Illinois speedweek
 

Anyone going next week?

Im doing la salle, spoon (my first time at both) lincoln (my hometrack), farmer city and hopefully fairbury

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

Some of the best 5 nights of racing you will find all year long.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

Open wheel?

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

No. Flo Racing Night in American Super Late Model / Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series & UMP Modifieds

Tuesday, May 6th, 2025
LaSalle Speedway
LaSalle, Illinois
"Flo Racing Night in America"
Flo Racing Night in America Super Late Model Feature (50 Laps) - $20,000-to-win / $1,000 to start
UMP Modifieds presented by Great Lakes Lifting Feature (25 Laps) - $1200-to-win / $150 to start

Wednesday, May 7th, 2025
Spoon River Speedway
Lewiston, Illinois
"Flo Racing Night in America"
Flo Racing Night in America Super Late Model Feature (50-Laps) - $20,000-to-win / $1,000 to start
UMP DIRTcar Modifieds - $2,000-to-win / $200-to-start

Lincoln Speedway
Lincoln, Illinois
"Flo Racing Night in America"
Flo Racing Night in America Super Late Model Feature (50-Laps) - $20,000-to-win / $1,000 to start
UMP DIRTcar Modifieds - $2,000-to-win

Farmer City Raceway
Farmer City, Illinois
"Farmer City 74"
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (74-Laps) - $25,000-to-win
UMP DIRTcar Modifieds - $2,000-to-win

Fairbury Speedway
Fairbury, Illinois
"FALS Spring Shootout"
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (60-Laps) - $30,000-to-win / $1,500-to-start
UMP DIRTcar Modifieds - $2,000-to-win / $200-to-start

Tuesday - Saturday next week.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

As usual.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

Plan to hit Spoon River. Best hidden gem track in Illinois. Illinois bull rings are short enough to avoid the aero issues that dominate modern late models on the 1/2 miles.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

Kudos to LaSalle Speedway on their rebirth! What an amazing recovery and rebuild by the track. So many people stepped up to help. Thankfully they had perfect weather, a PACKED grandstand on a Tuesday night, plus 49 late models and 32 modifieds. Well done Tony and team!

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

A huge shout out should go also to Justin McCoy. I believe his partnership with the Izzo's was much of the impetus for the reopening of La Salle. Not sure this all would have happened without the involvement of Justin and his wife. Just for the record, Justin hails from Streator, IL and is the great nephew of midget standout, the late Bob Tattersall, who was also from Streator.

To get this thread somewhat on topic, there is hope that La Salle could become a regular yearly venue for BMARA and/or MARA. It's strategically located for Badger and it's a safe bet that the Badger/MARA midgets would put on an exemplary show at La Salle. Let's hope it happens with some success in the future.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

very good racing last night! That track looks like it would put on a great sprint car race! First time I had ever watched an event here. They did a great job bringing it back. Hard to beat that 32 in his home state.

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Thanks for this update! Streator is my hometown, so I was thrilled to see a businessman like Justin step up to help Tony and his family. I'm sure they and other put hundreds of hours to get the track back into racing condition and a schedule put together. I had no idea about the Bob Tattersall connection. Very nice.

Kevin Kovac wrote a great article on Dirt on Dirt about the connection between Tony and Justin. Hopefully you got to read it. Amazing when good minds start working together.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

It does put on great sprint car action. They used to have a race late in the year that was $5k to win late models & $5k to win wing sprints. Usually drew at least 30 of each. Went to it a couple times. Was a very good show. Outlaws also used to put on some bangers there in the early 2000's. Place sort of reminds me of a bigger Jacksonville (not banked as much) & races real well.

Re: Illinois speedweek
 

There actually was a racetrack on the exact plot of land that contains the present day track. That track began operations in 1948 as Tri-County Speedway and was host to mainly midget racing prior to closing sometime in the mid 1950's. After the original racetrack was done away with a drive-in theater was built on the property in the 1950's and closed sometime in the 1970's and the property laid basically dormant until Tommy Glynn built the present day track that opened in 1986.

The aforementioned late season sprint car event was/is the Bill Waite Jr. Memorial that included the IRA winged sprint cars and the Badger Midgets. At that time the midgets generally put on a great show but later years the Badger guys weren't included and the dirt late models and modified's took their place.

The Bill Waite Jr. Memorial is again on the La Salle Speedway schedule featuring the MOWA and IRA winged sprint cars as well as the Wisconsin wingLESS Sprint Cars which are a crate engine sprint division.

IIRC Sammy Swindell got dinged pretty bad during one of the WoO's Sprint Car events back in the day at La Salle. The track exit opening in the retaining wall was located in turn #3 and Sammy hit it a ton during qualifications, I believe. A couple of dirt late models had some nasty dust-ups in the same area. That's exit opening was closed off quite a while back.

I ran the Badger portion of the 2016 Bill Waite at LaSalle. Badger was there again in 2017, but I didn't go. WingLESS was added in 2018 IIRC.

Our 2016 feature was truly epic.

I chalked Badger being replaced by WingLESS up to them bringing a similar car count with a significantly lower purse. I'm sure IRA lobbied for it as well.

First time at la salle and spoon

Both great

Being in the pits at spoon is amazing

Also leaving the track a little after 9 after late model feature? Heck yes. Need more of that

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Did you get all the dirt out of your crevices last night? Great night at Spoon but I was sitting down low with some friends that couldn't climb too high & we ate the gritty river dirt all night. Thank God for goggles. Spoon really is a hidden gem. Gets more pub these days thanks to streaming & getting a few sanctioned races but lots of people still don't know about it. Kind of has an out in the boondocks feel with being hidden back in the trees.

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I'd love to see High Limit run this same schedule.

The late models are 2 for 2 on good shows.

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$50 camp fee at Lasalle, $75 at Eldora. I stayed in Indiana.

Interesting before la salle they discussed ending flo night after last year but promoters and drivers wanted it to keep going

At lincoln right now. Another good crowd

Interesting before la salle they discussed ending flo night after last year but promoters and drivers wanted it to keep going

At lincoln right now. Another good crowd

Moran dominated but good racing.

Debating on going to farmer city now.

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Those heat races were very good.

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What's amazing is how well run these shows have been. 40+ late models and about 30 modifieds every night. The late model features have been getting over about 9:20pm each night! FLO and the local tracks have been running incredibly well-run programs. That's the way ALL tracks should run. Heck, Circle City in Indy doesn't even start till 8pm. I'll give them a pass for their Lucas Oil late model night when rain forced them to move the program along quickly.

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That's always been my issue with some tracks. The earlier the better. Not everyone has a camper or money for a hotel


For instance Farmer city is starting hot laps at 6:30 with late models, modified and kids modz. Was going to go to F.city but am skipping out. Was there for Illini 100. Temps suppose to drop again tonight. I'll watch on Flo. No desire to sit in the chill again

So my guess is first heat will likely start after 730ish? maybe 745? No reason to not run hot laps at 6

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Well said. I'll never understand why tracks have to start late. Dirt tracks rarely start on time. Kudos to the IL Speedweek tracks for getting done early. As you say, sadly that will probably not be the case tonight. If hot laps don't start till 6:30pm, I'm betting the over on what time they will get their first heat run. Fairbury hot laps start at 5:30pm tomorrow night and only two divisions. I'm heading there.

Looked up the race last year looked like feature at Farmer city didn't end till close to 11. Just unnecessary. And that was for late models. Still had modifieds to run

I get starting later because you want people out of town to make it but you gotta have a fast moving program then. You can't run a spoon or lincoln and be done in 3.5 hours than run at Farmer city or Fairbury with the same classes and take over 5 hours

What's the difference?


Also, I fully 100% support going to tracks instead of streaming BUT the track has to take responsibility to. Are you running a fast clean program?

Should this website be called IllinoisLateModel.com?

I'm just happy that so far the week hasn't turned into Bobby Pierce domination. Being in he and old Bob's backyard and all.

Yeah you could argue that he's the best Late Model driver in the country right now and I wouldn't even say that you're wrong. The guy just rubs me the wrong way.

Now watch him win tonight and tomorrow...

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I think we should just be happy people are posting on here...I mean, certainly I don't think we want LM racing talk all the time, but I say give them this week. Anything to keep some interest in dirt track racing can't hurt. At least LM racers like Ricky Thorton Jr and some others thru the years have run open wheel races anyways.