Geoff's Story

From Chickens, Dairy Bar to Stardom in NASCAR

By Geoffrey Bodine

Elmira Star-Gazette
Elmira NY
May 28, 2002

I was born in 1949 and the Chemung Speedrome was built in 1950. My father, Eli Bodine Jr., and grandfather, Eli Bodine Sr., built the speedway. Local racers went to my grandfather, who owned a lot of land, and told him they needed a racetrack.

There was this cornfield and it was one-third surrounded by this banking. My grandfather and father looked out and said, "This looks like a good spot." They stepped out the racetrack, took a plow and a mechanical grader and built a racetrack. There happened to be a pond up the road a little bit and it worked out well. It was a dirt track, and they needed that water to keep the dust down. Everything fell into place. That side hill ended up being the grandstand.

In the beginning, racers would drive their cars to the racetrack, and hopefully have something to drive home at night. As time went on, they started building cars just to race. They pulled them to the track with chains.

I remember many a day where there'd be a race on Saturday night and another on Sunday. My buddies and I would hang out Sunday when everybody was working on their race cars, tuning them up and getting ready for the afternoon race.

I used to walk to Chemung Elementary School until seventh grade. Then I rode the bus to Waverly High School. That was until I was able to catch a ride with someone. I rode awhile with my sister, Denise, until she graduated. I got a car and got my license. You were a pretty popular guy if you had a car.

It was a '56 Plymouth Savoy, midnight blue, three- speed on the column, two-door. It had fins on the back and the quarterpanels, 272-cubic-inch V-8. Originally it had a two-barrel, but of course I souped it up and put a four-barrel on it. Then at lunchtime we'd do a little drag-racing. I thought it was wonderful, a great place to grow up, a great environment. I didn't think there was any place nicer or better, and maybe there wasn't.
We didn't venture out of there too often. We went to Elmira, of course, with relatives up there. Most winters, my mother and father would pack us up in the station wagon and head for Florida and the races in Daytona. We couldn't wait to get on the trip and stay at a Holiday Inn.

The highway came right through town in those days. My mother and father had a dairy store there. Dad made homemade ice cream, and I was the official taste-tester. My sister and I worked there as kids. With all the traffic, business was great. Flipping hamburgers and making milkshakes -- what a great way to grow up, with the ice cream store next door. It was called the Chemung Dairy Bar.

I belonged to the fire department. Unfortunately, we had a lot of accidents late at night. The truckers would fall asleep. We made a lot of late-night calls with the fire siren going off. By being involved in a small town like that, you know everyone and they know you. You really have a closeness with the people and the town. That's why I didn't think there was anywhere else better.

Being a Bodine and being part of the Speedrome, we always had a conflict -- the noise, the dust, the traffic, the debris. So we might not have been the favorite family of the town because of those things, even though we were bringing a lot of revenue into the town. The people loved the dairy store, but sometimes were not so in favor of the racetrack. I remember Halloween -- we knew who those folks were -- so we'd soap their windows. And the friendly folks we'd trick or treat. It was typical kid stuff.

We had a fort, a camp, a hang-out place in one of our fields. We really didn't get in trouble, though we probably should have. As we got a little older we drank some beer and smoked some cigarettes. Back then, that was horrible. Now there are a lot worse things kids can get into.

We grew up on a chicken farm and worked real hard. Some of our old farmland was where the new steel plant (Vulcraft)is now located. It was no free ride. I shoveled lots of chicken dung, then had to go out in the field and spread it. I had to collect the eggs, wash them, separate them into different sizes and package them. I collected hay and corn for feed and put silage in the silo. We also had the racetrack so I had to work up there, too -- picking up trash during the week, getting on that grader. I guess my parents appreciated that, because as time went on and I got older, they allowed me to be a race driver instead of making me do what they were doing -- being a farmer or a racetrack promoter. I'd get home from school, and my mother, Carol June, would say, "Dad needs you up at the racetrack. Get on your bike, he's waiting." And I'd say, "Oh, no."

I didn't realize it at the time, but they were the best times of my childhood. Those times spent with my mother and especially with my father.

Anything I did with my father, they were great times. He taught me so much about life. He molded me into who I am today, and I'm pretty happy with who I am.

NASCAR driver and Chemung native Geoffrey Bodine shared some of his childhood memories with Star- Gazette Staff Writer Charlie Coon. Bodine now lives in Cornelius, N.C., north of Charlotte.

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