Greetings from Freeport, Illinois
From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
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Darrell was racing at Freeport on Sunday nights back in early 80s. (Dennis Piefer photo)
Freeport Raceway Park outer dirt oval – Lifetime track #8
Freeport Raceway Park inner dirt oval – Lifetime track #678
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I go way back with Freeport. It was my 8th lifetime track.
I went to college at Northern Illinois University (Huskies!) located in DeKalb, Illinois. DeKalb is just 68 miles from Freeport, Illinois. According to the History of American Speedways racing first began at the Freeport Raceway in 1937. Mel Kenyon is believed to have begun his career at this track.
Don Bohlander in the #12 Dodge
I first started going to the Freeport Raceway in the late 60s. I loved going to “Freeport”. I didn’t care all that much for the track. It was a “paperclip” dirt half-mile oval. The cars barreled down the straights at high speeds and then “peddled” it around the nearly flat corners until they reached the long straightaways again.
Ray Guss Sr.
Although I didn’t like that kind of racing I LOVED the competition the track drew. They raced on Sunday nights. Big-time local stock car heroes from Eastern Iowa and Central Illinois raced there. I’m talking drivers like Darrell Dake, John Connolly, Lem Blankenship, Ray Guss Sr., Don Bohlander and Arnie Gardner to name a few. I even saw Dick Trickle pull into the Freeport Raceway on a Sunday night following the Rockford Nationals. In those days you would NEVER see Trickle race on dirt.
All I needed to guarantee a good night of racing was to see this hauler coming over the hill.
I will never forget sitting in the poured concrete grandstands waiting for my all-time favorite driver Darrell Dake to show up. He would be coming from over by Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I would look longingly over turn #3 waiting for that Ford flatbed truck carrying the famous #8 KING OF THE ROAD Ford and later on Chevy.
My earliest memories of Dake was when he roared down the front straight leading the feature event in a 1966 Ford Fairlane convertible. His engine blew and the biggest, longest and whitest string of smoke followed his car into the infield. That was bad news on that night. I also remember getting rained out much more often than I would have expected at Freeport.
I was a Darrell Dake fan! Although luckily he never had to race this Caddy.
As you can see I was and am a big Darrell Dake fan. In late 1979 I bought a brand new 1980 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. My license plate read simply, “DAKE 8”. I bought the only t-shirt I ever saw being sold by Darrell Dake. For the life of me I don’t know why they were made in black and yellow. Dake’s cars were either white with black or red lettering or red with while lettering.
On one evening after I had graduated from college I went down to the fence separating the spectator side from the pit area. I summoned one of Darrell Dake’s crewmen. I gave him a fifty dollar bill and told him to give it to Darrell. I also asked, “If he could send me a picture that would be great”. About a week passed and I received the most cherished racing photo in my entire collection (shown above).
Yes, I have lots of fond memories of the Freeport Raceway from the late 60s into the early 70s. I returned in 2003 to see racing on their newly created 1/4-mile inner oval. However, racing at Freeport was no longer the same. Around 2011 the track went into foreclosure and the grandstands were all torn down. As far as I know they don’t race at the Freeport Raceway anymore.
Do you have any experience with auto racing at the Freeport Speedway?
By the way you might have remembrances about this track. If so, please feel free to share them in the comments section below. If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com. I’ll try to include them here.