I’ve always had an interest in history, so when I became a racing fan 45 years ago, I was determined to learn all I could about the sport.
Of course, I’m a huge fan of all of the history revolving around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but I’m also fascinated by racetracks — and racecourses — that are no longer around.
I recently got to checkout a lost speedway called Meadowdale Raceway, which is located in Carpentersville, Illinois, about 20 minutes from where I live. In racing history terms, 3.3-mile, 12-turn course wasn’t around for very long (1958-69), but in its short history hosted some of the best racers from the era.
From the Meadowdale International Raceway Preservation Association website:
Meadowdale International Raceways was home to many events including United States Auto Club (USAC) Races, Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Divisional and National Races, Midwestern Council Car Club Races, American Motorcycle Association (AMA) Races, Kart, and Snowmobile Races as well. In the mid 60s Meadowdale was home to the National Police Driving School.
Meadowdale Raceways saw the early years of many a car, driver and/or race team. Notable figures from the racing community who raced here include Carl Haas, Roger Penske, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Lance Reventlow, Augie Pabst, Harry Heuer and the famous and historic Scarabs of the Meister Brauser Racing Team; Fred Lorenzen – first NASCAR driver to win $100,000 in a year; Mark Donahue, Sam Posey, Peter Revson, Jim Jeffords and the Nickey Chevrolet Racing Team, Roger Ward, Lloyd Ruby, Curtis Turner, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Ricardo Rodriguez, Tony DeLorenzo, Tony Adamawicz, Paul Goldsmith, Gary Nixon, and George Follmer as well as many others.
That’s some pretty big-time star power.
The last big race held there was on July 7, 1968, when Mark Donahue won a 75-lap SCCA Trans Am race, with Peter Revson and Sam Posey filling out the podium.
Here’s a little more info about some of the big races that took place at Meadowdale. There are also a number of old videos on YouTube.
Today the land is owned and maintained by the Kane County Forest Preserve and is called Raceway Woods. There is a 3.2-mile running trail, and several biking trails, but what’s cool is that a good bit of the racing surface remains and makes up a portion of the running path. As you’ll be able to see in one of the photos on the bottom, it looks like you can still see some of the white paint line.
I ended up running two “laps” of the circuit, and it was definitely a trip into the past.
The longest stretch of track that is still intact is what was the main straight. At one end of the straight was a corner called the “Monza Wall”, which was built to mimic the high banks at Autodromo Monza in Italy.
Unfortunately, the wall has been torn down, which I was a bit disappointed about because I’ve been to Monza and have seen the high banks there and would like to have been able to see how they compare.
Overall the track looked pretty technical, it looks like there were a lot of fast corners, but the biggest feature to the track was all of the elevation changes. From the high point of the track where the main straightaway was situated, to the lowest was a change of almost 140 feet.
In total, the elevation changes added up to about 240 feet. For reference, Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, has a total elevation change of 188 feet, and from the top of the famous Corkscrew to the bottom has a change of 59 feet.
Elevation changes like that in Illinois? Yep, as you get away from Lake Michigan and up towards Wisconsin, there are a lot more hills. I’m not a geologist, but in science class growing up we were told it had something to do with the glaciers and such.
Overall, it was a really cool look at some racing history. While the track is no longer there, I’m glad it is part of a park district system so people can enjoy the beauty of the area. And as a runner, it’s a challenging loop which has earned a place in my running rotation.
Check out some of the photos below!
Your INDYCAR Experience 