Look at the dirt.
If it’s compact, rich and clumps well, expect side-by-side fender rubbing, but not so much one-lane dump and runs.
Look at the grading. Enough banking to create a sticky high line; flat enough for opportunities to dive inside.
Look at the front straight, lengthened and flattened to get away from the bull ring that Davenport Speedway’s quarter-mile track could become.
New race promoter Jeff Struck spent days reconfiguring the track that opens its 105th season April 12. Struck brings his racing eye, and a fan’s heart to the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds track.
He’s aiming for tighter competition, more cars and a family atmosphere that keeps fans coming back week after week.
That’s what put him and co-worker Jeff Peterson on the track most weekends this winter moving dirt, and prepping the surface for a new season.
Struck compulsively scoops up rocks, and crumbles clods as he walks the front stretch during one Saturday work day.
He knows how to drive, having won in Outlaw and IMCA stock cars. He knows business, having operated Jeff’s Auto Sales and towing in west Davenport for years.
And he’s had opinions about promoters in the past. So when fairgrounds director Shawn Loter was looking for a new promoter, Struck bit.
“I didn’t want to be the guy who passed this chance up,” he said. “Like racing, when the dust settles, it’ll come with losses and wins.”
The preseason dust has settled and now it’s time for dirt to fly.
The Speedway has 18 Fridays and two, late season Saturdays scheduled with family-fun events to capture kids' attention.
His No. 1 goal as he looks out through the grandstands: Get phones out of kids hands.
He’s convinced that Friday nights at the tracks will captivate families for a few hours, get them cheering in the moment, then coming back.
“It’s not a thrill you sit back and watch. It’s something you experience,” he said.
Engine maker craves competition
Tony Vondresky has experienced it for 23 years. He races, and builds custom engines with his trademark orange valve covers. He works full-time as an auto dealer technician, then spends most nights, 6-10 p.m. making engines in his McCausland shop.
He eyed an old, Chevy engine block that’s the start of his next project. “I already see things I don’t like,” he said, pointing to a hint of rust in a cylinder, and an obvious repair fill.
His own 2024 modified was parked nearby and looked ready to run. But he said it’s still a hundred details away from perfection.
“I’m trying to focus on my own racing now,” he said. He’s aiming for weekly bouts at Davenport, and perhaps East Moline and Maquoketa.
He’s rooting for Struck, and the changes coming at Davenport Speedway.
“It’s been a big momentum track,” he said, that rewards consistency, but limits passing opportunities. “It’s kind of a hard thing to figure out if you’re not racing 60 nights a year.”
He’s hopeful Struck’s reconfiguration of the quarter-mile will improve competition. “More than one lane will make an exciting race,” he said.
Racing binds Morris family
Jeff Morris, of McCausland, has experienced the Speedway for 40 years. He recalls being a kid, hanging outside John Neilson’s Eldridge garage. “I’d walk up every night to see if they were working on race cars,” he said.
Neilson competed on the race circuit as a driver, then began building his own cars. Morris said he was first a fan, then friend. When Neilson asked him to drive in 1990, “I said hell yes.”
That was the foundation of a friendship that continues. Neilson still pitches in every week at the track, and almost every day at the Morris’ McCausland shop.
That’s where Mitch and Jake Morris carry on their dad’s passion. Or obsession.
Jeff said he warned all his kids about the perils of racing. Neither have forgotten.
“You remember what you told me?” Jake recalled. “You said you don’t want to do this. You’ll be addicted and spend too much money and it’ll burn your whole summer.”
Oldest son, Matt, apparently heeded the warning. He doesn’t race. He and his family cheer at the track on race days. And Matt wrenches many nights in the family garage.
But neither Jake, nor older brother, Mitch, flinched at their dad’s warning.
“And Jake is always broke,” their dad said.
The expenses stagger old-timers like Jeff Morris and John Neilson. In the day, they made everything themselves. Neilson crafted engines and chassis with junkyard parts.
Now most classes race with a standard 604 Crate Engine, that has 350 cubic inch displacement, producing about 400 horsepower. Those run upwards of $7,500.
Jeff Morris said the engines are super reliable, and level the racing field for better competition.
Teams choose suspension, braking and tire options to be more competitive.
Lots of hands-on work remains.
Like all teams, the Morrises groove and sipe each tire dozens of times, making inch-long grooves between tread lines to add grip.
They form body panels by cutting and bending four-by-eight foot, steel sheets milled to 40/1000ths of an inch. They swap out gears for best performance at each track.
And they wash off dirt constantly.
“It’s all about building a better mousetrap than the other guy,” Jeff said.
The other main advantage comes from hours behind the wheel.
Living in McCausland puts them 30 minutes from three tracks: Davenport, Maquoketa and East Moline. That’s three racing nights most weeks.
Mitch said brother Jake, “wrecks more than I do.”
“I do,” Jake replied. “But he’s six years older, more experienced.”
Mitch’s experience includes a concussion in 2007 at the East Moline speedway. He slid and got t-boned. The EMTs found him unconscious. His dad was leading that race.
“I came around the next corner and the back stretch looked like Daytona, just strewn with cars and parts. But I didn’t see his car,” Jeff remembered. “It turns out there was no car left.”
These days, they sometimes run against full-time drivers who compete five or six nights a week at tracks across the country.
Their friend, John Neilson, recalled his days on the road and says the experience is invaluable.
“Every track is different. Even the same tracks change. It’s intense, focused concentration,” he said.
That concentration draws Joe Zrostlik to the sport.
He was in his 40s when he watched a friend race. “I bit on that hook and it’s been 21 years,” he said.
The Long Grove business owner counts himself as lucky. “I found it later in life, so it didn’t consume my time, all my money and energy when I was developing my career,” he said.
“The best part about racing for me is when I’m in a race, in a moment, where it pops in my head, I’m grabbing the wheel, and I’m thinking I’m the luckiest guy in the world right now, doing something I really love, having fun in a race car, and nothing else matters.
“You can’t bottle, quantify or sell this feeling. It’s just that feeling of satisfaction.”
Zrostlik wasn’t the only racer to describe it as a drug.
“It’s very euphoric when you get in the moment of racing. You don’t think of anything else. Your worries, family problems, challenges in the world. It all goes out the window. You are entirely focused on the moment,” he said. “About this time of year, it starts popping up in my head.”
Those racing visions get keener each lap on the track.
“When you drive, you should be driving a second or two in front of where you’re at, but also be aware of what is immediately around you. Some racers have it. They’re naturals. Some have to acquire it through experience and maturity. Some people never get it.
“I like to think I’m on the experienced side. I’m an older racer. I’m not a natural.”
Zrostlik is eager to learn the new Davenport Speedway surface and experience the straighter front straight. Past racing rounded the quarter mile, putting a permanent curve in the front straight and moving a lot of action into the second and third turns, away from fans.
This year, promoter Struck plans to groom the track for more side-by-side racing in front of fans. He’s also adding a ramp to the grandstand stage so winners can celebrate in a victory lane up high, in full view of fans.
Look for a schedule of themed race days: Mother’s Day; Father’s Day, July 4 fireworks, and other promotions.
Sponsor Jim Groves, of Iowa-Illinois Taylor Insulation is sponsoring a $10,000 season points fund to pay cash prizes to class winners at the end of the summer.
Struck is hoping the changes will fill the fairgrounds’ massive grandstand, which has easily accommodated the 1,000 or so who come each Friday.
Announcer Shane Davis is back for another season, and all drivers say his knowledge and experience as a former driver add to the excitement of race night.
A century of traditions comes with rivalries among familiar drivers who are returning to the speedway. With so many local racers, Vondresky and Jeff Morris said those on track rivalries are another Davenport Speedway distinction.
“There are only a few guys I can hold grudges against. Most of them, I’m buying them a beer after the race,” Morris said.
“Even the ones you have tussles with on the track; you tussle one week, and they loan you a part the next week,” Vondresky said.
Racing rules
Davenport Speedway and all area tracks operate under the International Motor Contest Association rules that govern equipment, team conduct, season scoring, and penalties.
The top series use the same GM crate engine with seals to prevent tampering of piston and valve sizes. Rules include penalties for sabotage.
Disqualification and $250 fine for any crate engine not using required carb spacer, unaltered harmonic balancer, pushrods, keepers, retainers, valve springs or rocker arms.
Iowa’s first NASCAR race at the Davenport Speedway
NASCAR returns to Iowa this year with racing at the Iowa Speedway in Newton.
The late Phil Roberts recalled attending Iowa’s first NASCAR race, Aug. 2, 1953, at the Davenport Speedway.
Roberts was four. He later would be an announcer at Davenport Speedway, and work for NASCAR, publicizing races.
Roberts recounted his childhood memories of Iowa’s first NASCAR race in a March 17, 1999, NSP column.
“The 200-lap, 100-mile event Dad and I witnessed on the Davenport half-mile dirt track was the series’ 25th race of 1953. It included some drivers who would later become quite famous.
“Herb Thomas won the race in a 1953 Hudson, followed by Buck Baker in a ’53 Olds, Lee Petty in a ’53 Dodge, Dick Rathmann in a ’53 Hudson and Fonty Flock in a ’53 Hudson.
“I had an opportunity to meet Thomas, now an elderly man, in Daytona Beach in February of 1998. He was there to be recognized during NASCAR's 50th anniversary celebration as one its 50 greatest drivers.
“Thomas told me he still remembers that race in Davenport in 1953, although he incorrectly recalled that Rathmann, not Baker, had taken second place.
“ The remaining drivers in that Davenport event, the ones who finished sixth through 14th, respectively, were: Bill Harrison ('53 Hudson), Mel Krueger ('49 Ford), Johnny Beauchamp ('52 Hudson), Tubby Harrison ('49 Plymouth), Keith Lucas ('52 Studebaker), Ernie Derr('53 Olds), Jerry Draper('50 Ford), Paul Newkirk ('51 Nash) and Red Untiedt ('53 Olds).
“If you're a racing fan, you'll recognize some of those names as those of local competitors who wanted to try their luck against the big boys. Since only 14 cars showed up, everyone got to race.”
From driver to promoter
Inside IMCA Racing magazine featured Struck in its March 20 edition.
“IMCA brings more thrilling racing more consistently. I believe we’ll see that in the new Hobby Stock division as more people get cars built. It’s a competitive class and it’s economical.”
Struck is putting final touches on the 2024 schedule and will announce dates of events paying Modifieds and Northern SportMods $1,000 to win. The Sunoco Race Fuels Bonus Night for Late Models is Aug. 9.
“I grew up going to races with my dad and racing was something I always wanted to do myself,” said Struck, who drove a tow truck at Davenport before he was old enough to get his driver’s license. “I ran in the open street stock class here, then in an IMCA Stock Car and IMCA Modified and was too competitive for as smart as I was.”
“Promoting was another thing I have always wanted to do,” he continued. “When this opportunity came up, I was in position to hold my hand up.”