Start Your Engines!
The roar of racing engines can be heard across Nebraska, in Albion, Central City, Rising City, Doniphan, McCool Junction and Red Cloud –– and in bigger cities like Columbus, Beatrice, Grand Island, and Lincoln. Nick Opfer, 34, is a veteran of races in northeast Nebraska. We sent a photographer with him to tracks in Hartington, his hometown, and Norfolk. Opfer describes the attraction to a sport that makes plenty of noise but gets too little attention.
By Nick Opfer
I've been racing for about 15 years. I grew up in Hartington and had my first race in Crofton, where they used to race six cylinders. I once saw a man there change engines by himself. He just picked up the motor and sat it in the car.
My first race was what they called taxi cab. Then I bought a car for $75, a 1967 Ford Custom four-door with a little 302 in 1988 or 1989. I kicked the windshield out, put a gas tank in the back seat, lightened it up in some places, and ended the season tenth in points. I rolled it the last night. I didn't have a roll cage. They weren't required then. But I had the factory lap belt and a shoulder harness I'd rigged up myself. Now they make you wear a five-point seat belt, like an aircraft harness, and they require a roll cage and a regulation racing seat that wraps around you, bars in the windshield in front of you and a window net on the side to keep stuff from flying in at you.
Honestly, I think I'm safer in the race car than when we are driving to the track. Think about it. You're wearing the harness, a fire suit, fire gloves, a helmet, a neck roll and there's a safety crew close by to help.
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I've rolled two cars. Once we rolled a car at intermission. We were worried about our left rear axle, so I was taking a test spin around the track when the right rear axle broke and the car rolled. We had it fixed a half-hour later and finished second in the “A” feature that night. That's the kind of stuff that makes it fun.
On the track, everyone's supposed to be going the same way. Accidents happen when they don't. There's a joke that if your front end gets smashed you say somebody backed into you. There have been a few accidents at the Riviera. Ray Haase broke his wrist three years ago. We've had some sprained ankles and broken arms. A lot of people come to see good, clean racing but a lot come to see the crunching and the banging.
When I first started, my mother was worried about me. Once they had a powder puff derby and we put her in the driver's seat. She was about the slowest one out there, but when she got out of the car she was floating above the ground.
I always figured if you could just pay for your parts every week you came out ahead. If I wasn't racing I'd be boating or four-wheeling and spending just as much.
I won the state fair hobby stock championship in Lincoln in 1996. We won $500, but I spent that much and more on four new tires, motels, dinners and gas. I took the pit crew out for steaks when we won, so that cost me, too. But they earned it.
At most races in Nebraska, they'll have the street stocks, the cruisers and the late models or Grand Nationals. It's all for bragging rights, not for money. If you win the points championship for the season, you can tease your friends all year long. It's like getting the trophy buck. You have something to hold over them.
I race a lot at the Riviera Raceway in Norfolk now. Ray Haase owned the car I drove last year. He's been racing for about 50 years. He and his brother, Bob, started the Riviera in 1965 after the other tracks in Norfolk folded. Now, Bob and his family run the track. Bob's wife, Janet, is the scorekeeper. Their son, Russell, is track manager.
Fifteen years ago, when I started, Ray was always the guy to beat. But he's also the first guy to help you out.
Usually you're competing against the same guys every week. You just drive your race. If someone's behind you, a little bump is ok. There's a gentleman's agreement. But if you beat on them too hard there's a good chance there'll be a payback. Sometimes you'll bump a good friend just to aggravate him, rattle him.
Some say you have to be crazy to do this, and it probably helps. But it's a good way to get friends together. It's a big family. If you break down, most of the drivers will give you the part if they have it and help you get it fixed. They'd rather beat you on the track than on the trailer.
The engines send chills up your spine sometimes. You run on the ragged edge, seeing what you and your car are capable of doing. You see who can figure out the car and the track the best.
