[Avon Open Wheel fan]

First Vermilion County Speedway and now it looks like two more Illinois tracks status is up in the air. This is from a local newspaper the pantagraph.com web site.


LINCOLN — The future of two area dirt tracks has become the source of speculation as Lincoln Speedway has closed its doors for the remainder of the season while Farmer City Raceway canceled a regular weekly series event scheduled for Friday night.

Farmer City promoter Brian Stuart reserved comment on the reason for Friday night’s cancellation and on what is in store for the remainder of the season.

“I’ll get back to you on that at the beginning of next week,” said Stuart, who offered no other information after being reached by phone at his office in the Quad Cities, where he runs a sportswear company.

Meanwhile, Lincoln Speedway promoter Norm Horn said he’s optimistic about that track’s future, but decided to pull the plug on racing at Lincoln this season to regroup for next year.

“We’re going to get this thing off the ground and have no intentions to leave,” said Horn, who has three years remaining on his current lease with the Logan County Fair Association.

Lincoln’s final event of the year was held July 25 when the track hosted a 40-lap makeup of a UMP Summer Nationals race that was rained out on July 4, before a Monster Midwest Series late model program later that evening.

Spread over five divisions, Horn said 159 cars jammed the Speedway’s pit area, Lincoln’s largest-ever car count.

“The biggest before was 142 and we also had a good (grandstand) crowd that night, too,” he said.

Special events such as the Summer Nationals and the Land of Lincoln 50, a World of Outlaws Late Model national touring series race run this year on May 7, continued to be profitable at the track. However, Horn said the gains are erased by losses associated with the speedway’s Friday night weekly series events. He said that led to the cancellation of the final four weeks of the season.

Following Friday night’s cancellation, the next event at Farmer City is slated for Aug. 20.

Horn believes the weekly woes could be turned around if the track were allowed to run races on Sunday nights, as was the case when he and Gary Baugh formed B&H Racing, Inc., seven years ago.

[ISF]

Hard to figure, especially Farmer City. That place used to be one of the best run with some of the highest car counts and overall competition of and track in the area. Fairbury and Farmer City were among the top two late model venue's in central Illinois. Fairbury is still right up there but Farmer City has had a rash of problems in recent years and everybody blames everybody else.

A real shame.

[bullring]

While special events seem to do pretty well, a lot of weekly shows are in trouble. My guess is that people can't afford to do both anymore.