Greetings from Jefferson, South Dakota
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From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Interstate Speedway
Dirt oval
Lifetime Track #358
The first 430.
I didn’t begin writing my famous Trackchaser Reports until I had already seen about 430 tracks. I saw my 430th lifetime track in the middle of the year 2000. The Interstate Speedway was first visited in 1998. It will forever be known as my 358th lifetime track.
I first went to the Interstate Speedway on Sunday, September 20, 1998. Earlier in the day I had seen racing at the Clay County Fairgrounds in Spencer, Iowa. The tracks were just 102 miles apart. This gave me plenty of time to see Willy Kraft #83 win in Iowa in the afternoon. Then the evening portion of this day/night trackchasing double had Rick Brown #75 in victory circle.
The hobby of trackchasing was a whole lot different back then. I saw just 35 new tracks during the entire year. My Interstate Speedway trek was the last new track I saw for the entire year in 1998. Can you imagine concluding a trackchasing season in late September nowadays? Jack Erdmann of Depere, Wisconsin saw more tracks than anyone else in 1998 with sixty-three. Have you ever seen the list of trackchasing champions dating all the way back to 1969? Here’s the link which can be found on my website. To find it simply go to the top of my home page. You will see the “Trackchasing” tab. Behind that tab you’ll find the tab “Past Trackchasing Champs”. Here’s the link to see that list right now:
The track was named Interstate Speedway when I saw it in 1998. However, it’s name today is Raceway Park. The Beauchene family opened Interstate Speedway and had the first race on June 7, 1970. The track’s location in Jefferson is about 12 miles northwest of Sioux City. The track is easily seen from the nearby Interstate 29 highway. I don’t re-visit all that many tracks. However, the Interstate Speedway is a track I would go back to in a heartbeat. My all-time favorite track is my boyhood racetrack, the Peoria Speedway. The Interstate Speedway is a copycat layout of Peoria.
What does that mean? Interstate is a high-banked little 3/10-mile black gumbo oval. When I was there in 1998 it would have been difficult to tell the time period wasn’t 1958! Things were a little rundown but the racing was “best ever”. This part of the country has some tremendous local racing. There were various classes of full-fendered stock cars. It seemed as if every race has two or three cars in a photo finish.
Here’s what the Sioux City Journal had to say about the history at the former Interstate Speedway:
“The track was built in the fall of 1969 under the ownership of Cecil and Joyce Beauchene as they made the track out of farm ground. Interstate Speedway opened in 1970 with the first race being run on June 7, 1970.
The track was built with the idea of offering family-affordable entertainment and that idea continues at the track to this day. The track has drawing power from about 100 miles in any direction for the racers who came to take on the fast-paced track.
In the early ’80s the track ran late models, sportsman, roadrunners and street stocks with more than 100 cars checking in to race on a given night. In 1986, the track sanctioned the IMCA modified division to provide a more affordable race car and beginning its relationship with the IMCA sanctioning body.
The track would also be known for the show it put on in addition to the racing. There was plenty of car jumping – and some crashing – to add a little more entertainment for the fans. There was also one man who claimed to be the heaviest rider to jump a motorcycle. He took his turn at the Jefferson, S.D., dirt track.
Entertainment like that led to the track being nicknamed “The Action Track” a moniker it still carries today.
“I try to keep all those staples today because I was a kid that grew up out there and I remember all these things,” track promoter Greg Golden said. “The racing was always really neat, but on top of that Cecil brought some other activity that brought that excitement level up a little bit.”
The facility has gone through a couple of different ownerships, but was bought and opened again in 2008 by Tom Reed from Dakota City, Neb., after the name had been changed to Raceway Park in 2007.”
The track sits across the street from a former dog track which is now the Park Jefferson Speedway. Park Jefferson was my 1,041st lifetime track. By the way I first moved into the World’s #1 Trackchasing ranking after seeing my 1,040th track at the Milwaukee Mile road course on May 21, 2006. For the most part the Interstate Speedway has raced on Sunday nights. I hope I get the chance to see some racing there again some day.
You might have remembrances of the Interstate Speedway. If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here.
3 comments
My dad used to race at that track his name was phillip foster peewee was his nickname. My dad holds the most roll overs on that track
Hi Joey, Sound like your dad had a lot of fun!! Best, Randy
Park Jefferson is a former horse track. They had 6 day a week racing from 1964-1984. Then another track was built in Nebraska and put them out of business. There WAS also a dog track in the area, but it was further south near North Sioux City, SD. When they started racing in 1986, it was on an all new track, with only the grandstands left from the horse track.