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Safety rules also were nearly nonexistent.
It wasn't until 1952 that drivers were required to put rollbars on top of their cars, and many of the original modifications were homemade and prone to breaking.
According to the next day's article in The Tribune, 10 different makes of cars competed in the 30-car race, including a Nash, two Studebakers, a Willys, an Oldsmobile and several Hudson Hornets.
One driver, after crashing his Hudson on the 64th lap of the race, climbed behind the wheel of another driver's car, and finished the race in third place.
Hoekstra said he remembers a Studebaker flipping over "for no apparent reason that I could see." A Tribune photograph from the race shows spectators pushing the car off of its sides and back onto its wheels and off the track.
Maybe more noticeably, no one was seriously injured during the NASCAR race of 1952, although other races at the park had claimed lives over the years.
On July 4, 1936, one driver was killed in a holiday race, after his car slid out of a turn. Exactly a year later, Tribune photographer Gerald Toms was struck in the head by a wheel that had broken loose in a turn. Toms wouldn't regain consciousness and died a week later.
Hoekstra said he doesn't remember a lot about the specifics of the NASCAR race because he spent most of the race watching a clock.
When he volunteered to be a timer, Hoekstra was basically volunteering to stare at a large dial-clock and calculate how long it took for a certain driver to complete a lap.
"I remember it was hot," Hoekstra said. "I gave up my seat in the shade to stand out in the sun."
Legacy
Sixty years later, it's hard to imagine how different both NASCAR and Playland Park have become.
The sport of stock car racing, of course, has become a billion-dollar industry, with its own celebrities, fanatics and critics.
Playland Park, in contrast, has all but disappeared from the public consciousness.
Today, the only remnant of the park grounds are the concrete bleachers still built into the hillside just south of the IUSB student housing complex.
The park, which also had roller coasters, amusement rides and baseball games, closed in the early 1960s, after years of declining revenue, and much of the land sat vacant for years. Racing fans in South Bend took their sport elsewhere, building the South Bend Speedway west of town, and a drag racing strip in Osceola.
Still, the legacy of that day lingers.
Mishawaka's Don Woolley was a teenager in the stands that day -- one of many days he spent watching races at tracks throughout the area.
Today, Woolley is still a racing fan and runs a website -- mvrcp.return.to/ -- that showcases photos of classic race cars and racetracks from across the region.
Hoekstra too remembers the races at Playland fondly.
A year or two after the NASCAR race, Hoekstra said he and his older brother attended a modified car race at the park.
When the race was over, the not-yet-licensed-to-drive Hoekstra decided he wanted to try out his skills in his father's metallic blue Chrysler Imperial.
Hoekstra said he got the car up on the oiled down gravel and was flying pretty fast when he hit the back stretch along the river.
"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."
Luckily, Hoekstra pulled out of the turn and the car, and his hide, were unharmed.
Like the NASCAR racers themselves, he never tried driving on the Playland Park track again.
Staff writer Dave Stephens:
dstephens@sbtinfo.com
574-235-6209
It wasn't until 1952 that drivers were required to put rollbars on top of their cars, and many of the original modifications were homemade and prone to breaking.
According to the next day's article in The Tribune, 10 different makes of cars competed in the 30-car race, including a Nash, two Studebakers, a Willys, an Oldsmobile and several Hudson Hornets.
One driver, after crashing his Hudson on the 64th lap of the race, climbed behind the wheel of another driver's car, and finished the race in third place.
Hoekstra said he remembers a Studebaker flipping over "for no apparent reason that I could see." A Tribune photograph from the race shows spectators pushing the car off of its sides and back onto its wheels and off the track.
Maybe more noticeably, no one was seriously injured during the NASCAR race of 1952, although other races at the park had claimed lives over the years.
On July 4, 1936, one driver was killed in a holiday race, after his car slid out of a turn. Exactly a year later, Tribune photographer Gerald Toms was struck in the head by a wheel that had broken loose in a turn. Toms wouldn't regain consciousness and died a week later.
Hoekstra said he doesn't remember a lot about the specifics of the NASCAR race because he spent most of the race watching a clock.
When he volunteered to be a timer, Hoekstra was basically volunteering to stare at a large dial-clock and calculate how long it took for a certain driver to complete a lap.
"I remember it was hot," Hoekstra said. "I gave up my seat in the shade to stand out in the sun."
Legacy
Sixty years later, it's hard to imagine how different both NASCAR and Playland Park have become.
The sport of stock car racing, of course, has become a billion-dollar industry, with its own celebrities, fanatics and critics.
Playland Park, in contrast, has all but disappeared from the public consciousness.
Today, the only remnant of the park grounds are the concrete bleachers still built into the hillside just south of the IUSB student housing complex.
The park, which also had roller coasters, amusement rides and baseball games, closed in the early 1960s, after years of declining revenue, and much of the land sat vacant for years. Racing fans in South Bend took their sport elsewhere, building the South Bend Speedway west of town, and a drag racing strip in Osceola.
Still, the legacy of that day lingers.
Mishawaka's Don Woolley was a teenager in the stands that day -- one of many days he spent watching races at tracks throughout the area.
Today, Woolley is still a racing fan and runs a website -- mvrcp.return.to/ -- that showcases photos of classic race cars and racetracks from across the region.
Hoekstra too remembers the races at Playland fondly.
A year or two after the NASCAR race, Hoekstra said he and his older brother attended a modified car race at the park.
When the race was over, the not-yet-licensed-to-drive Hoekstra decided he wanted to try out his skills in his father's metallic blue Chrysler Imperial.
Hoekstra said he got the car up on the oiled down gravel and was flying pretty fast when he hit the back stretch along the river.
"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."
Luckily, Hoekstra pulled out of the turn and the car, and his hide, were unharmed.
Like the NASCAR racers themselves, he never tried driving on the Playland Park track again.
Staff writer Dave Stephens:
dstephens@sbtinfo.com
574-235-6209