This was not the Southeast Expressway at rush hour but a typical Saturday night at Seekonk Speedway near the Rhode Island border. Said to be the longest continually operated track in the country, the speedway is a family-run stock-car racing facility that has been going strong since 1946, when the Venditti family started it.

“It’s a place families come, have some fun, get away from the real world for a while,’’ said Francis Venditti, 69, son of the late founder, D. Anthony Venditti. Francis runs it now with his nephew David. “Americans still have a love of the automobile,’’ Venditti said.

On any Saturday night of the 26-week season up to two dozen vehicles scream around the track, racing in various categories. Upward of 5,000 spectators line the metal bleachers that surround a one-third-mile oval track that has not changed much since the place opened.

And neither has one financial fact: No one is getting rich racing. These are part-time racers, from all walks of life, engaging in an obsession that racer Gerry DeGasparre said, “is not a hobby, it’s a small monster.’’ Read More