‘We were pretty crazy’: Escuriex recounts Acadiana 500 tricycle racing

Published 1:00 am Sunday, March 27, 2022

There was a time you could say that New Iberia was the tricycle racing capital of the country, and Ray Escuriex was at the center of it all.

Thursday afternoon, Escuriex regaled the New Iberia Kiwanis Club with stories about the Acadiana 500 Sweepstakes Race, its origins, and the unexpected popularity it garnered statewide.

The Acadiana 500, named as a play on the Indianapolis 500, started 52 years ago after someone in New Iberia ventured to Mobile, Ala., and saw a pack of adults riding tricycles down a city block.

Escuriex said he got the name after seeing the Indy 500 for himself and said that the grueling race complete with qualifications and a pit stop area would eventually be replicated in New Iberia, but this time with tricycles.

“We were pretty crazy so we said we should look into that,” Escuriex said. “We bought a tricycle from Sears Roebuck, it was the largest tricycle made for young men and women at the time.”

After a first attempt that ended in “total disaster,” Escuriex and his friends decided to make several tweaks to the tricycle.

Not only did the tricycle collapse after adults tried to sit on it, but the tricycles were also not designed with chains or coasters so the pedals wouldn’t stop when riding. Eventually, it was decided that 20-inch bicycles could be used with a few extra tweaks to make them raceable.

“The way we fixed it was good Cajun engineering,” Escuriex said.

After finally getting a workable tricycle, Escuriex said a plan was hatched to start a relay race. The Acadiana 500 was a 1.8-mile track and 100-yard race, which Escuriex noted was grueling for any adult pedaling on the tiny bicycle.

Escuriex served as the race director and made presentations to civic clubs to participate in what would eventually be a race that all participants would get competitive in.

“Talk about taking this race seriously, you have no idea,” Escuriex said. “We had groups come in from Alexandria, Lafayette, Crowley, Jennings, Shreveport, New Orleans, Bossier City, you name it.”

The race itself took about 66 people to run, and extra volunteers were added. The winner would receive a trophy to hold for a year until the next year, however, Escuriex said there was a rule that a team who won three years in a row would be able to keep the trophy.

The New Iberia Kiwanis Club was able to make use of that rule, winning three years in a row from 1973 to 1975.

“The Kiwanis Club ended up winning three years,” he said. “In 1973 they had a time of 9:01, in 1974 they had 8:45 and in 1975 they had 8:18. We had to end up getting another trophy.”