For decades, an old cycling treasure lay buried in one of the Motor City's neighborhoods. Then one day, someone rediscovered it.
Dorais Park lies east of I-75 and occupies a section of land within the rectangle described by East Eight Mile Road and Mound Road and East Outer Drive. The park used to be famous because it features one of the only hills in all of Detroit, Derby Hill, which further back in history than 1969 used to host Detroit's annual soapbox derby. People used to sled down Derby Hill in the winter. Children used to play in Dorais Park all year round. Across the street from Dorais Park, a 35-acre Chrysler assembly plant used to operate at full capacity. They used to make Ram trucks there. It's all gone now.
So in ancient Detroit history, in 1967, a man named Mike Walden, a legend of Michigan cycling and a world-class track coach, believed in the future of Detroit and designed a velodrome and built it in a flat area not far from Derby Hill. The Chrysler Corporation donated the land and helped with the resources. Chrysler could do that kind of thing back then. Walden's goal was to finish the velodrome in time for the 1969 U.S. National Track Championships. They were in fact held on his track, and John Vande Velde, a two-time Olympian and father of current cycling superstar Christian Vande Velde, won a couple of events that year. After the championships, Walden had himself a top-notch facility at which to train racers capable of competing with anyone in the world. For 21 years thereafter the Dorais Park Velodrome functioned as a World-class training arena. Cyclists did indeed emerge from here, most notable of whom is Frankie Andreu, former 7-Eleven and U.S. Postal Service racer and one of the most articulate voices in American cycling. In an online diary he posted on October 17, 2000, Frankie had this to say: "Those who have ridden the Dorais Velodrome know the location; it's not a place you forget. It doesn't matter when you rode the velodrome, even if it was when it first opened in 1969, you'd remember." The last bicycle race held at the Dorais Velodrome was the Michigan State Championships in the summer of 1990.
So when the velodrome was discovered on August 6, 2010, by a group of people known as the Mower Gang, they weren't really discovering anything. They were merely excavating a known archealogical site. The organization describes itself as "Detroit's very own gang of renegade landscapers," and its mission is to mow parks and public spaces the city can no longer afford to maintain. The leader of the Mower Gang is Tom Nardone, a web entrepreneur. Tom is also a skilled pumpkin carver and has been a guest of David Letterman , Queen Latifa and other television hosts. Dorias Park is a place the Mower Gang has chosen to use their landscaping equipment, fancy mowers and a Bobcat. They have a great time on weekends in the interest of the public good.
By Caching In Trashing Out on April 19, 2015 we will prepare the Park for the "Mower Gang" to cut the accumulation of weeds and overgrown grass left over from the winter by removing trash. A Souvenir is NOT available for this date.
Background Information from an article in BICYCLING Magazine by Mike Magnuson