red" Stainton in 1969.

Trader was a big name in Central California tracks in the mid-1950s and helped me fill in some blanks I've had about the track during that period between NASCAR dates in 1951 and 1960-61 and leading up to the transformation from dirt-clay tracks into a paved tri-oval superspeedway. 

Trader let me borrow a bunch of wonderful old newspaper clippings and personal photos, two of which I've posted here. 

The 1953 aerial photo of the track shows the third-mile oval inside the half-mile oval, as well as a rodeo arena and what the back of the photo describes as a road course (note the oddly white surface). Destruction derby races also were held in the rodeo ground area in front of the grandstands. 

I'll post more later when I update the main track history story but here are some highlights of my conversation with a gregarious gentleman nearing 80 years old who is filled with great stories:

This wonderful ticket brochure for the 1961 NASCAR race contains a nice map showing the various layouts at Marchbanks Speedway (link opens PDF of brochure)We chatted at his Hanford farm for about 90 minutes on a variety of things. While I still have many questions about the track's history (particular specific dates for any number of things), Gary filled in more than a few blanks and lent me a boxful of old newspaper clippings and other documents (including this attached wonderful trifold brochure for the 1961 NASCAR race) that I will write about in the future. The visit was very fruitful and will really fill out the history I've started so far. 

Here are some highlights of things we touched on:

In justifying that statement, Franovich wrote:

And don't get too excited yet -- this prospective round of funding is only to buy land, and install utilities and roads. But the endorsement from S.C. Global Investments is a strong first step and a confidence builder for anyone who doubted the dreams of building a $750 million complex featuring a 1-mile oval, dragstrip, kart track and 1/4-mile oval in the middle of Central California. There's also talk of a shopping center, theaters and amusement park. 

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.

• Its 250-mile race distance, which required Champ Car refueling for the first time at Hanford.
• The West Coast debut of the eerily quiet turbine-powered four-wheel drive Lotus that would later gain infamy at Indianapolis. Joe Leonard and Art Pollard drove turbines in this race, and Leonard shattered the qualifying record with at 163 mph.

The Printcast version of my Marchbanks Speedway stories

For those who aren't familiar with Printcasting, it's a simple way for everyday people to become magazine publishers in minutes by creating web-based and PDF publications (DISCLAIMER: I work closely with Printcasting on behalf of The Bakersfield Californian, which is an investor in Printcasting and its offshoot, FeedBrewer).

What's missing in the Printcast version of my Marchbanks stories are all the photos and hotlinks contained in the original stories. But it's still a great way to dive into what is a lot of information.

Let me know what you think.

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

I previously documented the 1969 death of James "Red" Stainton. But according to Motorsport Memorial, there was a death at what was then known as Marchbanks Speedway 13 years earlier, during a "500-lap Little Indianapolis hardtop jalopy race" on May 29, 1956.

Motorsport Memorial reported that mechanic Arlen Smith, 22, died after a wheel flew off one of the race cars and hit him in the back.

The story also notes a second tire came off a different car in the same race, breaking the leg of a spectator near a concession stand.

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

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

Promoters of the inaugural 1967 USAC Champ Car race held at Hanford Motor Speedway on Oct. 22, 1967, did a nice job with their 36-page race program.

PDF of the Oct. 22, 1967, Champ Car race programThe program sold for $1 on race day and has all kinds of interesting stuff. The ads are a hoot, but these were the highlights for me:

Start of the March 1968 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway

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.