As the final Fast Street division champion at Nebraska Motorplex, Corey Petska has a trophy on the mantle of his Lincoln home.

And a ’66 Chevy Nova in pieces.

“After the track closed, I figured it was time to rebuild the thing,” said Petska, 34, an employee of State Farm Insurance in Lincoln.

“I miss it a lot, everything about it from running the car to being around a lot of great people,” he added. “I’m working on it, and when it’s done, I will go somewhere else to run it again.”

But where?

When owner Greg Sanford shuttered the Scribner drag strip following the 2005 season, Petska and many others were left without a place to race in eastern Nebraska.

Between Kearney and Pacific Junction, Iowa — the closest tracks in the region — hobbies are on hold.

After the Scribner track closed, the 1967 Camaro of Jon Wischmann of Lincoln, with its turbocharged big-block Chevy engine, went from 177 mph to zero in a split-second.

The car sits in storage. And it’s not alone.

“Just counting guys I know, at least eight to 10 basically shut it down,” said Wischmann, 33, a machinist who raced between 12 and 15 times a year at the Scribner track.

“It wasn’t bad when it was 75 miles up and 75 back, but with gas prices the way they are now, and nothing close by, it’s not feasible for me to do it.”

Sanford, who closed the Scribner track after “outgrowing the facility,” now wants to build a drag strip in Lancaster County, where interest, he says, is burgeoning.

Since proposing the new track, Sanford says he’s heard from several people who went to work on building new cars. And once the track is built — no guarantee given the controversy surrounding his proposal — participation would snowball, he says.

“I’ve seen it happen time and time again,” Sanford said. “First, you come out on open track night, and from there, a certain percentage step up and say, ‘I want to run for some money.’

“They move to other classes, and before you know it, they feel good enough to get into an NHRA class, and their son or daughter gets involved in a junior drag class. And that’s not to mention all the fans who say if there was something closer, they would attend.”

With six circle tracks within a 90-mile radius of Lincoln already in a race for fans’ entertainment dollars, would a new drag strip make matters worse?

Sanford said the opposite is true, even going so far as to explore putting his drag strip next to Eagle Raceway or I-80 Speedway near Greenwood.

Neither venue appears feasible for a drag strip at this time, said Sanford, who remains set on Lancaster County as the best site.

Among Sanford’s biggest supporters is former Husker Kent Wells, who turned to racing a 1969 Chevelle to match the thrill of a football career. He races 15 times a year, traveling as far as Joliet, Ill.

“There’s a huge group of people from around here who go all over,” Wells said.

Their interests run the gamut from watching top fuel dragsters of the NHRA’s top series to a night of racing the family car down the track, license plates intact.

Earlier this spring, Dean Steward, a 70-year-old civil engineer from near Topeka, Kan., paid $15 to bring his 1980 Mercury Capri out for a Wednesday night event billed as “Run What You Brung” at Heartland Park Topeka.

After Steward roared down the track in his $20,000 hobby/investment, grinning buddies behind the wheels of a Dodge Durango sport-utility vehicle and a Ford F-150 pickup pulled up to the line.

The pickup won, with an average speed of 83.9 mph over a quarter of a mile.

“I started with the family car. It was a 1965 Mustang Hypo,” said Steward, who has been involved in drag racing since 1967. “Every Saturday night, we’d take the kids and go to Wichita. We always had a great time.”

Local enthusiasts say families could enjoy similar times here.

“It’s such an awesome sport,” Wells said. “It would be a great thing to have back.”

But for now, they’re revving their engines, awaiting a green light.

Reach Todd Henrichs at 473-7320 or thenrichs@journalstar.com.