Garth,
The oficial entrance road to the Kissena Velodrome was
always off of Booth Memorial Boulevard, near the corner of
Parsons Boulevard. I assure you, despite the recent
resurfacing, very little has changed. I was there over the
winter, while visiting my family, and many of the cracks have
even returned.
In any event, the "home" straight - between turns 4 and 1 -
is and always was parallel to Booth Memorial Boulevard,
perpendicular to the entrance road and Parsons Blvd. For an
aerial view, go to Google Maps, enter this address and then
select Satellite View:
158-98 Booth Memorial Ave, Queens, NY 11365
Basically, the area just west of Turn 1-2 is a swamp. I think
the cattails and bullrushes are taller now than 34 years. That
might have affected your recollections. So the entrance road
is still the same as in the past, although they might have
enlarged the parking lot. I must admit I don't recall the
parking situation too well. I always rode my bike over, down
Utopia Parkway from Whitestone.
Returning home, brakeless and in the dark was probably
really stupid, but at the time my friends and I thought it made
us more "manly".
Regards,
Fred Rednor - now of Arlington, Virginia (USA)
> Does anyone know if the main entrance road to the velodrome
> is now
> coming in from another direction, or perhaps if the velodrome
> itself is
> differently oriented? I visited last year and it appears that
> one now
> approaches the straight away between turns 4 and 1. My memory
> from 1972
> is that one approached the turn between 1 and 2, on the
> entrance road.
> Isn't it funny how one can retain an image from 34 years ago,
> and hold
> it in one's pictured memory? It was retained through
> trillions of nerve
> firings, and through thousands of days and nights without the
> fading
> one might expect on Kodak paper. I only rode the velodrome
> once back
> then, and would like to edit my memory to match the actual
> facts.
>
> Garth Libre in Miami Fl preparing for the 6:00 A.M. hammer
> ride in Key
> Biscayne tomorrow.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com