STOCK CAR RACING

STOCK CAR RACING. The earliest sanctioned stock car racing in Dubuque was done on the north side of CITY ISLAND. The DUBUQUE SPORTS BOWL according to Pat "Blackie" Lyons of Cascade was "just a little round circle." He remembered needing to drive through "horse weeds and past the dump to get to the track." (1)

A popular Dubuque area sport, stock car racing suffered after the closing of the Dubuque Sports Bowl in 1969. The season that year opened in May with 32 cars entered for the first program. Gary Trieweiler, high point man, was to be driving a Hudson coupe with a modified Chrysler engine. Other entries included late model Fords and Chevrolets with at least one '66 Mustang convertible. The game Total, an audience participation game in which fans could share in the prize money by picking the first five cars in the feature race, was to be played. (2)

On March 11, 1969 after years of racing stock cars on City Island, John Heiderscheit, owner of the Sports Bowl, announced to the Dubuque Dock Commission that the track would not reopen. The reasons for the closing were heavy financial losses in past seasons and anticipated high water. Heiderscheit dismantled and sold the grandstands; the track was roughened up by the Dock Department crews to keep amateur racers away. (3)

Racing revived quickly with the construction of a modern track at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds in 1969. Late model stock car racing began on July 6, 1969 at the new Dubuque County Fairgrounds Speedway. Listed as a 3/8 mile oval, the new track lacked just 200 feet of being a half-mile. It was 50-feet wide on the straightaways and 60 feet on the banked turns. Plans called for a regular weekly circuit with Friday night racing in Des Moines, Saturday nights in Davenport and Sunday nights in Dubuque.

A cumulative point standings increased the likelihood of drivers competing in all three stops. A "first time" prize of $1,500 was offered the opening night. Heat races were ten laps, the semi-feature was 15 laps, and the feature was 25 laps. Two types of stock cars would be raced--late models (1962-1969) and older models (1956-1060). Future plans might include a "spectator class." Started in Davenport, this event featured regular drivers off the street with their family cars. All that was required was a fire extinguished, seat belts, and roll bars. (4)

The track area included a safety wall running the length of the track in front of the spectator seating. The four-foot-high concrete wall was topped by an eight-foot high wire fence. (5)

The thrill of the sport attracted a growing number of female observers and participants. In 1960 press credentials for women reporting on NASCAR read, "No Women Allowed in the Pits." Times had changed when Rhonda Rich who worked as a sportswriter and publicist for corporate sponsors and drivers on the Winston Cup circuit wrote My Life in the Pits, the first book about racing from the female point of view. In 2000, NASCAR reported $1.2 billion was spent by fans on merchandise and that women were estimated to have spent 60%. It was estimated that by 2003 women accounted for nearly 48% of the audience. (6)

Women held loyalty to the drivers as well as the companies that sponsored them. Debbie Lunsford-Love, a Georgia stock-car driver, stated that NASCAR drivers seemed real people with real families who came with them to the track and could be seen in-person. (7)

---

Source:

1. Reber, Craig, "Jewel on the River," Telegraph Herald, February 14, 2010, p. 1

2. "Stock Races Race Saturday," Telegraph-Herald, May 17, 1968, p. 18

3. "Water Skiers Move In As Sports Bowl Folds," Telegraph-Herald, March 12, 1969, p. 27

4. Lagerstrom, Hal, "Fairgrounds Speedway Opens Sunday," Telegraph-Herald, July 4, 1969, p. 6

5. Lagerstrom, Hal, " Sports," Telegraph Herald, April 12, 1970, p. 52

6. O'Briant, "A Woman's View," Telegraph Herald, January 16, 2003, p. 14

7. Ibid.