By Chad Meyer
It’s possible that Algona’s Chuck Simpson still holds the record for the most laps around the Alta and Britt racetracks. Working for his father, Dick Simpson, who was the promoter of Buena Vista Raceway at Alta in the mid to late 1970’s and then again throughout much of the 1980’s, Chuck helped with nearly every detail of the racetrack.
Chuck mowed the grass, picked rocks off the racing surface and spent countless hours driving an IH 450 tractor pulling the sheepsfoot preparing the racing surface. Once the track was ready and all other duties were done, he was making popcorn and helping in the concession stand.
Chuck (and his father) were particular about how they made popcorn and Chuck was known for making the best popcorn at the races, making sure to test each batch so that it was just right. “We only used Jolly Time popcorn,” he said. “We’d go to Schaller (Iowa) to buy the popcorn and the oil.”
Simpson worked at the Alta track until the untimely passing of his father in 1990. When Al & Peggy Schadendorf became promoters of the Algona track, Chuck worked there too, doing many of the same tasks that he did at Alta. Chuck continued working at the Algona track through the first four years of Joe Ringsdorf’s tenure as promoter.
In 1995 when Dan and Sandy Danielsen promoted the new track in Britt, Chuck spent many days on the tractor sheepsfooting the surface. Chuck also mowed the lawn and made the popcorn in the concession stand. He worked at the Hanock County Speedway until the Danielsen’s retired from promoting the speedway.
Dan and Sandy Danielsen fondly remember when Chuck worked for them at the Hancock County Speedway. “Chuck would make the popcorn and then sit in the stands with his mother, Dorthy, and watch the races. He was always full of smiles after the work was done because he got to see all the drivers. He loved seeing and talking to the drivers. At Britt, he’d make 50 pounds of popcorn a night. We’d use a whole tote of it. And he’d drive that sheepsfoot forever. You’d have to physically stop him before he’d run out of fuel.”
Chuck says his favorite jobs at speedways were mowing the lawn and running the sheepsfoot. When asked about his favorite memory, he says that he loved it all.
“My dad taught me a lot about how to take care of a racetrack. I also really liked talking to the drivers after the races and I remember them all,” he said.
Edgar Meyer, also a Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame inductee, echoes how much Chuck loved being with the drivers and how much he meant to some of them. “When we raced [with Bob Weber] at Alta in 1989, as soon as Chuck seen us in the pits, he’d make a beeline to our trailer as soon as he seen us. And he’d hang out with us the rest of the night, and he and we loved every minute of it.”
Chuck remembers one late night coming back from the Alta races that he and his brother Dean were stopped in Laurens on their way home while hauling a tractor from the track back to their home farm near Algona. The town cop thought they were stealing the tractor. When their father came through a few moments later, Dean remembers that Dick told the cop, “If they were stealing, they’d have the sense to steal a nicer tractor than this.”
Chuck said that his dad, the Schadendorf’s, Ringsdorf and the Danielsen’s were all good promoters, and they all treated him great.
Simpson joins his father and mother, the late Dick and Dorthy Simpson, as inductees into the Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame.
