FanFest 75th Anniversary Belle-Clair Speedway


POWRi Speedway Motors and BADGER Midget Auto Racing Association will be paying tribute to the 75th Anniversary on Friday June 25th and Saturday June 26th. The FanFest presented by Budweiser will have two complete National Midget and 600cc Oultaw Micro events. Friday and Saturday will be two complete shows with Saturday’s Feature paying $4000.00 to WIN. The 600cc Outlaw Micros will pay $1000.00 to WIN both nights.

The 2nd night of this Anniversary weekend will feature a FanFest on Saturday afternoon from 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The festivities at Belle-Clair will include a "midway" with a display of vintage race cars under the roof of the Expo Building, Tim’s Dirt Track Race Simulators, driver meet & greet along with the new POWRi Apparel trailer for checking out your souvenir needs.

Friday and Saturday gates open at 4:00pm, hot laps at 6:00pm and racing at 7:00pm. General admission for Friday is $12.00 and Saturday $15.00 kids 12 and under free.
Tickets can be purchased with a ($2.00 savings) at Don’s Hardware in Belleville IL.

The first midget race in St. Louis was held on January 5, 1935 at “The Arena”. Belle-Clair Speedway held its first midget race on June 15, 1948. More than 5,000 fans turned out for the first race and more than 1000 fans were turned away. Chuck Marshall of Champaign, IL set fast time at a mark of 12.26 seconds and won the 25 lap feature event. Marshall driving his 1948 Kurtis Kraft Offenhauser was flying with a top speed of 87 mph. They raced for a total purse of $1,395. Behind Marshall at the finish were Red Hamilton of Decatur, Elmer Noeth of St. Louis and Ray Knepper of Belleville. Reportedly 36 drivers signed up to compete. It cost about $75,000 to build Belle-Clair Speedway which was reportedly a replica of Macon Speedway.

So Macon is older than Belle Clair? I didn't realize that and again something on the IOW board becomes another learning experience.

Has the Mrs told work that she had a Dr's appointment in Illinois this Friday with Dr. Belle Clair??

Seems Aero said he was gonna make another visit to Belle Clair,and Morty assured me he was gonna make it there too. Phone reception must be getting better as Morty answered the phone Saturday when I called him.


I'll be there this Friday and Saturday. I cant wait for it.

Hate to miss the KISS race at Paragon on Saturday, but I'll probably go to Belle-Clair on Saturday.

Good morning--If you were at Belle-Clair last night you went home happy (and not because of anything you had to drink). The races were great; the crowd was good; the Sauna was working well; the Vintage Open Wheel Race Cars were pretty neat, and we were out by 10:30 p.m.
If you didn't make it last night, get yourselves there to get you dose of 'happy' tonight. The 75th Anniversary Midway opens at 3 p.m. with a great display of the Vintage Race Cars, Tim's Simulators (where you can sit in a race car cockpit and pick a track and run a simulated race), visit the I-70 Quarter Midget tent and find out how you and your kids can be racers, talk to "Moose" Loyd who will be doing a remote broadcast for his radio program on 97.5 in Breese, The Racers for Christ will have a tent where you can talk to Joe and Linda and Jeffrey about their ministry for the racers. Purchase a 75th Anniversary Souvenir Program. It has a lot of photos and information about how/when Midget Racing started in the area

Belleville,IL. - Brad Loyet won the 30-lap POWRi Speedway Motors/Mid-State Equipment Badger Midget Racing Series co-sanctioned feature, Friday Night at Belle-Clair Raceway. The event was the first of the two-night Budweiser FanFest celebrating the 75th anniversary of midget auto racing in the greater St.Louis area.

Polesitter Austin Brown jumped into the lead at the start, and quickly paced the first seven circuits around the fast 1/4-mile dirt oval. Brown surrendered to lead to Loyet on lap 8, and eventually faded to a ninth place finish suffering from brake problems.

Loyet continued to set the pace on the cushion, with most of the field running the lower groove. Brandon Waelti ran in second position until four laps remaining when veteran Steve Knepper passed Waelti. Loyet driving the Loyet Motorsports owned Spike/Ford-Esslinger No. 05 finished ahead of Knepper, Daniel Adler, Waelti and Andrew Felker who earlier in the evening claimed victory in the accompanying POWRi Micro Sprint feature.

POWRi National Midget

Heat Race 1
Finish Car Number Driver Name

1 7 Austin Brown
2 05 Brad Loyet
3 25K Steve Knepper
4 19B Travis Berryhill
5 21X Steve Stroud
6 87 Matt Fox
7 5 Danny Frye
8 38N Kyle Neal
9 30 Steve Lewis

Heat Race 2
Finish Car Number Driver Name
1 3 Darren Hagen
2 5D Zach Daum
3 6 Davey Ray
4 86C David Camfield Jr.
5 15 Tim Siner
6 35 Tyler Robbins
7 55 Nick Knepper
8 82 Eric Johnson
9 94 Darren Kingston

Heat Race 3
Finish Car Number Driver Name
1 41 Brandon Waelti
2 14C Shane Cockrum
3 4 Mike Hess
4 401K Daniel Adler
5 91 Dereck King
6 21 Bob Shreffler
7 19T Brian Terry
8 11A Andrew Felker

Heat Race 4
Finish Car Number Driver Name
1 25M Derrick Myers
2 35R Derek Rossio
3 98G Gavin Galbraith
4 15H Scott Hatton
5 19 John Campbell
6 25E Courtney Erfurth
7 23R Jim Ried
8 77 Daniel Robinson

Semi
Finish Car Number Driver Name
1 401K Daniel Adler
2 15 Tim Siner
3 55 Nick Knepper
4 87 Matt Fox
5 11A Andrew Felker
6 94 Darren Kingston
7 5 Danny Frye
8 82 Eric Johnson
9 25E Courtney Erfurth
10 23R Jim Ried
11 77 Daniel Robinson
12 19T Brian Terry
13 21 Bob Shreffler
14 19 John Campbell
15 21X Steve Stroud
16 35 Tyler Robbins
17 38N Kyle Neal
18 30 Steve Lewis

Feature
Finish Car Number Driver Name
1 05 Brad Loyet
2 25K Steve Knepper
3 401K Daniel Adler
4 41 Brandon Waelti
5 11A Andrew Felker
6 5D Zach Daum
7 55 Nick Knepper
8 4 Mike Hess
9 7 Austin Brown
10 91 Dereck King
11 25M Derrick Myers
12 86C David Camfield Jr.
13 94 Darren Kingston
14 87 Matt Fox
15 35R Derek Rossio
16 6 Davey Ray
17 15 Tim Siner
18 14C Shane Cockrum
19 3 Darren Hagen
20 15H Scott Hatton
21 98G Gavin Galbraith
22 19B Travis Berryhill

Another great night at Little Belleville.
Nice to see a good showing of BMARA cars and stars in the pits.
Brad Loyet looked like the Brad of years past in the first heat, hitting 3 of the 4 cars he passed moving to the front, but he had the field covered in the featch.
Had a first time visitor with us last night from California and he was impressed with not only the track but with the program itself.
Great job POWRi, and tonight should be a dandy.

Hey Morty, did ASQ make it last night? If not then that would be two in a row and I would be extremely worried!

Hated to miss last night's show at Little Belleville, but I try not to miss the Sprint Invaders shows at Jacksonville. Looking forward to tonight.

Yes Mike, the President of the Promotions Department for Belle-Clair Speedway was present last night, in his usual perch up top in turn 2.....:2:

We missed him at Gas City so I figured that he headed West.