It's party time this weekend at Manzanita Speedway as the track, the oldest continuosly operated sports facility in the state, celebrates its 55th anniversary with stock cars staging their events Friday night and the open wheel cars doing their thing Saturday night.

The facility at 35th Avenue and West Broadway was built as a dog track but with little success. It did not take much encourgagement from a group of disgruntled South Mountain Speedway drivers to convince Rudy Everrett and Lawrence Messkims to convert the track to one suitable for auto racing.

The track staged its first jalopy race under the Arizona Jalopy Racing Association banner on August 25, 1951. The grandstands were packed and the Manzanita story had its first chapter written into the record books. The track ran year around for the first few year's with jalopies running each show.

New divisions came and went through the years and Manzanita became one of the most famous tracks in the nation when the Western United States Championships (later to be known as the Western World) started its run in 1968 paying the biggest purse ever and attracting 86 cars.

The half mile track was built as a result of sagging attendance and the first race was run on November 21, 1954. The jalopies ran different rules in their once a month outing on the big track and soon the jalopies became "fullhouse jalopes". The rules were changed through the years and became sprint cars in the sixties.

The sprint cars became winged sprint cars in 1982 and then the non winged Arizona Sprint Car Association came into being in 1990.

Early model stocks, built for television, started racing in 1961 and evolved into super modifieds. Claimers, the first of the short track stock cars, took to the track in 1969 and modified stocks were born in 1972. The names have changed through the years and are now known as bombers, factory stocks and super stocks.

Ernie Adams came up with the idea of running 5/8ths scale models of the old jalopies and powering them with motorcycle ingines and they were called dwarf cars. IMCA dirt modifieds came on the scene in 1988 and the mini sprints were on the schedule a year earlier.

The 55th anniversary races are all points races and both the factory stocks and super stocks have close battles for their championships. They race in the Friday night portion of the two night bash along with bombers and dwarf cars. All four divisions will run a main event and, if necessary, a qualifying semi main will also be staged.

The Saturday night celebration has the ASCA sprint cars and the BRA dirt modifieds running on the half mile track with mini sprints and midgets on the short track.

A couple of "ringers" are entered in the sprint car races. Charles Davis, Jr. will be at the wheel of the Fred Bryan sprinter and R.J. Johnson is also entered. Both Davis and Johnson are competing in most of the USAC/CRA sprint car races but only those that are run at Perris or Manzy so they have the week off. Johnson has finished in the top five in each of his ASCA starts and he has done it in three different cars. The duo are also expected for next week's "Fan Appreciation Night" and Bryan will have a new car ready and both Davis and Johnson will be in his cars.

Nathan High is expected to again drive the Burkhart midget that carried him to his first midget win last week.

The four divisions will run a main event and, if necessary, a qualifying semi main.

Race time each night is set for the usual 8:00 pm.