Wednesday, September 28, 2011

1953 - Parker Annexes Playland Final

Bobby Parker accepts his trophy after winning the season finale at Playland Speedway - Photo courtesy of PlaylandSpeedway.com



Council Bluffs, Iowa (September 28, 1953) – “Rambling” Robert Parker of Omaha won the feature as 1,019 stock car racing fans watched the last program of the season at Playland Park Sunday afternoon.


It was a return to form for Parker, who had fallen off of his fast pace set all season. Parker took the lead from Bob Kosiski on the sixth lap, and led the field the rest of the way.


Jack McCauley of Omaha, driving Johnny Beauchamp’s old car, came on fast in the last five laps to grab second place money. Kosiski was pushed back to third, edging Carl Lilienthal and Joe Lindsey, a pair of Iowa drivers.


The only other Iowans to break into the money in the early races were Johnny Beauchamp of Haran and Vern Robey of Council Bluffs.


Beauchamp ran third in the second heat of the afternoon, and then was put out of action by motor trouble until the feature. Robey won the third heat, but was put back to third for rough driving, giving Don Williams of Omaha the victory and making Parker second.


Bob Rose of Omaha made his best showing of the season Sunday with first place in the first heat and second in the speed dash, Parker added a first place in the speed dash to his feature win and second in his heat.


Bobby Kendall of Omaha broke the hard luck streak bothering him with a victory in the consolation, the last race of the local season. Kendall went to the top when Keith Rachwitz hit a stalled car after running in first place most of the race.


The track was very slick, causing many cars to spin out coming out of the curves and causing many minor accidents.


Johnny Beauchamp was running second in the feature, when he spun out on the south curve of his last lap. Carl Lilienthal had a bad day with the slick curves, spinning out in both the second and third heats and almost spinning out in the feature.


Porkey Rachwitz developed motor trouble during the third heat and was forced to quit after running with the leaders


Bob Kosiski, the winner of the feature at Riverside last Sunday, opened the card with a victory, but ran into bad luck the rest of the afternoon.

No comments:

Post a Comment