Nevada Airport (Ames)

The Iowa Timing Association held a couple of quarter-mile drag races on the oiled dirt at the Nevada Airport, a mile southwest of Nevada and south of Highway 30. Dale Ross of Ames ran the first one on July 26, 1953. Newspapers called it the first drag race in the Midwest. Earlier races had been held in Missouri, Illinois and Kansas, but it was the first in Iowa. It drew over a thousand spectators and more than 90 entries from Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. Cars ran one at a time against the clock, and Vernard Whatoff was quickest at 14.3 seconds on his Ariel Square Four motorcycle. A second race followed on August 23, but less than half an hour before the start, 17-year-old Myrus Gibbs of Ames, who was helping set up, was hit and killed by a landing plane while riding a motorcycle on the runway before it closed to air traffic. The 1953 season ended with a race on September 20, and a couple more races ran in fall 1954. No trace of the airport remains.