Peotone – Will County Fairgrounds (also known as the Peotone Speedway)          

Years of operation:  1934 – 1983

Location:  ¼ mile west of Illinois Route 50 on Peotone-Wilmington Road, Peotone, Ill.

Notes:  racing on a half-mile dirt track from approximately 1934 to 1940;  smaller tracks for midget racing developed around 1948 – track shown as ¼ mile dirt track from 1961 through 1979, and again in1983;  stock car racing held in 1950, 1951 and 1954; in 1954, J. “Tiny” Moss was the director of racing at the facility, which was billed as the “world’s smallest track” – about a 1/5th mile; Harold “Stogy” Steidinger and Don Waldvogel were some of the leading stock car drivers; United Auto Racing Association (UARA) midgets raced there for a number of years; three United States Auto Club (USAC) midget races held there in 1971 – Jerry McClung (6/25/71), Gary Bettenhausen (7/30/71) and Bob Wente (8/14/71) were feature winners – ’71 USAC Midget Champion Danny Caruthers set a USAC qualifying record of 17.54 seconds on 8/14/71; Chuck Stebbins and Tim Delrose planned a full-season of mini-stock racing there for 1973.

Tom Corcoran (#29) chases veteran driver Danny Kladis (#26) during UARA midget action at the Will County Fairgrounds on May 20, 1972. 
(Stan Kalwasinski Photo)

The infield pit area is shown before a United Auto Racing Association (UARA) midget racing event takes place at the Will County Fairgrounds in Peotone, Ill., on May 20, 1972. 
(Stan Kalwasinski Photo)