End of an Era: Bye Bye Heartland Park Topeka

I was recently flipping through the TV channels when I noticed a National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) event was being broadcast. I stopped and was glad to see that week's stop was at Heartland Park Motorsports (or Heartland Park Topeka as it used to be called). But the more I watched, the announcers and drivers they interviewed kept alluding to "Heartland's history," "the final time" and similar terms or phrases. I went online and read that a property tax dispute is putting the track out of business. Heavy sigh!

Heartland Park Topeka opened in 1989 as the first major racing facility to be built anywhere in the U.S. over the previous two decades. It has multiple configurations ranging from a 2.5-mile road course to a quarter-mile drag strip. I arrived in Topeka in the fall of 1988 as a young sportscaster out of college covering mainstream sports like football, basketball, baseball and the outdoors. But auto racing? That was something I just wasn't that familiar with.  

That changed in a big way over the next decade as all sorts of racing series with a bunch of different racing acronyms rolled into town: SCAA (Sports Car Club of America), AMA (American Motorcyclist Association), ARCA (Automobile Racing Club of America), ASA (American Speed Association), IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) and several NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) regional series including the NASCAR Truck Series, bracket races by local groups and, of course, the NHRA.

Covering an IMSA race (1989)

But there was much more activity than just that. There were also go carts, other types of racing and a range of private events. Plus, big racing names rolled in and out of town, mostly without the public ever knowing anything about it. They would rent out the track out for a day or a week, test run their racing machines and then go on their way. On one occasion, we got word that Mario Andretti was at Heartland Park. Small in stature at 5" 7", he cast a big shadow over the racing world as the only driver to ever win the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500 and the Formula One World Championship. When I was a kid, my brother had a slot car track and I remember we said one of the cars was Mario Andretti. It was a bit surreal to interview him.

Though I didn't ever get it confirmed, there was also scuttlebutt that Paul Newman also rented out the track. I'm sure there were other well-known folks, too, that none of us even in the media knew about.

And then there's Dale Earnhardt. I had a memorable encounter with him on a race weekend at Heartland Park. It was so cool to meet him in his prime. And especially cool to have an exclusive post-crash, one-on-one with him as the rest of the local, regional and national media members ran toward us. I got the scoop because as soon as we were done talking, the Intimidator hopped in a car, drove right to the airport and flew out of town. Details here.

Other NASCAR names I covered included the Waltrip brothers, the Labonte brothers, team owner Rick Hendrick and a bunch of others I don't remember that probably went on to hit it big. One living legend I more than remember is Kenny Schrader. Shoot, at age 68 he recently won a race in Canada so he's still getting after it. Anyway, I can't remember how it happened but he showed up at Heartland Park with a two-seater and I ended up sitting next to him. It was a couple of days before the actual race but he gave me a joy ride I won't soon forget. We screamed around Heartland Park's road course with some impressive G-forces. Since there were so many turns in the course, it seemed he drove most of it with only two tires on the pavement. When we got done and pulled off our helmets, I asked him what percentage of effort he gave for our loop compared to race day. "About 65 percent," he said. Man, we were flying. I can only imagine what going full speed on race day would be like. 

I remembered filming several sports challenges there. (The Pepsi Sports Challenge was a weekly segment where viewers would call, email or write a letter challenging me or our sports staff to a particular challenge.) We did a mini drag racing challenge there and maybe a couple of others. My weekend sports anchor, Tom Thompson, and I also shot a commercial spot for the sports challenge at Heartland Park. After shooting video on the drag strip, we asked if we could drive our Ford Rangers around the track. They didn't care so we did a loop around the road course. Very, very cool!

Back to the NHRA, and just so many memories covering those races. Early in Heartland Park's history, I remember shooting video with an intern (Brian Green). I was behind the camera sitting on the ground and he sat immediately to my left. We were maybe 65 yards up the track from the starting line behind those three-foot-tall cement dividers you often see between the lanes on a highway. Anyway, as the car in the nearest lane was passing us, about 15 feet from us, the engine blew. Yeah, it suddenly got really warm from the explosion. After the car came to a stop and I quit shooting video, I turned to look at Brian. Oh man, he had oil spewed on him and his eyebrows were singed. But we were both laughing. Shortly thereafter, cameras were no longer allowed to shoot so close to the track.

Crew members walking the starting area during a rain delay

I anchored scores of sportscasts and did a bunch of live shots from Heartland Park. Over that time, I met and talked with so many legendary NHRA drivers. Among them were John Force, Shirley Muldowney, Don the Snake Prudhomme, Warren Johnson, Scott Kalitta (I also golfed with him. He later died in a 2008 crash.), Kenny Bernstein, Joe Amato, Bob Glidden, Tom the mongoose McEwen, Eddie Hill, Pat Austin, Dick LaHaie, Ed the Ace McCulloch, Gary Ormsby and on and on.

In 1989, Ormsby won the Top Fuel championship. In 1990 at Heartland Park, he became the first driver in NHRA history to break the 4.9-second and 295 mile-per-hour barriers. I still remember it. He died from cancer on August of 1991. In the final match race before he died, he defeated Lori Johns at Heartland Park. 

Chatting with Lori Johns in the NHRA pits (1989)

There were many other national speed records set at Heartland Park. And so many other memories too. Among them, I remember watching a funny car I think they called the Bionic Pickle. When drivers got the go ahead, the driver hit the accelerator but the car's green body shot straight up as high as the four-story drag tower before helicoptering back down to the track below. I remember watching jet cars as well as a massive jet truck, as large as the front of a diesel truck, roar to life and go screaming down the track. 

Fans supported the Heartland Park races so well that the track had a run where it hosted two national events a year. In 1996, the Western Auto Nationals roared into town. As part of the pre-race publicity, the NHRA reached out to a local car dealership which made a bunch of its cars available for the media to hold its own drag racing event. Several of the NHRA drivers were there to give us tips on getting off the line, among other things. A bracket competition was set up and we started racing head-to-head. When it got down to the final, it was me against a guy I don't remember where he worked but he would always show up at the track wearing some sort of colorful racing outfit and was decked out right down to his racing shoes. Okay, so imagine if I showed up to cover a football game as a member of the media wearing shoulder pads, a helmet and cleats. Or imagine being a media member showing up to cover a basketball game wearing a tank top, shorts and high-top shoes. That's how this guy was. And boy, did he talk the talk - all racing lingo, all the time.

I remember after I got into my car that I received some last-minute advice from my NHRA driver before the final run. I was told to "please, please beat that guy" because he annoyed the drivers as much as he annoyed some of the rest of us. When the lights went green, we both stomped on the gas. I think he was a hair ahead of me off the start but as we gained speed, I caught and eventually blew by him. I was yelling for joy as we crossed the finish line. And so, I was later told, were all the media folks back at the starting line.

As we drove our cars back to the drag tower, an unexpected trophy presentation took place. They actually had a trophy for the press race champion, something they'd never previously done at Heartland Park. First, they gave me a nice wooden plaque with the title of the race and the date, July 3, 1986. But then presented me with a Wally. Wait! WHAT!?! A WALLY? The NHRA started presented its event winners with Wally trophies in 1969. They are a brass-plated metal trophy measuring 18 inches tall and weighing 12 pounds, mounted on a solid walnut base named after NHRA founder Wally Parks.

Now, the Wally presented to me wasn't the same size, measuring a foot in height and weighing eight pounds, but it was an exactly replica. Man oh man, when the runner-up saw that I received a Wally he was B-I-T-T-E-R! As for my Wally, to this day it sits in a very public place in my home.

My champion's plaque

My "Wally"

Oh the memories! As I watched that final NHRA Heartland Park telecast near a conclusion, it came down to Justin Ashley and Whitney Force in the top fuel final. I really, really wanted Force to win it. She's the daughter of  John Force, the king of the burnout and 16-time NHRA funny car champion who also won many times at Heartland Park and a guy I got to know on a first-hand basis from interviewing him so many times. In the end, Ashley edged Force by .005 of a second to take the title. So much for a full-circle moment.

Justin Ashley with his "Wally"

So now the curtain closes on Heartland Park. Am I nostalgic? Yes. Am I sad? Yes. I'm so sad that such an awesome state-of-the-art, record-breaking racing facility has to fall silent. And I'm especially sad that race fans are losing what they enjoyed and supported for nearly three and a half decades. Oh wait, I'm one of them!