By Chad Meyer
Though he’s a mechanic by trade and married into a racing family, the motivation to drive race cars came outside of that influence for 2024 Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame inductee, John Simpson of West Bend, IA.
“It was the year the track reopened [1986] that I was sitting in the bar having a beer after work, when Bill Cook came in and said, ‘We’re building a car!’ He took his wife’s Nova and that’s what we built it from. She had no idea he was going to do that,” Simpson laughed.
He vividly remembers his first win, which came during 1986, a season in which then promoter Steve Krapp put out the appeal to bring just about any type of street stock car to race. “The first night I raced, I won my heat and the trophy dash. Won the dash going backwards because someone spun me out. I finished second in the feature,” he recalls.
Simpson’s first ever career feature win came a year later, with him winning the Street Stock July 4th event. In 1998 he scored the Hobby Stock Mid-Season Championship at the Algona track.
1992 was his best season as a driver, winning six features, including the Mid-Season championship and the July 4th event that year. At season’s end, he earned the Hobby Stock season point championship at this home track.
Throughout his career, Simpson raced in the Street Stock, Hobby Stock and 360 modified divisions. “I never was able to win in the 360 mods,” he said. “One year during the fair, I led every lap except the last one and finished second.”
He recorded multiple wins at the Hancock County Speedway in his career but his biggest win outside of his home track came at the Fairmont Raceway. “It was during one of the Fairmont Nationals events and I was driving Dan Hanselman’s car. Dan had to go to a wedding, but they still wanted to the car to race. And damned if we didn’t win it,” he said.
When John’s driving career wound down, his time as a car owner for his children, Chelsea and Nathan, ramped up.
“I told them that we can build a car, but the minute their grades went down, that was it. They never did though,” he recalls. “The other rule was if I’m in the shop working on the cars, they had to be too.”
The results of those days and nights in the shop paid off. On a very hot and humid Kossuth County Fair race night in 2008, Chelsea scored the popular Hobby Stock win. She backed that win up with another Hobby Stock win during a regular night in 2009. Those wins remain as the only wins by a female at the Kossuth County Speedway in a class higher than Sport Compacts or Cruisers.
Kossuth County Fair Race magic for the Simpson family didn’t end there. In 2017, in his only trip to the Algona track, Nathan won the Hobby Stock Fair Race that year. “He lives in Missouri and pulled the car up for the fair race and he won. I’m still in shock that they are both fair race winners,” Simpson says.
The other memory that stands out for Simpson is all the friends they met and the fun along the way they had at the track.
“I’d also add that without Bill Cook – he was my go-to and helped fix the car when I needed – this wouldn’t have been possible. And without my crew and everyone that helped, it woudn’t have happened either. I really appreciated it,” Simpson concludes.
Today, Simpson operates Simpson Auto Repair in Algona. He joins three other individuals as 2024 inductees into the Kossuth County Racing Hall of Fame.
