The Newark Velodrome was a wooden bicycle track in the Vailsburg neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey, located at the northeast corner of the intersection of South Orange Avenue and Munn Avenue. [1] It opened in 1911 [2] and measured six laps to the mile, or 293 yards per lap. It replaced another 1/6-mile wooden velodrome that was located to the south, [3] in the northwest corner of the current Vailsburg Park. That velodrome opened on May 10, 1908, and replaced a 1/4-mile wooden velodrome [3] that had opened in 1897 [4] on the same site.
The Newark Tornadoes of the National Football League also played several "home" games on the track's grassy infield during the 1930 season, while the other "home" games were played at Newark Schools Stadium.
The Tornadoes played two NFL games at the Velodrome in 1930, both defeats for Newark. On October 19, the Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Tornadoes, 14–0; a week later on October 26, the Staten Island Stapletons downed Newark, 6–0.
The 1912 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were held in Newark. The event was sanctioned by the Union Cycliste Internationale, the world governing body for the cycling sport. The 1912 event was estimated to draw 20,000 fans, even though the seating capacity of the venue was just 12,500. Frank Louis Kramer won a gold medal in the professional men's sprint at the venue that year. [5] Australian cyclist, Reggie McNamara set five world records from one to 25 miles at the velodrome in 1915, 1916, and 1917.
The Newark Velodrome closed in 1930 after its lease expired and was demolished on December 4, 1930. [6]
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles.
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights. The straights transition to the circular turn through a moderate easement curve.
The Orange Tornadoes and Newark Tornadoes were two manifestations of a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1941 and from 1958 to 1970, having played in the American Amateur Football Union from 1888 to 1895, the National Football League from 1929 to 1930, the American Association from 1936 to 1941, the Atlantic Coast Football League from 1963 to 1964 and 1970, and the Continental Football League from 1965 to 1969. The team was based for most of its history in Orange, New Jersey, with many of its later years in Newark. Its last five seasons of existence were as the Orlando Panthers, when the team was based in Orlando, Florida. The NFL franchise was sold back to the league in October 1930. The team had four head coaches in its two years in the NFL – Jack Depler in Orange, and Jack Fish, Al McGall and Andy Salata in Newark.
The Herne Hill Velodrome is an outdoor velodrome in Herne Hill, in south London. It is one of the oldest cycling tracks in the world, having been built in 1891. It hosted the track cycling events in the 1948 Summer Olympics and was briefly the home of Crystal Palace Football Club during World War I.
The Coney Island Velodrome was a mid-sized sports arena in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York City. Designed as a bicycle racing venue, the drome featured a 1⁄8-mile (0.20 km) wooden oval track with 45° banked corners and seating for 10,000. It also hosted outboard midgets into 1939. Located next to the Culver Depot, the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation's rail terminal at Neptune Avenue & West 12th Street, the venue played host to sports ranging from motorcycle races to boxing and football.
Oscar Egg was a Swiss track and road bicycle racer. He captured the world hour record three times before the First World War and won major road races and stages of the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia. He was also a noted developer of racing bicycles and bicycle components including lugs and derailleurs.
Reggie McNamara was an Australian cyclist known as a roughhouse velodrome rider with a string of dramatic crashes and broken bones over 20 years. He was known as the Iron Man. He specialised in six-day races but rode races from 200m sprints to 100 km endurance races. He rode 3,000 races on three continents over 30 years and won more than 700 before he retired aged 50 in 1937.
Alf Goullet was an Australian cyclist who won more than 400 races on three continents, including 15 six-day races. He set world records from two-thirds of a mile to 50 miles, and the record for the distance ridden in a six-day race.
Robert Howe Walthour Sr. was one of the best American professional cyclists of his era.
The Cycledrome was an American football stadium and velodrome located in Providence, Rhode Island. Its name derived from its intended use as a bicycle racing stadium (velodrome) when it was built in 1925.
Newark Schools Stadium is the name of two stadiums that were both located on Bloomfield Avenue between Abington and Roseville Avenues in the Roseville section of Newark, New Jersey.
André Perchicot was a French cyclist who won the bronze medal at the 1912 UCI Track Cycling World Championships – Men's Sprint in Newark, New Jersey and the 1912 French National Track Championships.
The VELO Sports Center is a velodrome in Carson, California, United States. It is currently the only cycling track of its kind in the US. Formerly known as the ADT Event Center or LA Velodrome, it opened in 2004 on the California State University, Dominguez Hills Campus, part of the Dignity Health Sports Park complex. The facility is owned and operated by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).
Patrick O'Sullivan Hehir was an Australian cycling champion. He participated in the 1912 UCI Track Cycling World Championships at the Newark Velodrome. Hehir won the American Derby event in 1912. He also won the Six Days of Buffalo in 1913 with Peter Drobach. In 1910, Frank L. Kramer beat Hehir in the one-mile open professional event.
Frank Louis Kramer (1880–1958) was an American gold medal cyclist. He won 16 consecutive national championships from 1901 to 1916. He was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 1988.
The New York Velodrome was a state-of-the-art bicycle track at 225th Street, between Exterior Street and Broadway within the Kingsbridge and Kingsbridge Heights neighborhoods of the Bronx. It bordered the Marble Hill neighborhood. After the surrounding of Marble Hill was filled in and merged to the Bronx or the mainland, the space filled in became part of Kingsbridge. The velodrome was built on top of the new land that was available. The New York and Putnam Railroad stopped in front of it at the Kingsbridge Station. The Velodrome was one of the largest velodromes in the world. It became a popular destination for professional cyclist. The velodrome was destroyed in a fire on August 4, 1930.
The predecessor of USACycling, the Amateur Bicycle League of America (ABLA) was founded in 1921 and held National Championships starting that year. From 1921 to 1964, these championships were two-, three-, or four-event omniums of track-style events, rather than a road race. USACycling souvenir programs list no results for events in 1931-1934, 1938, and 1942-1944. The 1939 program summarizes the 1937 National Champions. The 1938 results are from a national championship with similar events and format that the Amateur Athletic Union promoted.
Iver Georg Lawson was an American professional track cyclist. He won the sprint event at the 1904 UCI Track Cycling World Championships.
The one-mile double century race, which was won by Frank L. Kramer, was the feature event of the bicycle races yesterday at the Newark Velodrome. After fifteen elimination heats and three semi-finals, Kramer, Alfred Grenda of Australia, and A. Perchicot of France were left to fight out the final, and the contest furnished all that the cycle fans could wish for in the way of spectacular riding.