One Last Ride For A Legendary Race Track


What started as a casual conversation during a ride to a Chicago Blackhawks game last winter has led to the return of midget auto racing for one final time to Joliet (Ill.) Memorial Stadium.

The Joliet Park District built the 10,000-seat stadium in 1951 for high school and college football. The following spring, the first midget race was run at the facility. Racing became a Saturday night tradition at the quarter-mile paved track (cinder covered with dirt until 1964). Dennis DeVea won the stadium’s 427th and final midget feature Aug. 30, 1986.

This fall after the final football game is played, the pavement track and the grass football field will be torn up and replaced with a new Olympic-style running track and an artificial turf playing field. Joliet Catholic, Joliet Junior College, the University of St. Francis, several youth programs and a semiprofessional team, the Joliet Buccaneers, play football games at the stadium.

On Sept. 11-12, the United Midget Auto Racing Ass’n will sanction the last auto-racing event ever at the famed facility. The event will include midgets, but a full list of divisions will be released shortly.

A lot has changed since DeVea’s victory in the landscape of midget racing in the Chicagoland area. Gone are traditional tracks like Sante Fe Speedway (Hinsdale) and Raceway Park (Blue Island). UMARA became the area’s sanctioning organization in 1987, putting an end to the colorful reign of Bob Tezak, founder of the famed UNO card game. The series now runs regularly at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Ill.

Jim Anderson (2008 UMARA champion), Joliet Park District President Dominic Egizio, Mike Guglielmucci and UMARA announcer Joe Kirkeeng began discussing ideas on the way to a Blackhawks game. At first, the idea was to run a midget one last time around the track for a publicity photo. Discussions continued and now the track has been approved by K & K Insurance to host one last weekend of racing.

“It’s so great. I grew up there watching my father’s cars compete and my mother ran the concession stand. I now live only one mile away from the track. I can’t wait to finally race on the track,” said Anderson.

The facility is one where you can feel the history and see what midget racing was like 60 years ago when so many tracks were built around football fields. The stadium gives the current generation a small idea of what the sport looked like when running at such venues as the Rose Bowl, Chicago’s Solider Field and the Polo Grounds.

Past feature winners at the track read like a who’s who of midget racing.

“It’s a rare chance for a whole generation who haven’t seen or raced at the track to have one last race at the famed track,” commented Bill Fries, UMARA public relations director. “The event should have something that will appeal to every fan. We have a lot of special guests and events planned for the two days.”

Today’s midgets will be very entertaining to watch on the quarter-mile track, along with the battle for what will be the track’s final feature winner. Many drivers who have been retired for several seasons are currently searching for rides for the event.

I’ve been at the final events at Ascot Park (Gardena, Calif.) in 1990, two years earlier at Baylands Raceway (Fremont, Calif.) and Hales Corners Speedway (Franklin, Wis.) six years ago, to name a few.

It’s only fitting this historical venue gets the send off it never received 20 years ago.

If former UARA champ Roger West will be there spectating, I will get up there for this last time.

if he is NOT there it will be for reasons we don't like to discuss. LOL.

I am certain he will be making every effort to attend this event. I am reaching out to all the IOW family to help make this a great event. It will be something special to just witness this historic night.

thanks for the intrest,
Jim Anderson