Peoria Speedway closing?

[HoosierDirtFan]

Peoria Speedway closing


Supposedly, they’re now in a drivers meeting tonight at the track. Their last race is the Summernationals show.

Any info on this????

[TheJet-09]

No info, but I thought it was interesting that Sargent has come on as a promoter for the SN show. It would really suck if they do close, it's become one of my favorite places to race.

Lets hope it's just a change at the helm or something.

[HoosierDirtFan]

No info, but I thought it was interesting that Sargent has come on as a promoter for the SN show. It would really suck if they do close, it's become one of my favorite places to race.

Lets hope it's just a change at the helm or something.

same here!!

[Highside Hustler25]

Peoria Speedway closing


Supposedly, they’re now in a drivers meeting tonight at the track. Their last race is the Summernationals show.

Any info on this????

Thats word on the street. Like Jet said, Sargent taking the hell tour race was writing on the wall.

[t4g2]

Spoon river not looking good either. Had 16 cars total for 4 classes so they canceled last night.

[Clayton_Wetters]

Spoon river not looking good either. Had 16 cars total for 4 classes so they canceled last night.

I would say try Sunday nights, its worth a try.

But then again LaSalle tried it. That didn't work out.

[HoosierDirtFan]

A lot of Peoria Speedway drivers now looking for another track to race at for the rest of the season.

[t4g2]

I would say try Sunday nights, its worth a try.

But then again LaSalle tried it. That didn't work out.

The previous promoter tried Friday nights an didn't workout. Hope the drivers from peoria go to spoon only time will tell.

[TheJet-09]

I'm bummed about this. I usually only ran there a few times a year, but they always made me feel welcomed, and I can't say that about every track I go to. It was also right in my wheel house, competition wise, and I know it was for others, too. You'd even have a crate car win every now and then.

Let's hope it's not the last we see of the place.

[chathamracefan]

I'm surprised some of the western IL based tracks don't delve into IMCA as an option. Iowa tracks seem to be predominantly IMCA & as a general rule have much better car counts.

UMP/dirtcar has seemingly left the weekly tracks behind in most of their decision making. At least as it applies to late models & mods. The costs have gotten so absurd that the # of tracks running supers weekly has dwindled to just a few even in the hotbed of Illinois. By my count, Fairbury, Farmer, Highland (bi weekly), Brownstown (bi weekly) & Pevely (bi weekly) are the only tracks running supers under the dirtcar banner. Thats a lot less than it was 10 to 20 years ago. I don't have a dog in the fight as I am just a fan but that is a big part of what has happened. As the supers dwindled or disappeared the fan count for the weekly shows really dropped off.

[reid boys]

I'm surprised some of the western IL based tracks don't delve into IMCA as an option. Iowa tracks seem to be predominantly IMCA & as a general rule have much better car counts.

UMP/dirtcar has seemingly left the weekly tracks behind in most of their decision making. At least as it applies to late models & mods. The costs have gotten so absurd that the # of tracks running supers weekly has dwindled to just a few even in the hotbed of Illinois. By my count, Fairbury, Farmer, Highland (bi weekly), Brownstown (bi weekly) & Pevely (bi weekly) are the only tracks running supers under the dirtcar banner. Thats a lot less than it was 10 to 20 years ago. I don't have a dog in the fight as I am just a fan but that is a big part of what has happened. As the supers dwindled or disappeared the fan count for the weekly shows really dropped off.

Im not sure why but the IMCA sanction doesn't stick in Illinois well. Quincy has went back and forth between the 2 if I remember correctly. East Moline has jumped back and forth a couple times and have closed a couple of time due to lack of car count as well. It would be interesting to hear some POV from the western Illinois people or Eastern Iowa people.

[chathamracefan]

I know Quincy went back to IMCA for late models this year. I think their mods are dirtcar & the b mods are the IMCA sportmod class. Kind of a hodge podge there.

I know nothing is "cheap" about any of this. Especially if you want to win. But it just seems IMCA is much more of a weekly racer sanction. UMP/dirtcar used to be that, but it seems they are much more about the top end classes these days. Even the formats typically involve qualifying for supers & mods in dirtcar. Which just helps to feed into the top dogs winning all the time. IMCA uses a lot more pill draw type of format which can spread the success around a little bit more. The top guys are always gonna win more than the others but a little bit of spread keeps more guys interested & invested in the sport.

And it's gotten difficult as the supers & even A mods have diminished in numbers. A track has to have a solid top class that will draw the casual fan out to come watch. I'll be honest I rarely attend weekly shows any more as so few places run supers. One thing that has helped some in recent years is the MARS series. It is giving that regional guy (that used to be a weekly late model) a place to run. They put on good shows but aren't a weekly show.

[TheJet-09]

East Moline is about 90 minutes SW of me, and not a bad drive at all. But Sunday nights could be a killer, especially the older I get. I ran there some in the late 90's, but it wasn't any particular sanction back then...we just had to run the EC-2 tires (which I had from racing at Freeport) and a 390 carb.

My drawback with the IMCA stuff is location. After East Moline, I'd have to drive further west...and I don't think the payouts are very good. You're also committed if you run their engine package, because you're not showing up anywhere in UMP land with a 358. I believe you can run a 604 now, but that's a whole other deal.

Regardless, these tracks need to work together if any are to survive. You can't run the same classes on the same night as another track in relatively close proximity.