by Brad Wilson

-From the June 9, 1963 Des Moines Register

            Indianola, Ia. – James Scott, 37-year-old foreign car dealer from suburban Chicago, had the hottest laps Saturday to usher in road racing in Iowa before 3,114 paid fans.

            Most of the crowd was scattered over some 300 acres of the new three-mile Greenwood Roadway Course 8½ miles south of here.

           Driving a Lotus 23-B powered by an English-built, four-cylinder Ford and owned by Dr. Curt Gonstead of Monroe, Wis., Scott averaged 77.612 miles per hour to win the closing 15-mile feature race.

            Competitors and race officials were pleased with the inaugural day, although they confessed they had some bugs to iron out. Fans’ acceptance of the sport may depend largely on today’s turnout for the final program.

           Like all Grand Prix races, it wasn’t possible to watch all the proceedings from one vantage point. The finish line and the hairpin curves on the course drew the bulk of watchers.

            If they came to see someone hurt they were disappointed, for there was only one mishap. One driver, Dave Spensley of Cedar Falls, got off the track on a twisting turn and failed to get back into the race.

One Protest

           Since the course was new to all drivers, they drove fairly cautiously. James Spencer of Racine, Wis., who finished second in the third race, lodged a protest – the only one of the day.

            A breakdown in telephone communications caused an hour’s delay in the start of the races since officials were not able to stage practice laps (time trials to you oval race fans) during the morning.

            Gordon Stewart of Sioux Falls, S.D., who operates beauty salons and schools in Iowa’s Siouxland area, won the opening race in his O.S.C.A. Maserati, which also placed first in class H.

            Richard Anderson of Overland Park, Kan., a commercial artist who drove a Lotus-Ford 7A against a hot field limited largely to production cars, won the second race in his Class F production outfit. He averaged 69.68 miles for his five laps.

Faster Pace

           The pace stepped up in the third race when R. E. L. Hayes of Vinita, Okla., wheeled his A.C. Cobra powered by a 260-Fairlane Ford at an average of 74.48 m.p.h.

            In the final race, Dick Doane of Dundee, Ill., kept his Corvette Class C modified alongside Scott in the Lotus until the late stages. Then Scott gunned the Gonstead car away to win by a good margin.

            Today's activities will start at 9 a.m. There will be three races of mixed classes with laps varying from eight to 20.