Aurora Downs/Exposition Park

by Stan Kalwasinski

Aurora Downs was a horse racing track located in North Aurora, Ill. with the half-mile track also hosting open-wheel “big car” racing and stock car racing in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s.  Located between Route 31 and Randall Road, north of Airport Road and what is now Interstate 88, the track was located on the property that was once the site of Exposition Park.  During its final years of operation in the 1970’s, it was known as Fox Fields.

Aurora Downs was the scene of a number of International Motor Contest (IMCA)-sanctioned “big car” events in the 1940’s and 50’s with the likes of Deb Snyder, Frank Luptow, Bobby Grim and Don Branson among race winners.  Snyder, from Kent, Ohio, won a 15-lap IMCA main event on May 30, 1948, defeating Grim and Al Fleming before some 14,000 fans.  Little, if any, guardrail protection was evident during those early events.  Luptow won back-to-back annual IMCA events at Aurora, winning in 1949 and, again, in 1950.  Luptow set a track record during qualifying in 1949, touring the half-mile in 25.60 seconds.  A short season of weekly stock car racing was featured there in 1962.  Tom Cox and his ’57 Chevy were among the winners in stock car action, winning on May 6 after setting a new track record of 28.86 seconds.  Red Aase, Rich Sutkus, Arnie Gardner, Ken Finley and Ted Hane were among Cox’s competitors.  Hane won twin features at the track in late May.

Exposition Park was a massive family entertainment complex built in the 1920s. The park thrived until the Great Depression hit. Aurora entertainment mogul Frank Thielen bought more than 100 acres of farmland for his park.  The park, which opened in February 1922 to great fanfare, had been planned for operation from Easter until late fall.  For nine days each August, it hosted the nine-state Central States Fair, which drew up to 75,000 people in nine short days.  It was reported that Exposition Park housed 24 buildings.

Speed king of the time, Sig Haugdahl set a track record at the park on August 23, 1924, touring the speedway in one minute and two seconds in his Wisconsin Special.  Haugdahl also won a 2.5-mile match race over former dirt track champion, Fred Horey.  The event was part of the last day of the annual Central States Fair.  1925 saw Leslie “Bugs” Allen of Chicago score a victory at Aurora. 

On July 5, 1926, Horey won a 50-mile race at Aurora, defeating Henry “Dutch” Kohlert and Puddy Hoffman in the three heat contest.  A reported 10,000 spectators were on hand.  The day before,  Horey, Allen and Al Cotey won heat races with Cotey winning the finale by two feet over Horey.  In 1928, the Chicago Tribune newspaper reported that local racer Kohlert of St. Charles, fresh from a 13^th place finish in the Indianapolis 500, was among the entries for the fourth annual auto racing program at Exposition Park on July 4, which was to be held under the auspices of the American Legion.  A year away from his Indianapolis 500 win, Billy Arnold drove his Miller Special to victory in the 10-mile Atlantic Hotel Trophy race, defeating Louis Schneider on the one-mile track on June 16, 1929.

In 1930 and 1931, Indiana’s Emil Johnson won 30-mile stock car events at Exposition Park on the mile track.  Johnson, an early Midwest stock car winner, drove his yellow DeSoto roadster to victory over Lionel Whitaker and Robert Miller in 1930.  The following year, Johnson wheeled his No. 3 brown and tan Chrysler roadster to the checkered flag over Bob Cleveland of Hammond, Ind. During the summer of 1939, a series of midget auto racing programs, sponsored by a local Moose lodge, were presented.  Early day midget stars Chuck Neisel and Bob Muhlke were among the winners.  The racing was held on smaller track (1/5 mile).  The track was noted for having bed springs around the track to keep errant race cars out of the grandstands during those Sunday afternoon events.  Prior to this, midget racing was held here in July of 1935 with Neisel and Ernie Carlson scoring wins.

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