EVANSTON MOTOR SPEEDWAY

Track Name:  Evanston Motor Speedway (also known as Evanston Speedway, Tessville Motor Speedway, Chicago Motor Speedway, Chicago Midget Speedway and Lincolnwood Motor Speedway)

Years of operation: 1932 through 1936

Location:  track located in what is now known as Lincolnwood, Ill. (prior to 1936, area known as Tessville); track property was bordered to the north by Touhy Ave., to the south by Pratt Ave., to the northwest by railroad tracks and to the east by McCormick Blvd. and the North Shore Channel.  Early newspaper stories, ads, etc. said location was at Lincoln & Devon and McCormick Blvd.  Use of various computer aerials show track located north of Pratt Ave. with entrance to the speedway roughly at Pratt and St. Louis Ave.  Track ran east and west and was bordered by today’s Central Park Ave on the west and Christiana Ave. on the east with main straightway north of current Northeast Parkway.

Notes:  first mention of track was in the summer of 1932; Bill Kiser of Chicago’s southside (6321 S. Drexel Ave.) was the feature winner in modified stock car competition there on 8/7/32 & 8/14/32 – he was later seriously injured there and later died from injuries suffered on 8/21/32 which saw Indiana’s Virgil Livengood the winner of the 30-lap/15-mile feature race; 1932 program (track referred to as Tessville Motor Speedway)shows Len Barnard) as President and Charles Barnard as Vice President, Miles E. Barry – Announcer, John Ugaste – Starter and Norman Ross – Publicity Director; stock cars and race cars competed there in 1932, 1933 and 1934; Jimmy Snyder, Emil Andres and Cletus “Cowboy” O’Rourke got their starts there; Andres won 50-lap Central States Stock Car Championship on 11/6/32; half-mile track “cut down” to quarter-mile (or fifth-mile) for midget racing in 1935 and 1936 – Ernie Carlson first feature winner there on 6/5/35; midget racing there in 1935 and 1936 with track known as Chicago Midget Speedway; “big cars” returned there (now known as Lincolnwood Motor Speedway) on 7/19/36; last race perhaps on 8/9/36 with Mike Salay the feature winner; Chicago Tribune reported that track property suffered “storm damage” with races scheduled for 8/16/36 being canceled; track dismantled and plowed up in the spring of 1937.

Linda Street-Ely of Liberty, Texas provided these photos from the Evanston Speedway from her father's collection. Her father James E. Ford founded the Midwest Car Company in Evanston and was active in various types of racing. The pictures were taken by Ford's friend, Bill Binz. One of the photos shows a top driver from the era -- Ted Tetterton in car no. 3 entering the track's east turn in 1933.

Lincolnwood Motor Speedway program cover, circa 1936

(From the Ken Forster Jr. Collection)