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Santa Fe Speedway 1953-1995.
Greetings from Hinsdale, Illinois
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From the travels and adventures of the “World’s #1 Trackchaser”
1/2- mile oval – Lifetime track #21
1/4-oval Lifetime track #22
Santa Fe Speedway is one of the tracks I visited before I began writing my Trackchaser Reports in mid-2000. That means that I have no written documentation of roughly the first 400 tracks that I saw. I didn’t start including pictures and then YouTube movies with my Trackchaser Reports until even later in my trackchasing career.
From 1980 to 1983 our family lived in Inverness, Illinois a Chicago suburb. During this time our home track was the Santa Fe Speedway. We enjoyed stock car racing there as well as the occasional World of Outlaws sprint cars. However, the biggest attended events were always the crash ’em smash ’em demo derby type activities.
There were large grandstands on both sides of the Santa Fe Speedway ovals. The track offered a unique walkway around turns one and two when fans wanted to move from the backstretch grandstand to the frontstretch. While you walked amongst trees you were also just a few feet from cars sliding through the turns. In 1980, I first began recording the specific dates that I visited each track. Since 1980 I recorded 27 visits to the Santa Fe Speedway.
This track was originally made for horses. Later that same decade, a tornado took out the original grandstands, and the track was closed. After World War II, two new tracks were built on the site. One was a 7/16-mile oval, the other a 1/4 mile oval. This configuration was operational from 1953, until the site was sold for development in 1995. On July 10, 1954, NASCAR’s Grand National Division (now known as Sprint Cup) made a stop at Santa Fe Speedway for a 200 lap race. The race was won by #3, Dick Rathman, in a 1954 Hudson Hornet. The track also offered a good deal of motorcycle racing.
Today, the site of this former track is home to a relatively upscale multi-family housing complex just south of 91st street in Burr Ridge, IL.
Bill Van Allen
One of the very most well-known drivers to ever compete at Santa Fe was Bill Van Allen. Van Allen raced there from 1948-1972. Some of his most prolific race cars were Studebakers. Unfortunately, Van Allen retired before I ever saw him race at Santa Fe. However, he did come to the Peoria Speedway for their fall state championship events. I’m not certain if I ever saw him race at Peoria but I may have.
You might have remembrances about this track. If so, please feel free to share 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.
4 comments
My wife grew up near the track. Her dad was friends with the Tiedts and still gets dinner out with one of them.
On Saturday nights after dates with my girlfriend I had to time my exit home as all the spectators would run me down in my little Datsun. It was also loud but they didn’t think anything of it living near the track.
If you parked on 91st street there was an inch of dust on your car and if you parked in the wooded random lot leaving took an hour. Dollar beers and demolishion night was a riot.
I guess we’ve changed as we’re not going to races much. Too bad.
Hi Wink, Thanks for your notes about Santa Fe. That was our home track from 1980-1983 along with the Rockford Speedway. Good times at Santa Fe. Too bad “progress” never stops and places like Santa Fe can now only live on in our memories. Thanks for sharing! Best, Randy
who was the guy that ran an oldsmobile #88 i think van allens closet compotition 57 58?
Bill Van Allen raced for my father when I was young (Larry Moisan-Palos Pk) and became like a family member and a real role model in an era when stock car racing was coming out of the back country of N. Carolina, etc. Many of the greats raced at Santa Fe and Raceway and I got to meet them when I was young. Even Jack Brickhouse was an announcer at the track for a while. Bill was like an “uncle” to me, almost until he died. He was one of the most respected and winning drivers and we ran out of space for all the trophies! After his Nash days, he loved his Larks. He never wrestled the car, was unbelievably smooth and won the races by being the best in traffic in the turns. Even though my path eventually led to engineering and medicine, there were very few like “Billy”, a true inspiration and gentleman.