Readers

 1. What types of racing went on in southwest Iowa after WW2 until 1950?

2.  What were the problems with hot rod racing?

3.  Why did so many capable stock car competitors live in Southwestern Iowa?

4.  What factors made the Playland track unique?

5.  How were Tiny Lund, Dale Swanson, and Johnny Beauchamp similar and different?

6.  How did Tiny Lund (and most of the other top drivers) turn the corners on the Playland dirt track?

7.  How did Beauchamp lose the 1952 season championship?

8.  Why were Swanson race cars and motors faster than most competitors’ cars?

9.  How did Beauchamp, Lund, and Swanson transition to late model stock car racing?

10. After winning the 1950 season championship at Playland, Tiny Lund had only limited success until he won the 1963 Daytona 500.  Why did Lund not do better?

11. What is the origin of the IMCA racing organization?  How did it operate and how was it perceived?

12. What explains Beauchamp’s sensational success during the 1956 IMCA season?

13. What role did the auto makers (factories, the manufacturers of cars) have in racing before June 6 1957 and after this date?

14.  What was SEDCO and how did Dale Swanson become associated with it?

15.  What was the nature of the press coverage of Beauchamp and Swanson at the 1957 Daytona Beach race and then later in 1959 at the Daytona International track?

16. To what extent were Tiny Lund and Johnny Beauchamp professional race drivers?  How does the professional race driver “tag” for Swanson, Bud Burdick, Roy Burdick, and Hooky Christensen differ from Beauchamp and Lund?

17. How did Beauchamp obtain a car to drive (“a ride”) in the 1959 Daytona 500?

18. What is the evidence that Beauchamp may actually have won the Daytona 500?

19.  What made it difficult in the 1950s and 1960s for Midwestern racers to compete in NASCAR?

20.  What can we conclude about the lives of these Midwestern stock car racers?  What were the differences in the lives of Beauchamp, Lund, and Swanson?

21. Did Swanson ever get caught cheating with some aspect of his motor or car breaking a rule?

22.  Are there ethical differences with the various types of illegal racing behavior?