Another one I found... My Dad worked with a guy named Larry Paye, who had an injected SBC front engine dragster, and we went there with him. I was only about 8 or 9 yrs. old and got to ride in the GMC Carry-All push truck as we pushed out from the far end. That made a big impression on this nine year old kid! I ran my drag bike there one time in the early 80's just before it closed...
One of Last times I went there was probably in the late seventies or early eighties. Guy got killed that day. Must have broken an axle. Car in the right did a hard left across the track and hit the wall at 90 degrees. Something I don’t wish anyone to witness. Place was getting pretty rough towards the end. Seems like the high dollar betting going on in front of the stands was getting out of hand and detracting from the race action. Both Byron and the Grove seemed more professional. I’ll never forget those WLS commercials beamed over 400 miles North on a warm summer night growing up in 1965-68, though.
At the end the shootings and gambling was getting out of hand. Haven’t walked the track in about 10 years. I’m due for a trip back.
I raced there a few times in’65, after my USMC stint went to Oswego for awhile with a friend who was racing his Charger. Flash forward 35+ years and I’m working on the homes that had taken over the land that the track had stood on, now known as Yorkville Illinois.
The Jalopy Journal
