Greenwood Roadway

... email from Ric Johnson (DMVR webmaster)

I've greatly enjoyed browsing the Nebraska Region History site but wanted to offer a couple of corrections for your race track history section as regards Greenwood. First of all the name of the track was Greenwood Roadway, not Raceway. And second, the track is not as badly broken up as you describe, and there are no "missing sections" other than the pedestrian bridges and buildings. In fact the entire track is still driveable with only one approximately 3 foot section that is badly washed out. The rest of the track is rough, narrow and cracked but still there.

In the fall of 2003 a group of us from the Iowa British Car Club visited the track for a taping of a segment of Iowa Public Television's "Living In Iowa" series about the history of the track and we all drove multiple laps of the course for the benefit of the cameras. We then returned again in the fall of 2004 for another day of lapping just for the nostalgia.

For me it was a chance to finally scratch a 40 year old itch as I attended many races at Greenwood as a young teenager, and my first official association with the Des Moines Valley Region SCCA was to act as a youth liaison for a group of blind youths from the Iowa Blind and Sight Saving School in Vinton who were there to attend a regional SCCA event. At the time I myself was just 13 or 14 (but already hopelessly addicted to sports cars) so had no hope of driving there as the track was just a memory by the time I received my license.

It was quite a thrill to finally view the track from a driver's perspective in my MGB when the British Car Club was invited for the IPTV video. While the track was not in great condition there were points when I was well into fourth gear at something over 80 mph on the better sections. I still greatly enjoy re-watching the video I shot from my roll bar camera on the second visit we made to the track.

As an historical side note it should be mentioned that probably the high point of the track's history was the round of the USRRC (predecessor to the Can-Am) that was held there in the summer of 1964 with participation by Carroll Shelby and the Cobra team as well as Jim Hall, Hap Sharp and their Chaparrals. That's a weekend I will remember forever.

I was also there in 1965 when the USAC stock car series (at the time a bigger series than NASCAR) used the track. That weekend was pretty much the death knell of the track as it followed a very long period of rains that had damaged some of the foundation of the track and the pounding of the two ton stock cars caused considerable damage that pretty much precluded any further auto racing at Greenwood.

I'll also note that the track today is not just used to "park construction equipment", but is actually owned and used by the Operating Engineer's Union for heavy equipment training. I've suggested to them, tongue only slightly in cheek, that restoration of the track might make for a great "class project" for their students.

I hope these comments will be of value to you in keeping your wonderful site as historically accurate as possible. Great job!

Ric Johnson
Webmaster - Des Moines Valley Region SCCA