Event Coverage Hawkeye Downs (Cedar Rapids Iowa) Swap Meet Is Back!

The spring and fall swap meets will return to the Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids Iowa in 2025. The spring swap meet is scheduled for the last weekend in April 2025 and the fall swap meet date is to be determined.

 

Details?! Same old club or is somebody else running it?

 

yeah,...mote details please...

 

The Hawkeye A Model A club ran the spring swap meet. The AACA ran the fall swap meet. The AACA had moved their swap meet to Central City but were not happy with it there and agreed to come back to Hawkeye Downs. The AACA will run both the spring and fall swap meets. As of now the only details I have is the spring swap meet being at the end of April 2025 and the fall meet date TBD. Getting the swap meet back to HD is something I have been working on for a couple of years.

 

Anyone who hasn't been to Hawkeye Downs since the last swap meet is going to be surprised with what they find when they get there. Not saying it's going to negatively impact the swap meet.

I feel like the Model A club started their swap meet at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Vinton. Anyone here old enough to remember that for sure? Would have been late-70s/early-80s.

 

I was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, sounds like a good reason to return!

 

thanks for the info,...anybody know what changes were made at the Downs?...any pics?

 

Roger Cassill (owner of Cassill Motors and father of NASCAR driver Landon Cassill) bought the Hawkeye Downs property. Roger also bought the Sunline car salvage yard just up the street from the race track. He sold the Sunline property, crushed a bunch of the cars, moved the rest of the junk cars and the Sunline office to the west end of the Hawkeye Downs property. They are moving the existing pit area from the west end of the property to the east end of property outside turns 1 & 2. They are grading the dirt now so they can lay asphalt for the new pit area for next year's racing season. The existing two expo halls remain the same but a third expo hall may be added. The track is celebrating it's 100 year anniversary in 2025. I am on the 100 year celebration events planning committee. One of the ideas we are kicking around is a banger and flathead drag race to be held on the track's front stretch.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Central city was ok, but the track was so much bigger.

 

Always a good meet at Cedar Rapids, only made it to the new location once, it was quite a drive from the Omaha area, great news its back in the plans & like the sound of flatheads & bangers in the round !

 

Not sure I like what Cassill may have done ?? Built cars that raced there in 1964-1972 when it was real 1/2mi dirt and it was always a great place. Lots of prestigious events there during the 100yrs. !! Hope you and others can do the place proud in 2025.

 

thanks for the info 36cab,...nice to know,...went to the Down's swaps for years, bought & sold there, the good ol days....here's some pics from 2016...

 

I was there for the 60s thru 80s dirt years. What a lot of people don't know is that when the track was still dirt it was within two years of going bankrupt and being sold and bulldozed. Changing from dirt to asphalt saved the track. For the first 15-20 years of asphalt racing the track did great. But then a series of bad managers made the track attendance spiral. It is nice to see the new race director, that has an actual racing background and now running things, has racing and the track's success as his priority. And Roger Cassill, who also has a long racing background, is dedicated to keeping the race track and bringing Hawkeye Downs back to it's former glory. The dirt years were wonderful but I would rather see an asphalt track there rather than no track at all which is where that property was unfortunately headed.

 

Three racing asphalt surfaces all-encompassing within each other for a variety of racing venues certainly a novel idea, venders were set up in the parking area & around the track, found after traversing the slight banking, I had to double back & unwind my ankles.

 

...ditto, we'd walk the track one way then go the opposite way to even it out.

 

Try being a seller on the track! Leaning downhill all day long. But we did find that between turn one and two was the prime spot to sell stuff.

 

Hoping they do it justice, having a race enthusiast heading things up should be an incentive as long as all levels of automotive are included.

 

That is awesome news EXCEPT the date conflicts with the Jefferson, WI Swap Meet. Not a good idea.

 

Looking forward to this meet!

 

The spring AACA swapmeet at Hawkeye Downs will be held May 17th, 2025.

 

jefferson is always the last weekend in April...

 

Great news. Always went to the show. One of my favorites

 

No known conflict if it is 5-17-25.

Well done everyone. I will plan on being there.

 

UPDATE - A group of us got together with the AACA and explained why the April 25th (Jefferson swap meet) and the May 3rd (Vintage Torque Fest swap meet in Dubuque Iowa) were both bad ideas for the Hawkeye Downs swap meet. It took some convincing but the AACA finally changed the Hawkeye Downs swap meet date to Saturday May 17th (I have been to the Hawkeye Downs office and I have seen the signed contract). The fall swap meet at Hawkeye Downs is still TBD. It may depend on how successful the spring swap meet is. I hope to see you all on May 17th.

 

I have been a vendor around this area for about 55 years. It will be best to keep the vendor cost as low as possible ,if you want to get it going again. Reasonable vendor space rent helps the number of vendors and with a larger number of vendors the word travels fast that this swap is really worth going to. Reverse reaction is not good. As a buyer I do not mind paying more if the place is crowded with vendors. Remember the VENDORS are your show .Without them you soon will have NO swap meet .I could go on and on about the bigger swap’s continually raising vendor spaces and soon after ,the decline of that swap meet is inevitable. Nothing worse than a swap meet filled with just parked vehicles. …..Thanks Steve for your efforts on getting this back where it belongs.

 

The cost of a swap meet space was discussed at the last AACA meeting. A sweet little old lady in her mid 80s piped up and said "we need to keep the price low to get people to come back and know that we are back". Bless her heart. And you should also know that the current Hawkeye Downs management worked really hard to get the swap meet back and they cut the AACA one heck of a deal.