Carter Lake has been home to a lot of entertainment throughout its past. Amusement parks, resorts, roller coasters, dancehalls, a movie theater, and beaches with sailboats, boardwalks and swimming happened for decades. There were also a number of racetracks in the community. This is a history of a tiny operation called the Lakeside Raceway.
A Long Time Driving
The first races in Carter Lake were held in the 1910s at the Omaha Speedway, which was near 9th and Redick Avenue, and after a long lull between the 1920s and 1970s, continued into the early 1980s.
Adult-size small race cars were referred to as midget racers, or when they were smaller than that they were called micro midget racers. The first mention of midget racing in Omaha was 1935.
More than a decade before that, starting in 1923 the National Dirt Track Championship had been held across the United States for race cars of all sizes. Including racers from Omaha, people aspired to join that nationwide event, and one day it would include a popular Omahan racer.
A Racing Family
There were a lot of families involved in the midget racing circuit, and one of the most widely-regarded figures in the history of midget racing at Carter Lake’s Lakeside Raceway was Cork Jacobs.
W.D. “Cork” Jacobs (1929-2018) was born and died in Omaha. Married to his wife “Gene” (1931-2023) in 1949, in the 1960s the couple lived near 58th and Bedford. He was a construction manager throughout his career, including in the 1960s when he and his son became micro midget car drivers.
From 1968 to 1982, micro-midget racers and go-carts raced at the Twin Arrows Speedway in Fort Calhoun. A 1968 write up said, “Saturday nights you’ll find the Jacobses… and several other families grease pit deep in modified midget auto racing at the new one-eighth-of-a-mile Twin Arrow track northwest of Fort Calhoun, Neb. For them it’s a labor—and sport—of love. The Jacobses… belong to the Mid Continent Midget Racing Association, an affiliate of the National Modified Midget Association, and the Fort Calhoun track is one of some 40 operating sanctioned tracks in the country.”
This was after the family had already been racing, with the article saying they’d raced for two years before in Emerson, Iowa. Cork’s son Dave Jr. (1949-2014) was 16 when he started racing.
Building a Raceway
In the late 1960s, the Mid-Continent Midget Racing Association emerged, and by 1979 it had 100 members. They needed more places to race, and Carter Lake had space.
From 1971 to 1982, there was a micro midget racetrack at 11th and Locust in Carter Lake called the Lakeside Raceway. Operating as a micro-midget, go-cart, and motorcycle racing track, Dick Morgan and Jay Nottingham were co-owners of the one-eighth-mile dirt track. Races were mostly held on Saturday nights during the summer nights.
The motorcycles that raced there were smaller and included 125cc, 125-175cc, and 176-250cc dirt bikes. One article said, “The modified midgets have either motorcycle or motorboat engines for powerplants and the cars cost between $500 to $4,000 to build.”
By 1978, the newspaper reported the dirt track was 1/5th of a mile long. The location association hosted the National Dirt Track Championship in July, with “100 cars scheduled to compete from all parts of the country.” Talking about he event, the Omaha World-Herald said, “…the sportsmanship is great as the racers only race for national points and trophies instead of money.”
The last races to happen at the track were in 1982.
The last mention of the Mid-Continent Midget Racing Association was 1983. The address of the association was the Jacobs’ home, and the Fort Calhoun track was listed as their last activity place. That year, Sunset Speedway included midget racing for the first time, and Carter Lake was never mentioned again.
Remembering the Races
Today, there are no race tracks or any other type of legal racing in Carter Lake. Memories are fading, too.
Maybe someday in the future there will be something to commemorate the long history of car racing in the Carter Lake community.
Special thanks to Russ Kramer for inspiring this article!
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