My Favorite Places #8 - Sunset Speedway

What a great logo for a local company.  I apologize as I failed to note where I found this picture.

You know, racing is not really my thing.  But it sure was my dad's- growing up, the air in our house was filled with the smell of cheap cigarettes, and the sound was filled with the incessant roar of cars going around and around in circles.  Good stuff.  Nowadays, the closest I get to viewing racing is flipping through a Dukes of Hazzard rerun or watching Cars with my two-year old daughter.  It's just not my thing and never will be.

But all that said, I have a lot of fond memories of going to the late Sunset Speedway in the northwest corner of Omaha near114th and State Street.  What was there to not like?  My dad usually bought us a soda or two- a luxury in those days- we sat close enough to where dirt would hit us in the face, there were fast cars that made a ton of noise, drivers with names like Sugar Bear, and once a year they held a bike race where us kids got to ride around the same track that the race cars did.  Epic.  In hindsight, I also get a kick out of the "non-alcoholic" section in the stands.  Sunset Speedway had it's very own Bible belt.  Can't say that my dad ever had a desire to sit there....

My dad grew up with the "famous" Kosiski brothers (Steve, Joe, and Ed), so I always felt like I had an "in" with the drivers.  (Would've been a great name for a pro wrestling tag team as well- the Flying Kosiski Brothers.)  And kids being kids, I figured all the drivers were millionaires, world-famous, and I begged them all for autographs.

Unfortunately, the city eventually grew and grew to the point where the new neighbors got their way and had the Speedway closed.  The Speedway argued "but we were here first"  and the neighborhood said "it's not our fault we moved next to a race car speedway and didn't anticipate that it would be noisy" and that was that.  The neighbors won.  To be fair, it was pretty darn loud- on most Sunday nights, you could hear the roar all the way in our home in Benson.

To see what the Sunset site looks like now from above via Google Earth, click here, and here's a great picture of the restaurant as it looked four years ago.  It looks like you could go racing out there right now.  I seem to recall reading somewhere that the site will likely remain vacant for a long time due to the spills of oil and other chemicals over the years.  If I ever get a chance, I'll have to drive up and take a look at it- I have kind of a morbid fascination with abandoned buildings and such so it would be kind of cool to check things out- if you are able to get close anyway.

So in conclusion, even though it's long gone, Sunset Speedway makes the list as my 8th favorite place in Omaha.  If you listen carefully on Sunday nights, when the sun is setting, you can still hear the faint roar of Sugar Bear going round and round the Speedway, being chased by one of the Kosiski boys.