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| Photo Credit: Super Cars Today |
Over the past three seasons, NASCAR has partaken in
building temporary street circuits for the Cup and Xfinity Series, most
recently racing on the streets of Chicago before announcing street races in San
Diego and St. Petersburg, Florida (Truck Series only), for 2026. However, one
stock car street race which has been largely forgotten about was put on by the
ARCA SuperCar Series (now ARCA Series) on July 3rd, 1994 in downtown
Des Moines, Iowa. It was part of a larger race weekend involving the Sports Car
Club of America, with the ARCA race serving as a companion event. The course
itself was 1.6 miles in length, consisting of several abrupt right-angle turns.
A particularly unique feature of the course was that the drivers would cross
not one, but two different bridges, which went over the Des Moines River in
between turns six and nine.
The Des Moines circuit had been in use by the SCCA for
both its Trans-Am and World Challenge series since 1989, with local
transportation company Ruan sponsoring the race weekend. The sports car races
were always run in July, and were initially a big hit with fans as the
proximity to a metro area (unlike most road courses) created a unique
environment for summer festivities. Gradually, the hype slowed down a bit after
the inaugural season, but the SCCA races remained a premier event in Iowa’s
capital city throughout the early 1990s. However, in 1993, the future of the
Des Moines street course was dealt a major blow as the city experienced severe
flooding in the lead-up to the scheduled race weekend. Over 10,000 residents were
forced to evacuate their homes, with 40,000 more left without electricity. Not
only that, much of the course was directly adjacent to the Des Moines River,
obviously creating unsafe conditions for both fans and competitors. Both races
were cancelled for 1993, but event organizers were determined to recoup the
lost momentum by adding another major race to the weekend in 1994, which is
where ARCA comes in.
Founded in 1953, ARCA had been around nearly as long
as NASCAR, but had generally been viewed as a feeder series to NASCAR rather
than a direct competitor. Even so, as NASCAR boomed in popularity in the 1980s,
so too did ARCA reap the rewards with an increase in televised races and the
opportunity to create a more diverse schedule. Seeing the opportunity to further
establish themselves as more than a small short track series, ARCA worked out a
deal with street circuit president Jack Housby before the 1994 season to headline
the Sunday proceedings. Also of note, the races were moved from their usual
mid-July spot to the July 4th weekend for 1994, thus putting the World
Challenge race before the ARCA race and the Trans-Am race on July 4th
itself.
Photo Credit: Super Cars Today
In the days before the ARCA race, some drivers expressed concerns about potential brake issues due to the 90-degree angle turns putting constant stress on the brake rotors. These concerns weren’t necessarily unfounded as the few road courses the series had run in the past mostly involved gradual sweeping turns, but up-and-coming ARCA star Frank Kimmel assured fellow competitors that the stock cars would be up to the task. One of the other drivers in the field was NASCAR Cup Series regular Jimmy Spencer, who certainly gained a boost in popularity after capturing his first-ever Cup Series victory at Daytona International Speedway that same weekend in dramatic fashion, making a last lap pass of Ernie Irvan before taking the checkered flag by a fender. Spencer then quickly made the flight over from Daytona Beach to Des Moines for qualifying, but his hurry was rendered moot after the qualifying session was rained out.
In lieu of qualifying, the starting lineup was set by
car owner points, meaning 1992 champion Bobby Bowsher would be starting from
the pole with Kimmel starting to his outside. No cars were sent home as a
result of the washout, with the track being plenty big enough to accommodate the
38-car field. The ARCA race would be the second leg of a Sunday doubleheader, as
the World Challenge race was won by longtime race Mauro Baldi, fresh off of
winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans a couple weeks earlier. Unfortunately, before
the ARCA race could get going, inclement weather got in the way as a pop-up
shower prompted a brief delay. However, this would just be an isolated blip on
the radar, and the Des Moines Ruan Grand Prix finally commenced shortly after
the scheduled start time.
Once the green flag waved, it didn’t take long for two-time
ARCA champ Bill Venturini to run into mechanical problems, although it had
nothing to do with brakes. Rather, the camshaft on his iconic #25 Chevy gave
way after only completing a single lap. With nothing anyone could do about the
terminal failure, Venturini and crew had no choice but to load up early for
their fourth DNF just nine races into the 1994 campaign. Meanwhile, at the front
of the field, Bowsher only got to enjoy the lead for a single lap before being
supplanted by fellow championship hopeful Bob Strait before the caution came
out for Venturini’s incident. Strait was able to enjoy the lead for the opening
green flag laps, but road course ace Scott Lagasse was hot on his heels.
Lagasse was already a well-known driver around SCCA
circles, but a relative unknown when it came to stock cars. In 1985, Lagasse secured
the SCCA National Championship at just 18 years old, before repeating as the
national champ in 1986. In 1993, Lagasse opted to branch out into stock cars, making
his NASCAR Busch Series (now Xfinity Series) debut at Watkins Glen
International where he was relegated to a 31st-place finish due to a
broken transmission. He returned to Watkins Glen a couple months later for his
Cup Series debut, which went much smoother as he finished a solid 13th,
on the lead lap. Lagasse also made a lone ARCA Series start in both 1989 and
1992, neither of which seeing him make it to the finish. However, this time
appeared to be a different story, as he worked his way around Strait for the
lead on lap 11.
With the caution coming out around 10 laps later after
Frog Hall stalled on the track, Lagasse and many other leaders made their way
down pit road for their first round of stops. Sensing an opportunity to try an
alternate strategy, Alabama native Gary Bradberry, in his one and only full-time
ARCA season, decided to stay on track along with Eric Smith of Bloomington,
Illinois. Bradberry was quickly overtaken after the restart by Smith, who
proved he could hold his own on older tires. By the midway point of the race,
1989 ARCA title-holder Bob Keselowski, another driver who had yet to pit, got
by Smith for the race lead, prompting the latter to head down pit road.
Keselowski would have to pit himself shortly thereafter, though his stop would
prove to be an unmitigated disaster.
After completing his pit stop, Keselowski found
himself unable to leave his stall, his black #29 Chrysler left dead in the
water. Upon inspection it was found that the transmission was broken, with nothing
that could be done in the way of repairs. After what seemed like a potential
race-winning effort in what would be Keselowski’s final full-time season in the
series, it would end in the garage as he suffered his sixth DNF less than
halfway through the year.
After Keselowski’s heartbreak, Lagasse reassumed the
lead just in time for the caution to come out with veteran driver Roger
Blackstock crashing in turn eight. All of the lead lap cars came down for what
would be their final pit stop of the day, and Bowsher’s team took advantage
with an excellent pit time to put their driver back into the lead for the first
time since the opening lap. Once the green flag waved again, though, Bowsher
came under attack from Lagasse and Smith, losing the lead to Lagasse with 20
laps to go as Smith passed him for second shortly after. While all this was
going on, Strait’s promising showing ended prematurely thanks to a broken rear
end gear, though he still managed a 21st-place finish after a multitude
of drivers fell out early with mechanical problems.
Lagasse had the first stock car victory of his career
in his sights, but Smith had other plans as he got around him in turn six, only
one lap after Lagasse grabbed the top spot from Bowsher. Undaunted, Lagasse
went back to work on getting by Smith’s #9 Ford, using every bit of his
expertise to reclaim the lead with 16 laps remaining. This turned out to be near-perfect
timing on his part, as the caution came out soon after for a blown engine possibly
putting fluid on track, thus winding down the laps even more. The cleanup was
completed with nine laps to go, with Lagasse able to pull away from Smith on
the restart. To add to Smith’s stress, he also reported that he was beginning
to feel his right-rear wheel coming loose. Sure enough, with three laps remaining,
Smith’s wheel finally came loose from the car, sending him into the turn six
tire barrier. Surprisingly, this incident didn’t bring out a caution, which
would be bad news for Bowsher as he suffered tire-related tribulations of his
own.
As the field closed in on the white flag, Bowsher cut
down a right-front tire from the second position, but was able to limp to pit
road and salvage a top-five finish. His closest competition now out of
contention, all Lagasse needed to do was bring his #39 Chevy back around to the
checkered flag in one piece, which he did to seal his first and only career
ARCA Series victory. Kimmel finished four seconds behind for the runner-up
spot, with Spencer capping his memorable weekend with a third-place run.
Bowsher returned to the track to take fourth, while Bradberry was the final lead
lap car in fifth.
Thankfully, the predicted brake difficulties did not
come to fruition, as only one driver reported loss of brakes during the event. It
was still a battle of attrition as nearly half of the field failed to finish
due to some sort of mechanical issue, with eight drivers alone sustaining blown
engines. However, this level of attrition was not too far out of the norm for
ARCA, as it was common for teams to use second-hand equipment left over from
the NASCAR side. Lagasse never ran another ARCA race after the Des Moines Ruan
Grand Prix, though he did go on to run the inaugural Truck Series season in
1995. He performed admirably, collected two top-fives and seven top-10s for a
ninth-place points finish.
Despite his misfortune with the flat tire, Bowsher went
on to dominate the SuperCar Series in 1994, claiming his second championship by
575 points over Kimmel. However, Kimmel would have plenty of time to win
championships of his own, eventually scoring a record-setting 10 titles over
the course of his illustrious career. As for the future of the Des Moines
street course, it would not return after 1994, with the organizers citing
financial difficulties. 1989 Trans-Am champion and occasional NASCAR road course
ringer Dorsey Schroeder won the circuit’s final Trans-Am race on July 4th.
While the landscape of downtown Des Moines has changed
in the 30-plus years after the last race on the street course, many landmarks which
surrounded the circuit are still in place, such as the city hall building between
turns seven and eight, as well as the Veterans Memorial Auditorium (now Community
Choice Convention Center) which served as the backdrop to the pit lane. The
start/finish line on Crocker Street is now the approximate entrance to the main
parking lot for events at the Convention Center, along with the nearby Casey’s
Center, which was completed in 2005 and currently hosts the American Hockey
League’s Iowa Wild along with the Indoor Football League’s Iowa Barnstormers.
List of sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttbnCVWf4Zk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acQ645115rk
https://projectdesmoines.dmpl.org/items/show/63
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