CONCORD, N.C. — When competitors battle for supremacy at Iowa’s Shelby County Speedway on April 10, they’ll be racing in memory of one of the region’s most successful car owners and mechanics.
Shelby County Speedway, located in Harlan, Iowa, will host the Dale Swanson Memorial on April 10. The race is named in honor of the late Dale Swanson, a veteran car owner who is best known for fielding cars for drivers Johnny Beauchamp and Tiny Lund.
The event, sponsored by Swanson Performance Engineering, is scheduled to feature a $30,000 purse spread across five divisions, with the modified division scheduled to battle for a $2,500 top prize. Late models, sport mods, stock cars and IMCA RaceSaver sprint cars are also on the card.
The race will be broadcast live by SPEED SPORT TV affiliate Advantage Racing TV.
Swanson passed away in 1996, but left behind a lengthy motorsports legacy.
“He actually drove our family car, which at the time was a ’39 Ford Coupe, in the races at the local fairgrounds in Harlan, Iowa,” said his son, 78-year-old Dale Swanson Jr. “That was probably his start of getting involved in racing.”
Though he first tried his hand at driving, the elder Swanson soon realized he wasn’t up to the task. Thus, he began a relationship with Beauchamp that would last for more than 10 years.
The pairing, with Beauchamp driving and Swanson serving as either the car owner or crew chief, earned countless victories across the Midwest. In the early 1950s, Swanson and Beauchamp dominated at Playland Park Speedway, winning the 1951 track championship.
It was around this time that Swanson added a car for Lund. The trio were hugely successful before Lund departed the area to make a name for himself in NASCAR. Lund would win five NASCAR Cup Series races, including the 1963 Daytona 500 while driving for Wood Brothers Racing.
In 1955, Swanson and Beauchamp partnered with car owner George Short to compete in the IMCA stock car division. The pairing won multiple races and earned a top-10 points finish despite getting a late start to the season.
The best stretch of Swanson and Beauchamp’s partnership was in 1956-’57. Swanson took over as car owner and the pairing dominated the IMCA stock car division after forming a partnership with Chevrolet. Together, the two won more than 70 races in two years to claim back-to-back IMCA stock car titles.
Things came to an abrupt halt for the dominant duo when Chevrolet pulled all of its factory support for motorsports in June of 1957. The lack of support meant the end of the duo’s dominant IMCA run, but the pairing was soon together again.
“In ’59 he built a ’59 Chevrolet for a gentleman from Minnesota by the name of Bob Potter,” Dale Swanson Jr. explained. “He went down to run the first big track race (at Daytona Int’l Speedway) in ’59 and Bob Potter drove the car and it broke the timing chain in the engine in the qualifying race, so he didn’t end up qualifying for the 500.”
The 1959 Daytona 500 was the inaugural running of the event that has become NASCAR’s tentpole race. Lee Petty was declared the winner three days after the race was completed after Beauchamp, who was driving for Roy Burdick, was initially flagged the winner on race day.
“He won the race and then they took it away from him after that disputed finish,” Dale Swanson Jr. remembered. “A lot of people say Petty was a lap down.”
After building another car for Potter in early 1960, Beauchamp and Swanson reunited to try their hands at racing in NASCAR together. Their first race with Beauchamp driving and Swanson serving as the car owner and mechanic was the inaugural World 600 in 1960, where the duo finished second to Joe Lee Johnson.
Beauchamp and Swanson competed in 10 NASCAR Cup Series races together, earning a victory during the 1960 Nashville 400 at Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tenn., during a rain-shortened event.
The duo attempted to qualify for the 1961 Daytona 500, but Beauchamp was involved in an accident with Petty during his qualifying race. Beauchamp never competed in NASCAR again and Petty’s career was cut short as a result of injuries suffered in the crash.
Beauchamp and Swanson won one more race together, the Iowa International 300 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in 1962. It was the last time the duo worked together as driver and team owner.
While Swanson scaled back his racing efforts in the years that followed, he remained involved with the sport at the grassroots level. In addition to his son, his grandson, Ken Swanson, also became involved in motorsports and worked for multiple NASCAR teams, including Richard Childress Racing, Bill Davis Racing and Roush Fenway Racing.
For the younger Swanson, the chance to honor and remember his late grandfather with an event at his hometown track is an opportunity to remind race fans of the family’s history in the sport.
“It means the world to me,” Ken Swanson said as he fought back tears. “This is a race to recognize our history as a family in racing.”