Race car driver safety - then & now;Playland Speedway at Council Bluffs, IA; Midwest Speedway in Lincoln, NE;Kasey Kahne at Chili Bowl; Kevin Swindell races to Chili Bowl win ahead of dad; Wild West Shootout in Tuscon

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While looking through web pages on stock car racing in Nebraska, I came across the Playland Speedway website. Playland speedway was a paved bullring located at Council Bluffs, Iowa near where the I-480 bridge is today. The track was built in the 1940’s and was first raced as a dirt track in 1947. Prior to the 1954 season it was paved.

The reason this interested me was because I went to Nebraska Technical College in Milford, Nebraska in 1972-1973 where I took Auto Mechanics. A classmate, Howard Koziol, raced at Playland. He wrote a good article on his recollections of Playland, both going to the races there as a youngster and racing there in the last years of the track’s operation. He has some nice pictures of himself on his page.

I hope Howard ends up reading this, because I’m going to make some observations as well as poke some fun at him. The first thing is - LOOK AT THAT HAIR!! Who did the perms for you back then? How much of that hair is left 35 years later?? The second thing I want to ask - although it was the first thing I noticed - were those bib overalls your driving uniform??

For you youngsters reading this, it may sound funny and far out - but go to www.playlandspeedway.com and look at the old pictures of the drivers and their cars. Go to the link to Howard’s page and take a look at his pictures from when he won some trophies. He is wearing bib overalls in each of those pictures. Under those bid overalls he was wearing what looks like a short sleeve t-shirt!

I remember the first races I attended as a spectator. Midwest Speedway in Lincoln, Nebraska had “late models” and “hobby stocks” in the early and mid-’70’s. Most of the drivers wore blue jeans and white t-shirts. I don’t remember if most wore some kind of gloves or not. There were a lot of open face helmets being used, and as I look back I wonder if they were really racing helmets or football helmets.

I remember going into the pits after the races at Midwest Speedway. Some of the cars had a factory bucket seat and stock seat belts!! It’s amazing that a ton of drivers weren’t killed in that era.

Safety is an area in our race cars where a lot of drivers - me included - continue to scimp. There have been a lot of articles on safety in racing magazines covering everything from helmets, fire suits, gloves, shoes, and seats to how to mount the seats and belts. One thing that is emphasized is if you can’t afford the safety equipment, DON’T RACE!!





Helmets have evolved from open-face, possibly football helmets to Snell-approved helmets that are required by every sanctioning body as well as most un-sanctioned tracks. Prices range from $200 for a plain-Jane white RCI brand helmet with no frills to $580 for a Bell GTX that can be hooked up to a clean air machine. A roll-off machine, either manual or electric, can be attached to the helmet to change tear-offs. Fire suits will range from $100 for a bare-bones suit that is good for only a few seconds to a close to $1,000 for a 3-layer SFI-5 rated suit. Then you have to have gloves, ranging from $50 to over $200, shoes for the same price, and a good idea is to have a nomex hood, fireproof underwear and socks. If it sounds like you might get a bit warm with all this protective clothing, you can look into a Kwik Kool shirt for $190. These are charged with a special Freon that can provide up to one hour of cooling. Extra Freon is $12 a can.

While racers and future racers are reading this and making a list of what they need to purchase in order to race safely, others have been racing in other parts of the country. The annual “Chili Bowl” races at Tulsa, Oklahoma have come to a close. These midget races are held indoors and host drivers from all walks of like. NASCAR driver Tony Stewart is a past winner and Kasey Kahne has been a regular competitor. The final A Feature found 20-year old Kevin Swidell taking the checkered flag, with his father, 5-time Chili Bowl winner Sammy Swindell, following in 3rd place.





I can’t imagine what it would be like to attend races indoors. I’ve joked that if I would win the Powerball, Beatrice Speedway would become an indoor venue. I would have a lot better chance of just attending the Chili Bowl sometime.

For late model and modified fans, there has been dirt track racing in the Tuscon, Arizona area for the last week. The 4th annual Wild West Shootout saw Billy Moyer and Terry Phillips taking home A Feature wins. Omaha’s John Anderson had a 2nd place finish in Saturday night’s finale.

The Columbus, Nebraska swap meet was held January 17th. It was my weekend to work so I wasn’t able to attend. Rules from several area tracks were available and are to be posted on track websites soon. The USMTS Frostbuster at McCool Junction is scheduled for March 5th and 6th. I hope the snow is gone by then and the temperatures are more conducive to racing.

The cold weather doesn’t help me out any while working in the garage. I spent a few hours with the woodburner going and got it above 50, but the concrete floor was still awful cold.

I also spent some time trying to get more things lined up to put in a proposal for a Blue Knights Conference for Beatrice in June 2011. Once again, due to work schedule, I was not able to go to our Blue Knights chapter meeting over the weekend, but I e-mailed the information I had to the Chapter officers. For Nebraska I members reading this, don’t forget, dues have to be paid! Chapter dues have to be received by International before January 31st. If your dues haven’t been paid by now, send them to Clyde or Diane ASAP!!