Racing In Kansas

Kansas Antique Race Cars Photographs, jalopies and rails ready for the Evert Issac Memorial Vintage Car Race. Many were featured in the 1st Annual Legends of McCarty Speedway, Dodge City Raceway Park.

Roger Burnett, with No. 5 race car he built in 1986

Kansas Race Cars and Drivers

• Ed Beckley & Scott Beckley, Racing family, involved with Dodge City Raceway Park, Racing In Kansas
• First Dodge City, Kansas, AAA 150-mile auto race, October 7, 1916,
  Racing In Kansas (Courtesy: Roger B. Burnett)
• James Gang Racing, Pratt, KS
• McCarty Speedway 1955 Champion Bob Champlin, No. 98, Photograph, Dodge City: Racing In Kansas
• McCarty Speedway 1956 Trophy Dash Champion Team, Photograph, Dodge City: Racing In Kansas
• Kansas Super Modifieds Racing From The Past, Warren Vincent, McPherson
• Kansas State University Solar Car Racing Team, Manhattan
• Bob Lawrence,The Wizard of Winfield, Wichita
• Jim Roper, first NASCAR race winner, 1949, Halstead,
• First NASCAR race winner dies at age 83 in Newton: Christian "Jim" Roper, Kansan Online, June 2000 [archive.org copy]
• Offy Killer No. 25 Sprint Car, Chet Wilson, Wichita
• Offy Killer No. 25 Sprint Car full view , with George Laughead Jr., site author
• David "Davey" Ross, Jetmore; Flying Farmer, McCarty Speedway, Dodge City, 1961 photograph
• David "Davey" Ross in No. 54 on farm, Jetmore, 1961 photograph by Ralph Sturgeon, Fowler
• A.J. Shepherd, Wichita [only Kansas driver to compete in Indianapolis 500]
• Larry Torson, No. 55 rail car, Dodge City, 1961 photograph
• Mike Burkhart and John Goemann, NHRA Drag Racers, Dodge City, KS [archive.org copy]
• Mike Burkhart, NHRA Hot Rod Race, Denver, CO Dodge City, KS native
• Jay Max Woodside, 1939 - 2004 , [Jay was born on Jan. 6, 1939 in Dodge City. Raced against Davey Ross.]

Kansas Race Clubs

• Kansas Antique Racers Banquet 2005 Halstead Heritage Museum & Depot, Halstead
• Kansas Antique Racer Jim Roper, biography, Legends of the Past
• NHRA - National Hot Rod Association
• Kansas Antique Racers Arlington, from Racing From The Past, W. Vincent [archive.org copy]
• Southeast Kansas Racing Club Rules 1957, Winfield
• SCCA Sports Car Club of America, Topeka

Kansas Race Tracks

• 77 Speedway, Arkansas City
• 81 Speedway, Wichita
• Airport Raceway, Garden City
• Belleville Highbanks, Belleville
• Dodge City Raceway Park, Dodge City
• Great American Dirt Track, Jetmore
• Hutchinson Nationals, NCRA National Championship Racing Association
• Hutchinson Raceway Park, Hutchinson
• Heartland Park, Topeka
• Kansas International Dragway, Wichita
• Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, KS
• Salina Speedway, Salina
• Speedway Park, Wichita
• S.R.C.A. Dragstrip, Great Bend
• Thunderhill Speedway, Mayetta
• Wichita International Raceway, Wichita [closed -- website for history only]

Kansas Racing Museums

• Big Dog Motorcycles, Wichita [not a museum, but cool Flash site]
• Kansas Auto Racing Museum, Chapman
• Kansas Motocycle Museum, Marquette
• Thunder on the Smoky annual rally, Marquette
• The Mathews Collection, Denver, CO (Best private car museum)
• Museum of Modern Hog Harley-Davidson, Topeka
• National Midget Auto Racing Museum, Highbanks Hall of Fame, Belleville

Kansas Racing History

• Dodge City, KS Race Track, circa 1900, photograph on "Fred Harvey" postcard, Racing In Kansas
• Willy's Overland Car, 6-Cylinders. with Kansas pioneer (Long Branch saloon owner) Chalk Beeson
  and Bob Rath, son of Charles Rath, the Rath Trail buffalo hunter.
  FCHS photograph circa 1910, Dodge City, Racing In Kansas
• Motorcycle Races, Cowley County Fairgrounds, July 4, 1912, Winfield
• Dodge City 1914: First 300-Mile "Coyote Classic" Harley-Davidson's first racing team in first race
• Dodge City 300, July 1915, the biggest motorcycling racing event in America,
  winner Otto Walker, Harley-Davidson Team. Over 15,000 spectators were at the race track
  and 29 factory entries from six different car factories attended the race.
• Dodge City Classic, 1916: Harley-Davidsonâ��s Battle for Racing Supremacy, by Herbert Wagner, [300-mile race, the premier battleground of American motorcycle competition]
• Dodge City Classic, 1920, Motocycle races, Pioneers of American Motorcycle Racing
• The History of Motorcycle Racing on the Historic Half-Mile Dirt Race Track,
  Cowley County Fairgrounds, Winfield
• Dodge City history: Motorcycle races, by Kathie Bell, Boot Hill Museum, Dodge City
• E. W. Yount racing motorcycles, Cowley County Fairgrounds, 1916, Winfield
• NHRA National Hot Rod Association 50th Anniversary, 2001.
  Great Bend hosted the first NHRA national hot rod race event in 1955.
• AHRA First National Championship drag races, 1956, Great Bend
• Racing From The Past Kansas race cars from the 1950s and 1960s, W. Vincent, McPherson
• Harry McCool, Aurora, CO [thanks to Troy Burnett]
• Gary Nixon, 1956 National Motorcycle Drag Race, Dodge City, photograph
• Bill Curless Arkansas City. Raced at Winfield, Kansas in 1956 and 1957.
• Chet Wilson Engine Service Photographs Jerry Wilson, Wichita [ includes: The OFFY Killer The first small block Chevy sprint car, built in 1957 by Chet Wilson.]
• Patterson Racing History, from Drag Racing Monthly, 1996, Augusta
• Bob Lawrence's Little Place on the Web; Excellent site on Kansas racing, with
  special focus on Winfield racing and vintage hotrods and roadsters
• Short Track Thunder, racing book by Bob Mays ("mud in your beer, bugs in the lights, ringing in your ears and your best friends by your side")

Kansas Racing Schools

• Dale Jarrett Racing School , Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, KS

Special thanks to Roger B. Burnett and Troy Burnett for site suggestions and photographs.

(© 2003-2017, George Laughead)