Joe Merryfield of Des Moines, Iowa, poses proudly with his trophy after winning the 1978 El Kahir Shrine Race.
by Lee Ackerman
Cedar Rapids, Iowa - In 1978, the
El Kahir Shriners teamed with Promoter Al Frieden and Hawkeye Downs to create
the El Kahir Shrine Race with proceeds from the event going to the Shriners’
Children’s Hospital. The first race took place on Tuesday, August 1, 1978.
Fifth-eight
late models signed in for the event which paid the winner of the 50-lap feature
$1,250. Veteran Ed Sanger of Waterloo got things off to a fast start in time
trials as he set a new track record of 23.671 seconds. Bill Beckman of Lisbon
was not far behind at 23.779 seconds. Former time trial record holder Curt
Hansen of Dike’s evening ended early when he broke a steering arm in qualifying
and crashed into the retaining wall ending his night.
Ken Walton
of Marion took home the 6-lap trophy dash with J.J. Smith of Appleton,
Wisconsin finishing second and Bill Rice of Des Moines third. Heat race wins
went to Tom Frady of Cedar Rapids, Tom Bartholomew of Waterloo, Johnny Johnson
of Iowa City and Tom Hearst of Wilton with Bill Martin of Council Bluffs
winning the 20-lap consolation event.
Ed Sanger
and Bill Beckman lead the field to the green but it wasn’t long and it became
apparent the man on the move was Joe Merryfield. By lap 10, the Des Moines
chauffeur was up to fifth. By lap 15, he was fourth. On lap 19, he got together
with Denny Osborn of Cedar Falls and ended up in the infield. Starter Engel
DeKoch ruled a “no-fault” restart. On the restart, Merryfield took second and
moved past leader Bill Rice on the 30th lap.
Merryfield
was the class of the field with J.J. Smith getting by Rice on lap 45, but
unable to run down Merryfield. Following Merryfield and Smith to the line were
Rice, Walton and Ed Sanger.
Verlin Eaker won the 1979 El Kahir Shrine race.
Going into
the second annual El Kahir Shrine race held on July 31, 1979, one driver had dominated
the big events at Hawkeye Downs ever since winning the inaugural Yankee Dirt
Classic the previous September. That driver was Mechanicsville’s Verlin Eaker.
Since
winning the Yankee at Hawkeye Downs he had added the Miller 100 and the Winston
50 to his trophy case. There would be no reason to believe that he would not be
the man to beat in the El Kahir race.
Time trials
saw the always tough Leon Plank of Mondovi, Wisconsin set fast time at 23.47
seconds. Bill Zwanziger, Red Dralle, Steve Keppler, Mike Niffenegger and Eaker
would round out the top six. Fortunately for the field the top six was not be
inverted and it was a heads up start.
Kalona’s
Mike Niffenegger won the trophy dash with Eaker coming in second. Heat wins
went to Tim McDonough of Cedar Rapids, Jack Mitchell of Cedar Rapids, Tom
Bartholomew of Waterloo, Tom Hearst of Wilton and Dick Schiltz of Waterloo.
Hearst then bested Delhi’s Bob Schulte in the semi-feature.
Zwanziger grabbed
the lead from his outside pole position and stayed there for most of the race.
By lap 30, Eaker had moved up to challenge and the two put on a side by side
battle that brought the fans to their feet. Finally, on lap 43 Eaker edged to
the lead and remained there for the rest of the 50-lap event. On the last lap,
Curt Hansen slipped by Zwanziger for second. Steve Keppler of Marion would
finish fourth and Plank fifth. The capacity crowd had been treated to another
great race at Hawkeye Downs.
In 1980 the
format for the race was changed. There were no heat races, just time trials, a
trophy dash, a B feature followed by a 100-lap feature. One thing that did not
change however was the fact that an Iowa driver who had previously won the
World 100, once again won the El Kahir race.
A new track
record was set during time trials as Dick Schiltz posted a lap of 23.172
seconds. Marion’s Fred Horn posted a 23.344 just missing the old track record.
Fifth fast qualifier Ken Walton won the 6-lap trophy dash with Leon Plank
finishing second. A 20-lap B feature was then run to fill the remaining spots
in the feature not decided by time trials. Bill McArdle of Hazel Green,
Wisconsin won the event with Bob Schulte also advancing to the 100-lap A
feature.
The A
feature turned out to be not only a great race but may have been decided by
carbon monoxide. Ken Walton got the jump from his outside pole position and led
the first 12 laps before being passed by Curt Hansen. The Hansen pass for the
lead was assisted by the fact that Walton rammed a slowing Mel Morris allowing
Hansen to get by on the inside. Hansen and Walton then started pulling away
from the field but on lap 23 Hansen’s night was over as he went pit side with
mechanical gremlins.
Ken Walton score the win in the 1980 El Kahir Shrine race.
Walton
continued to lead the race. The race was interrupted by rain near the half-way
point causing it to go under caution for several laps and created vision
problems for some of the drivers because of wet visors. The race resumed on lap
55 with Schiltz passing Walton for the lead one lap later. On lap 90, Schiltz suddenly
got into the wall hard allowing Walton to pass and go on to take the win. Schlitz
held on to second with Wisconsin’s Peter Parker, Tom Hearst and Duane Steffe of
Colona, Illinois rounding out the top five.
Things got a
bit bizarre after the race. Schiltz went across the scales, then loaded his
car but he could not get out of his race car. Schiltz was administered oxygen
and taken to Mercy Hospital and later released. It turns out that Schiltz had
driven the last 20 laps in a dazed condition because of being overcome by
carbon monoxide gas and could hardly remember the last 20 laps.
“Both Curt
and Dick were faster than I there at the end,” Walton said after the race. “I
ran steady the whole 100 laps and that’s what counted tonight. The rain definitely
changed the track. Before the rain, I was running a high groove, but after it
ended, I was down on the bottom. It didn’t look like much to the people maybe,
but it (the rain) was enough to change the track.”
Ed Sanger won the fourth and final El Kahir Shrine race in 1981.
In 1981,
both the format for the race and the track hosting the race changed. One thing
did not change, for the fourth year in a row a former World 100 winner went to
victory lane. The race was moved to the Independence Motor Speedway and they
ran no time trials. Ed Sanger, Rick Wendling of Hazleton and Greg Kastli of
Waterloo won the heats with Dick Schiltz winning the consolation race.
The 50-lap
feature was all Ed Sanger. Sanger took the lead at the drop of the green and
was simply gone. Sanger was in lapped traffic within a few laps and pulled away
from the field to score an easy victory. Greg Kastli came home with a solid
second place finish. The real battle was for third with four drivers battling
to the end for that spot. Rick Wendling came away with the spot followed by
Gary Tigges of Durango, Red Dralle of Evansdale and Schiltz. Those were the
only cars on the track not lapped by Sanger.
Schiltz, who
missed his heat race because his crew was making changes to the car, then won
the consolation event and started 16th in the feature and made it up to sixth.
The 1981
race drew considerably less cars than the previous three years and may have
been a factor in it being the last year of the race. Whatever the reason for
its demise, the El Kahir Shrine race provided some great racing and more importantly
raised money for a great cause.
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