Illinois

All-Time Favorite Illinois Track:

Peoria Speedway (current and former location) – Peoria

Current lifetime trackchasing state rank:  1

Best Memories:

Wow! I grew up in Illinois. I’ve seen a lot of good stock car racing there. As this is written I’ve seen racing at nearly 2,600 different racetracks in 85 countries. Nevertheless, my all-time favorite track is the Peoria Speedway. The Peoria Speedway at the Mt. Hawley location was the first racetrack I ever visited. That would have been in about 1955 (age 6). Then in 1965, the track relocated to its current location on Farmington Road. Can you imagine seeing racing at that many locations and the FIRST track I ever saw is still my favorite today!

The first track I ever saw outside of my hometown was Speedbowl Park in Sterling. They raced on Sunday nights when I went there in the late 60s. Lots of tracks across the country raced stock cars back then. I’ll bet more than five of the drivers who competed at Sterling raced in NASCAR Cup events, however briefly, at one time or another. How many little tracks could lay claim to that fact? Sterling was the first place I saw my all-time favorite driver, Darrell Dake, race. Another track I discovered during my high school years was the famous Rockford Speedway. The Rockford Nationals was one of my all-time favorite “specials”. The best ever was seeing Ramo Stott and Dick Trickle go fender to fender for 200 laps.

The Freeport Raceway held their events on Sunday nights. I didn’t love the track so much but the competition Freeport drew on Sunday nights in the late 60s/early 70s was top shelf. From 1980-83 the famous but now-shuttered Santa Fe Speedway was our “hometown” track. They put on some great local programs as well as top sprint and stock car specials. Sorry to see that track go.

I’ve seen racing at more than 100 tracks in Illinois. Illinois has never been a big source of county fair or novelty racing for me. That means I’ve seen really good local “bullring” racing mainly on small dirt ovals. Tracks like Fairbury, Raceway Park, East Moline, Lasalle, Kankakee, Springfield, Macon, Quincy, Granite City, Belle-Clair, Jacksonville, Sycamore and DuQuoin have all been visited dozens of times. Those race visits featured some of my all-time favorite drivers including Don Bohlander (above), Ronnie Weedon, Ed Bolen, Lloyd Caldwell, Rocky Nohl, Herb Shannon and more.

I’ve seen about twenty figure 8 races in my home state. I’ve been to less than a handful of real road course racetracks. Illinois has been a state for short track oval racing, almost all of it on dirt. Maybe that’s why the Peoria Speedway has remained my all-time favorite track after all these years and dirt short track late model racing is still my favorite.

I’m also proud to have been inducted into the Peoria Oldtimers Racing Club Hall of Fame in 2011. I was able to join so many of my Peoria Speedway boyhood heroes in this club. The Peoria Oldtimers Racing Club was founded in 1981 by Scott Shults You can check out PORC by clicking on this link.

If you see a track link in the above list simply click on it to be transferred to my Trackchaser Report. Here you will be able to read about my adventure at this particular track. Not only will you learn about my time at the track but you’ll hear about all of the interesting people, places and things I encountered during the entire trip, coming and going, to that speedway. Most of my Trackchaser Reports will also include a photo album and YouTube video. Check it all out. Don’t be afraid to use the “search” box in the upper right corner of my website’s home page. Just type in the track name or whatever and you’ll be directed to the place you want to be.

Below is a key to surface types and track configurations so you can understand the above list just a little bit easier.

Surface types:  D-dirt; P-paved; M-mixed

Configuration types:  O-oval; RC-road course; F8-figure 8 track