History Iowa Dragstrips - New & Old

I would be interested in photos of Denny Prochaska and Roger "Radar" Lechtenberg. Denny ran Jr. Fuel, Top Fuel, Bad Alcohol Dragster, and finally Top Alcohol Funny Car. Radar is currently wheeling Dale Suhr's "Orange Crate" Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster, and has ran a Blown Alcohol Dragster, and a FED with a inline six, and maybe others.

 

That was near ONAWA, IOWA and Cy had nothing to do with this project. . .except looking forward to racing there. The Omaha Indians were going to build this facillity at one time, along with a new hotel, convention center, travel plaza, 18-hold golf course and modern RV campground. Had $14 mil once to do it all, even had an official Ground Breaking ceremony with NHRA Officials and everything. . .then they got in a dispute with their management company and lost the money in the resulting lawsuit.
Too bad, except probably a good thing, as the track would have been under about 10 ft. of water this summer due to river flooding. The casino is still closed as a result.
Still have the original engineer's drawing on the wall of my office of the track near Onawa. . .look at it every day and think about what "might have been"!!

Oh yeah. . .don't forget Sioux City Dragway from back in the '60s!!

 

Here's some infor from the original project website for the Onawa Drag Strip. . .

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/nhra.raceinonawa/

 

Do you have more info on this, so I can add it to the list?

 

I raced a front engine B/G dragster in Sioux City at the air field in the 70s. Good time!!!

 

The Hustler car #231 belonged to Jim Farnsworth from Waterloo. He raced many cars ending up in a TA/FC. The green Toxic car is Vern Moats old Toxic, just repainted by
new owner Roger Denny. Roger named a later car Toxic also.

 

Last one from Des Moines

 

The above car is Merrill Frost's, which in this photo is running a small block Ford.
It later had a hemi and ran B/G. It had a drawing on the trunk of a go go girl and said
Willys A Go Go.

 

The Anglia on the previous page sitting behind the Grove Brothers Willys at Des Moines Dragway was owned by the Atchison Brothers. Rick Atchison's son spotted the car at this years Goodguy's event at the Iowa State Fairground and is in contact with the Minnesota owner in an attempt to get it restored to it's racing day look.

 

I found this photo over on Header Flames. Does anyone have info and/or photos of this car? This photo looks to have been taken at Cordova.

 

Boy brings back memories! Living in Mason City in the 60's and dragging Mick's 31 Model A B altered to Humbolt drag strip. Then the strip was two lanes of black top in the middle of a pasture. We would tow it with my '55 Pontiac Chieftan with a 3spd that I put a '57 347 in and raced it also.

 

Here are a couple of pics I was finally able to get scanned. I believe both of these were taken at Humboldt

 

Justin, the blue Falcon was owned by Hubert Platt who lived in Georgia, but was sponsored by Dick Walters Ford in West Des Moines. Hubert also had a long nose Mustang and he and Dick Walters would match race with Walters driving the Falcon.
They raced at Des Moines Dragway and other tracks. The Falcon was found in sorry shape a couple of years ago and is under restoration. The Mustang is owned by someone down South. I saw the Mustang on display at Bowling Green in 2004.

 

The Ford Thunderbolt above my above post was first owned by Carl Moyer and came with an automatic. It was a slug and Moyer changed it to a 4 speed. It was not red when Moyer owned it. John Cort bought if from Moyer and painted it red and raced it for a number of years. John sold it to a guy in Pleasantville, IA who wrecked it at Eddyville. I understand it is still around here in Iowa and is being restored. The Taxi car is Charlie Mayluke's Anglia Prefect. Charlie had a lot of race cars and some sucess before he passed away.

 

How about good-guy Jack Wyatt?

 

That car (body) started out life as the Seaport Automotive injected nitro flopper. One of my favorites...

 

Hi
I raced back in the late 80's at Eddyville. I raced the purple and green 1948 International pickup with a blown and injected 400 Pontiac.

The Possum Chaser crosley wagon was built by Edward Bruegge of Fairfield Iowa. Ed is still lives at Fairfield. Cliff Tipton raced a Chevy 2 at Eddyville and is still living in Ottumwa Iowa.
Very interesting thread.
Thank you
James

 

Yes, Jack Wyatt bought that car from Dick Titsworth. I do not think Jack is old enough to have raced at Des Moines Dragway. The housing development sitting where the track was is called Day's Run in honor of the Day family that owned the farm and built the track. The above mentioned Ron Smith and I graduated from East Des Moines together in January of 1960. I am often in contact with Lou Bredesky and he still has the T Bucket with the GMC 6 in it. Larry Latham continues to work on the history of the Des Moines Dragway and told me a couple weeks ago he still has 5 or 6 contacts every week. He has sold a lot of, Remember The Des Moines Dragway, tee shirts.
IA AL

 

i have a flathead dragster tha used run in iowa, i bought it in 1975 so would be befor that. i am trying to get info on the car??????? has an odd one axil trailer, w/3 hand grips on ea/front side of tr. to unload....???? any help????

 

more pics. I believe all were taken at Humboldt.

 

I'm new to this site but I think I have many old pic's from Cedar Falls Neita/Raceway, Humbolt Dragways and Tri State Raceway of Earlville in boxes to go through. Hope to upload some old ones to look at.

 

Welcome!! We look forward to your contributions!!

 

I already placed some pictures in a picture folder named Intimidator16. I will look for more.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/picture.php?pictureid=354322&albumid=31024&dl=1325783688&thumb=1

 

I like the list. Iowa was a haven for hard running gassers and MP cars. A few of these above referenced cars made it in the national magazines via car feature article or because of their doing well in major UDRA events. Yellow Submarine was a B/A jag convertible correct?

 

The Grove Bros ran a hemi in the Opel, correct? I think they won the big Gas Coupe and Sedan Championships in 1970 at Rockford with that little coupe.

 

Sioux City Dragway. Originally started by the Strollers car club in the late 50s and was an NHRA track till closing in about 71 or 72. Located at the airbase which is still there and thats what closed it down.

 

Also when the Park Jefferson horse track was converted into a stock car track back in the mid 80s there was talk of buying extra land at the sight and building a 1/4 mile track but it never got past the talking stage.

 

I believe that is correct. I am not old enough to have known Jimmy, but I met Jerry a few times. He still has a shop in Fort Dodge I think.

 

You are correct.