To a boy growing up on Long Island in the early part of this century, the quarter-mile track and figure-eight at Riverhead Raceway were a place like no other.

The photographer Johnny Milano, 29, first visited as a teenager and was captivated. “I’m not a racing fan, so it’s more the environment that gets me,” he said. The summer air was thick with smoke and fuel, and the engines’ roar literally shook his bones and organs.