Does anyone remember a track in..........

Your right Luckybuc97,,,,John Powell was Butchs father in law,,,,John passed away tho...I think if I am not mistaken he use to pull his racer with a Cadillac.....
 
who else in ILL brought therecar by cadilac with no trailer give you a clue he has relatives racing today and not from southern Ill
 
dirt hound said:
who else in ILL brought therecar by cadilac with no trailer give you a clue he has relatives racing today and not from southern Ill
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Well that must have been my dad, He was So proud to haul his car on a tow bar it wasn't fnnnnn funny. It was a 40 ford coupe with 327 in it. & I've got pics... BUT he used a galaxy 500 to tow with, so dirthound I'm stumped, Who was it?????
 
Another Track

Was there not also another track somewhere around White City, Illinois.

I vaguely remember the name from announcments during races during nights we raced at Tri-City back in the late 80's. (Oh man do I feel old now!! That was over twenty years ago).
 
#32DML said:
Was there not also another track somewhere around White City, Illinois.

I vaguely remember the name from announcments during races during nights we raced at Tri-City back in the late 80's. (Oh man do I feel old now!! That was over twenty years ago).
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Would that have been Mid-State Raceway? I think it was a 1/2 mile. I was never there but a couple of guys from up this way raced there some.
 
Right, that was Mid-State. It was right around White City and Mount Olive, not far from the interstate, I think. It must have closed sometime in the late '80s, maybe early '90s. A few of the Tri-City late models would go up there on Fridays, back before Godfrey and Belleville ran late models. It was a half-mile track.
 
My dad raced at the Massac county fairgrounds in the early fiftys, I was very young but remember sitting in those old stands. I would like any info on pictures or programs from then. We lost our local race track in ELCajon Calif a few years ago, Jimmy Johnsons home town.
 
turnpike sign pic notice the cars in the lot for the years,,,,this shows age LOL
 

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Jamie Hall said:
Right, that was Mid-State. It was right around White City and Mount Olive, not far from the interstate, I think. It must have closed sometime in the late '80s, maybe early '90s. A few of the Tri-City late models would go up there on Fridays, back before Godfrey and Belleville ran late models. It was a half-mile track.
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Mid State Speedway
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does anyone remember a track in Murphysboro il ran by tony stagno im trying to find pictures for an old guy I work with to help him re live his glory days of racing there
 
Pops15 said:
Does anyone remember a track in Marion, Illinois called Williamson County Speedway?
I was told there was a 3/8 mile track on the east side of town. Possibly at the fairgrounds that shut down in the late 1980's.

I was also told that the track was on the west side of town, south of rte 13 that had an old coupe above the entrance to the track. I was told that track was 3/8 mile and closed in the late 1980's and was just bulldozed within the past couple of years.

I've seen an aerial view of a track on the east side of town that looks like it could be a fairgrounds.

Can anyone share ANY info on either of these tracks? Did both tracks actually host stock car racing? When did they close? And more importantly why did they close?
Also, is the track on the east side of town still there? Is there any chance it could ever reopen?

Thanks in advance for ANY info!
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If you go to google maps and type in williamson county speedway it will direct you to the speedway and show you a picture
 
Pops15 said:
Thanks for the info. So it looks like there were indeed two tracks in Marion. The fairgrounds track on the east side of town and the one on Rte 13 west of town.
The vintage racer site has a picture of the fairgrounds track (Williamson County Speedway) which they say closed in 1987 but I can't find anyone that rembers it being open that recently.
That was the track I was mainly interested in because I believe its still there.

There is a mini sprint track north of Marion that is still in operation as best as I can tell.

Both the dirt track near Benton and the dragstrip were on the west side of 57. I've seen the aerial photo and I remember seeing it on a few trips to southern Illinois in the early 80's.
I wasn't aware that there was also a fairgrounds track in Benton.

Is the track in Centralia (Marion County Speedway) gone?

I've been to Mt Vernon but wasn't aware the track was built in the 80's.

Its a shame so many tracks have closed in the region. I saw where there was once a track in Metropolis,IL too.

We're eventually going to relocate to the Marion (Goreville) area and was wondering about the racing history in the area, and the posibility of racing returning to the area.
Mt Vernon is about an hour to the north and Paducah an hour to the south.

I'm hoping to get down to Belle Clair Speedway this summer. I hear its a twin to my favorite little bullring (Macon).

Thanks for the info and please keep posting if you have more information or memories of the tracks and drivers from southern Illinois.
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According to Allan Brown's History of America's Speedways there were 3 race tracks in the Benton, Il area at different times. The Benton Fairgrounds 1/2 mile was built in 1926, raced off and on and closed in 1949; Benton Speedway 1/4 mile was built in 1971 and closed in 1973; and Lake Benton Speedway 1/4 mile ran in the early 1950s.
 
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