"He was looking for guys to be timers," said [Fred Hoekstra], who is now 74. "So me and my buddy jumped up."

"The starting flag will drop at 3 o'clock this afternoon in Playland Park as 30 of the nation's best racing pilots ready their mounts for the 100-mile NASCAR sanctioned grand national tournament stock car race," began a July 20 story in The Tribune.

"I went into turn three, and the car just started to drift," said Hoekstra. "I remember thinking, 'I'm going to die,' - not from the wreck, but when I get home."