[Mike Delahanty]

As I've written several times before, I was really impressed with the Tri-State Facility. I find it interesting that Tri-State is not that far from the "Field of Dreams" ball field down the road in Dyersville. And like the movie, I kept thinking - "build it and they will come". Those that I spoke with who race there passed along some of the background and history of the place - and I found some more on the web. Take a minute to read a little further.


In the summer of 1995, a couple from a small town in eastern Iowa began a search for land with the dream of building their own drag strip. Later that year, the dream came one step closer to a reality. Reid and Jane Kuhlman purchased a section of land along the east-bound lane of Highway 20, just south of the small town of Earlville, Iowa.

The first sign of what the future would hold for this Iowa farm ground, was this billboard/trailer. It let passers-by know that big things were just around the corner.

Ground breaking was scheduled to begin in the spring of 1996, but persistent rains delayed initial ground work until that fall. When the rain finally gave way to the sun, man and machine were put to the task of carving the near half mile path out of the green rolling hills.

By the spring of 1998, only some minor finish work needed to be done before opening the gates at Tri State Raceway for the first time. The ribbon cutting ceremony was held the first Saturday in June, presentations were made and the ribbon was cut...drag racing style, by running a pair of Chevy II's through it!

The first event to be held on Sunday of that first weekend in June was a truck and tractor pull. The construction of this one of a kind facility includes a pull arena, between the grandstands and the track, to accommodate the large number of pullers in this agricultural part of the country.

Tri-State Raceway (TSR) is completely concrete – from the area behind the burnout box to the sand trap, a total of 4,000 feet. “Our shutdown area also is concrete because however you do it it’s hard to get a smooth transition off concrete to asphalt,” Reid Kuhlman said. “They are different thicknesses, and asphalt will roll around and rutting happens.”

While racers like concrete because of its smoothness, Kuhlman, stated he was motivated more by practicality in choosing concrete over asphalt. “The chemicals in traction compound are a petroleum-based product that degrades asphalt, and there’s a lot of upkeep as a result,” he said.

Another factor was Kuhlman’s ownership at the time of Kuhlman Construction Co., which set up quarries to provide rock, sand, and concrete for highways. The firm also did pavement recycling. Kuhlman’s father began the company in 1946, and eventually Kuhlman owned it many years before selling it.

A quarry was established next to the track site, which was formerly farmland. After grading, the first step was a 10-inch rock bed, the same as one for asphalt. Next, one 30-foot-wide concrete lane was poured from end to end. Two weeks later the second lane was poured. Curing took a week.

Based on a recommendation from the Iowa Concrete Paving Association (ICPA), the concrete is five inches thick and contains a mix whose strength is 5,000 pounds per square inch (as opposed to a driveway of 3,000 p.s.i.). Each lane consists of three 10x10-foot panels that have eighth-inch saw joints to control shrinkage cracks, which have been minimal in 15 years. No expansion joints were built into the track.

The surface has what Kuhlman called “a broom finish.” It is coarser than the Texas Motorplex surface, which he termed “garage-floor smooth.” In retrospect, he would have taken a different approach. “We’ve had good results, but it would be nice if the groove was a little more smooth,” he said. “When you apply rubber, the voids are filled and there is a smooth contact patch.”

The track required 4,000 cubic yards of concrete. The 30-inch-high guardwalls also are concrete from molds Kuhlman’s company made and took 750 cubic yards. The same amount was used for the concrete grandstands.

A total of 6,000 cubic yards of asphalt was used for the return road, pits, and staging lanes when the facility was built. More asphalt was laid in the pits in 2005.

According to ICPA vice president John Cunningham, had asphalt instead of concrete been used when the track surface was laid, the cost would have been approximately 10 percent less. Doing the same work today would find a reversal, with concrete having a 15-20 percent cost advantage over asphalt, he said, noting the cost includes labor and equipment.

Cunningham compared a dragstrip to a general aviation airport runway, which he said usually is 60 feet wide and 4,000 feet long. “Today 90 percent of them are concrete when they are built new,” he said. “There is also a lot of white topping, which is a concrete overlay on an existing asphalt runway.”

The cost differential between concrete and asphalt and the lower concrete maintenance cost have prompted the owners of the proposed Mid-America Raceway Park near New Florence, Mo., to use concrete for their quarter-mile track and staging lanes. General manager Ronnie Moss has conferred with Kuhlmann and borrowed his guardwall molds.

"Removing excess rubber, spraying with VHT, and adding powder rosin are the same for asphalt as concrete," Kuhlman related. "Cleaning up liquids such as engine and transmission oil, water, and rearend grease is also the same."

Besides co-owning the track, Kuhlman runs the clocks, announces, and hands out checks and trophies at events. Jane Kuhlman works the gate, manages the concessions, and handles the bookkeeping. Their daughter Tara and her husband Wade McShane are on the staff. Bill Cassil is the general manager.

Kuhlman, who first became interested in drag racing more than 50 years ago, and Cassil used to be partners in a Chevy II Super Stocker they raced often at national events beginning in the early 1990s. After seeing good attendance at the events, the two men discussed building a track, and their concept became TSR.