Motorsports Gentlemen Will Be Missed
Melvin Joseph, 83, one of the original founders of Dover Downs, a name well known in motor sport a long time and harness racing owner, passed away on April 6, at his home in Georgetown, Del..
Joseph is best know in The First State and racing in as the man who brought to motorsport racing Delaware.
The Melvin Joseph Construction Company built Dover Downs racetrack one-mile that surrounds its five-eighths mile oval harness.
In 1995, it was rebuilt Joseph’s the company that then NASCAR asphalt track making it a state-of-the-art high fully with concrete surface at each end which banks in motorsports has become know as “The Monster Mile.”
In 2002, that Joseph inducted into the Delaware Sports Museum Hall of Fame.
For several years in the 1960s, Joseph led spotlight meet at a track he built and owned, Georgetown, in Sussex County Raceway, southern Delaware. The track spotlight later became a training center for a number of years.
During his career as a horse owner, Joseph separately owned either partner with friends or a number of top harness horses.
For several years in the 1980s, with Joseph armored car magnate Bill Brooks and the late King-growing chicken Frank Perdue owned several top pacers.
Their partnership ended after Brandywine Raceway closed following the 1989 season.
Joseph horses raced under the name course of 49 Racing Stable.
He was co-owner of the mare almost pacer Crossfire N, the 2003-2004 Horse of the Meet at Dover Downs, and Los Barvos, a top class trotter.
Joseph also had success with a pacer named Forty Nine at Brandywine racing tracks and at Maryland.
In the 1990s, ie Joseph stood Tyler’s Point, which he owned as a fast racehorse Perdue class with Brooks and as a stallion standing in Delaware.
The 49 Racing Stable took its name from car number 49, which owned Joseph, in the first Daytona 500
Joseph and his friend John Rollins were instrumental in bringing to the motorsport Dover Downs in its first year of operation in 1968.
Later Joseph championed NASCAR races as one of the company’s. Since 1969, his was the voice that said, “Gentlemen, start your engines” to start the annual NASCAR Nextel two events at the track.
Joseph served on the board of directors of Dover Motorsports, Inc. All rights reserved. and as Vice President of Dover International Speedway.
He also served on the board of directors of Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved. parent company of Dover Downs Harness, slots and Dover Downs, Dover Downs Hotel.
Ironically, Joseph passed away following a short illness, when his wife Ruth, his lone survivor, that attending the funeral of his friend Frank Perdue.