Red light. Auction brings an end to KCIR's 44-year history

The hot rodding hobby is a respected facet of American culture, but it wasn’t always that way. If you read articles, or even watch movies from the 1940s through the early ‘50s, anyone who owned a fast car was depicted as a hooligan set on destroying all that was good and pure in the world. Legend has it, these scofflaws were racing through city streets in unsafe, cobbled together death heaps, mowing down innocent people, and destroying the lives of every teenage boy and their unlucky girlfriends who were along for the ride.

Lakeside Speedway 2011 Season Opener may have saved lives

For race fans in Kansas City, Budweiser Opening Night at Lakeside Speedway is the only thing that helps them survive the winter. Many of these people wouldn’t make it one more week. And yet, the cold, rainy weather nearly resulted in tragedy, as opening night was postponed from its usual Friday night time slot.

Luckily, they only had to hold out a couple more days, because Sunday was nice and sunny, and track owner Marc Olson opted to run this event then.

Like Harry Hogge said, "There's nothing stock about a stock car."

“They ought to do it like the old days—just weld a roll bar in a stock vehicle and let the best car win!”

You hear that from people all the time. “There’s nothing stock about a stock car.” “Why do they even bother to call them Fords and Chevys?” And on. And on.

Back in the early days of NASCAR, stock cars really were just that—stock. Competitors would often drive their race car to the track, participate in the event, and drive it to work the next day. The biggest modification may have been removing the hubcaps.

But it wasn’t all perfect in stock car land. Drivers regularly suffered serious injuries and death. The cars were difficult to handle at speed. And even at that, they weren’t going as fast as the risks may indicate. Sure, those old news reels of the early days of NASCAR are great to watch now, but let’s consider what America’s number-one motorsport would be like if it followed the same formula today.

Assuming NASCAR could even regulate the technical aspects of a modern computer-controlled, technologically-advanced vehicle, it would be hard to imagine the close, fast racing we have today.

Ticket stubs, and the racetracks that printed them. Lakeside, Riverside, I-70 Speedway, and more

One of my many serious mental issues is that I have a hard time throwing anything away. I genuinely enjoy looking through folders and stacks of my old stuff, reminiscing about how I got this or that, what I was doing that day, and what that experience meant to me. For the most part, I just do this alone, because no one really cares about my old experiences but me anyway.

Still, as I was looking through my big folder of old ticket stubs the other day and feeling nostalgic, I decided that there are other people that look at this site that have fond memories of these old racetracks, too. The ticket stubs themselves aren't much, but they do keep the memories alive. I pulled a few tickets out from the collection, and thought I'd share some thoughts about these places and events. If you have old racing memories from any of these, I welcome you to share them in the comments section at the end of the article.

I-70 Speedway All-Pro and ARCA events from 1994. First of all, let me just say that I-70 Speedway was, is, and always will be my favorite racetrack. There was nothing that wasn't better on the 28-degree, high-banked, 5/8-mile speed palace in Odessa, Mo. My dad and I went out there as spectators for years. Then I wrote articles for the program. Then I became the marketing director. Then I became the manager. Then someone else bought the track, and I was given the boot. Then the track struggled. Then it died.

The NASCAR All-Pro Series Late Model events at I-70 were legendary. The baddest, fastest, best short track drivers in the country made it a point to try and conquer I-70's treacherous tri-oval. Some local guys tried to mix their cars in with the big boys--few succeeded. Few of the hot shots succeeded either.