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Santa Fe had an aura of lore and like most everyone else I loved the place. Got in on the last half dozen or so years of it's existence. Never got to see the WoO's at Santa Fe but it had to be one of the first tracks in Illinois to host a WoO sanctioned event.
We saw some great USAC Sprint Car shows and several of the 200 lap National Clay Track Championship's featuring the dirt late models. I even got to see a USAC Stock Car show at Santa Fe during the time when the short lived non descript looking generic late models were a USAC division after they (USAC) did away with the full bodied stock cars similar to NASCAR Cup division. Kevin Gundaker muscled up on Billy Moyer during the last lap and passed Moyer. One of the only times I ever remember seeing Moyer thoroughly pissed off and hit a guy on the cool down lap!!
The actual racing at Santa Fe was as often than not outflanked by the aura and lore. The place used to get like a skating rink, especially on the south end of the bigger track that was also used as part of the 1/4 mile.
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Silver Crown Championship Dirt Cars properly driven on a one mile dirt track are classic poetry in motion. Using that analogy, Jack Hewitt is one of the greatest poets of all time.
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