Iowa

From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”

All-Time Favorite Iowa Track:

Hawkeye Downs Speedway – dirt

Best Memories:

I have long thought that Iowa had and has the best local dirt stock car racing of any state in the country. I have so many memories from Iowa racing dating back to the late 60s. The first-ever track I visited outside of my boyhood state of Illinois was in Iowa. We went to the Davenport Speedway when I was about fourteen. The Falstaff 100 and later the Miller 100 were some of the best mid-week shows I have ever seen. Every driver in the 24-car feature was a “name” driver from some local track. Even Bobby and Davey Allison would fly in for the show and not be able to run in the top ten. My first sales territory, at the age of 23, covered eastern Iowa. I’ve been in every Jack & Jill grocery store on that side of Iowa! You can bet my sales appointments coincided 100% with every mid-week late model show that was run. You won’t find any better racing than at places like Davenport, Farley, Hawkeye Downs, West Liberty, Independence, Vinton and Dubuque among others.

My first visit to Knoxville for the sprint car nationals was all the way back in 1979. Ronnie Shuman won it. I’ve been back several times. I’ve seen racing at almost 40 figure 8 tracks in the Hawkeye state. Iowa is one of six states across the country where I’ve seen racing at more than 100 tracks.

The drivers back in the 60s and 70s were bigger than life. During a 10-year period in the 70s Iowa, drivers won the World 100 five times. Iowa drivers commonly won the dirt track stock car nationals during Florida’s Speedweeks. The dirt modified stock car as we know it was invented in 1979 by Keith Knaack editor and owner of the Hawkeye Racing News trade paper. I subscribed to the paper for more than 40 years. As soon as I got it I scanned the entire thing in a matter of moments looking for two things. I wanted to find out where the biggest late model shows were going to be run over the next week or two. This had nothing to do with seeing racing at a new track. I was going to go where my favorite drivers were racing.

What was the second thing I was hoping to see in the HRN? I wanted to see how my all-time favorite racing driver, Darrell Dake had done. As this is written I have seen racing at 2,545 tracks in 82 countries. Let’s say I’ve seen 50 different drivers at each one of those tracks. That would mean I’ve seen more than 127,000 drivers race at the tracks I have visited. One of them has to be my all-time favorite right? That was Darrell Dake, racing out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Darrell is gone now. He passed away in 2007. I first saw him race at the Sterling Speedbowl in Sterling, Illinois. Later I would watch him race at Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Freeport and even once at my home track, the Peoria Speedway. Darrell, despite living in Iowa all his life raced in the 1960 and 1961 Daytona 500s! Darrell was my favorite. I met him several times. After he passed I corresponded with his wife LaVerle via email. I think she loved it when I shared my admiration for her husband. I actually have a tribute page on my website to Darrell Dake. A link to the page is listed below. Yes, Iowa is my favorite state for dirt track racing by far.

Darrell Dake tribute page

If you see a track link in the above list simply click on it to be transferred to my Trackchaser Report. Here you will be able to read about my adventure at this particular track. Not only will you learn about my time at the track but you’ll hear about all of the interesting people, places and things I encountered during the entire trip, coming and going, to that speedway. Most of my Trackchaser Reports will also include a photo album and YouTube video. Check it all out. Don’t be afraid to use the “search” box in the upper right corner of my website’s home page. Just type in the track name or whatever and you’ll be directed to the place you want to be.

Below is a key to surface types and track configurations so you can understand the above list just a little bit easier.

Surface types:  D-dirt; P-paved; M-mixed

Configuration types:  O-oval; RC-road course; F8-figure 8 track