A tribute to the late, great Playland Speedway, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the racers that made it so

A tribute to the late, great Playland Speedway, Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the racers that made it so.

© Copyright by Dan Franks playlandspeedway.com 1999-2007.

All rights reserved. All images are the property of the contributors and this website. Reproduction of material appearing in this document is strictly prohibited without express written permission of the webmaster.

Welcome Playland Speedway Fans!  To my tribute to the late, great Playland Speedway and the local legends that raced there.

This book is a summary of sorts of the material from my www.playlandspeedway.com website. Not everyone has internet access (yet). And this is an effort to get the history of the speedway to others. There is a great deal more content on the website. I did not even try to include everything here. But, with the help of many good folks, I hope to bring you a glimpse of the storied past of Playland Speedway.

Not all of the information contained here is accurate, like many memories, sometimes that are the way we want to remember things, not always the way they really happened! Even the history of Playland isn’t always consistent from one source to another.

The layout of this book roughly mirrors the layout of the website. I’ve divided it into a rough history of Playland Speedway, with pictures, followed by a “memories” section of material provided by various contributors to the website. Next a section for each major car class and a series of drivers “pages” from the website. Finally, you’ll find I’ve added a section of “odds and ends”, comments in e-mail form from visitors and contributors to the website.

Many famous local racers graced the racing surface of Playland Speedway during its history. You’ll recognize several as nationally known racers. Tiny Lund, Bud Burdick, Glen Robey (8-ball), Elvin “Junior” Heiman (66), Mel Kruger, Bobby Parker, Dick Gappa (77), “Wild Bill” Martin, Dave Chase (31), Paul Zdan (10), Frank "the Flying Dutchman" Vandoorn (30), Larry Brown(16) , Bob Matson (71), Larry Jiskra (70), Sonny Miller (109), Ron Tilley (56), Russ Dilley (22), Ron Hoden (65),  John Beaman, Frank Prideaux (67), Mel Sorensen (93), Bob Jura (72), John Ernest (73), Jerry Boyd (52), Ron Wolfe “the Asphalt Animal”(76),  Chris Hoeppner (84), Bob Rollins (80), Claude “Sonny” Brown (67) and of course my personal hero, my Dad, Al Franks (89) who wasn't famous at all.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the moral support I've received from folks like Glenn Robey, Bobby Parker, Bob Matson, Don Ronk, Frank Vandoorn, Dave Kaut, Paul Zdan, Jim Taggart, Howard Koziol, Lee Ackerman, Bob and Carolyn Stender, Bill Stawowcyzk, Darrell Taylor, Dave Hellerich, Kim Elder, Joe Daub and Dave Hubbard. Thanks to all who contributed pictures and articles from their scrapbooks.