All about the people for Downs Wall of Fame’s Crawford

A dismal day turned into a great evening of auto racing Friday night at Hawkeye Downs Speedway.

Wall of Fame induction was also on the agenda. Among those having their names permanently placed on the Wall was Gary Crawford of Independence, winner of 15 track championships at area tracks.

Joining him were the late Jim Patton, two-time points champion Eric Spaw, current Downs driver Johnny Spaw, mechanic Ray Spaw, midget driver Dick Ritchie, ex-promoter Frank Winkley, former Gazette sportswriter Jeff Dahn, ex-racers Cal Swanson of Reinbeck and Chub Liebe of Oelwein.

All were selected for their contributions to stock car racing at Hawkeye Downs and Eastern Iowa.

“The biggest thing over the years is the people you meet,” Crawford said. “As you get older, you find that the only ones you know are the people you race with. I don't know many people at the golf course, I know racers.”

Crawford said he has special memories of Hawkeyes Downs, including a race in 1979.

“They had a Central Region Championship that they ran here back then,” he said. “I won it and it paid $5000 to win, which was huge money in those days. Cedar Rapids is real special to me”.

Crawford said he had more than 200 feature wins in the 1970s and 1980s.

“It is hard to remember them all, as back then we raced in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Canada,” he said. “We would put four guys in a pickup and drive 300 miles to race. Come home, work on the car and go back out and run the next night. We didn't know any better.”

Among Crawford's 15 track championships were five at Independence, five at Dubuque and one at Hawkeye Downs.

Winners last night at the Downs were Brad Dvorak in the late models division, Bob Ahrendsen in stock cars, Nathan Ballard in hobby stock, Jim Hanson in hornets and Aric Becker in sportmods.

Curt VanDerWal trailed Dvorak to the checkered flag in the late models feature, followed by Griffin McGrath, Jim Ross and Logan Hale.

Another day of racing is on tap today at Hawkeye Downs with the Mid-American Stock Car Series, followed by the Iowa Enduro series. Gates open at noon with racing at 1 p.m.