The Illiana Motor Speedway is a closed race track located in

Schererville, Indiana Schererville is a town in St. John Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States. The population was 29,646 at the 2020 census It is a suburb of Chicago located just 30 miles south of the city History Long before Indiana became a state ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and was built in 1947. Located about from downtown

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

; the Illiana Motor Speedway is the only 1/2 mile paved oval in the

Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hint ...

. It was announced on March 11, 2016 that the track would not open for the 2016 season. The track has been sold to the Town of Schererville.

History

When the track opened, in 1947, it was a 1/2-mile dirt track. In 1964 the track was paved. Today the track is a 1/2-mile asphalt oval with an inner 1/4 mile. During the 1962 season the track's owner Harry Molenaar created a season-ending 100-lap race called the "Tony Bettenhausen Memorial" dedicated to the memory of former open wheel Indy car and local racer

Tony Bettenhausen Melvin Eugene "Tony" Bettenhausen (September 12, 1916 – May 12, 1961) was an American racing driver, who won the National Championship in 1951 and 1958. Bettenhausen was nicknamed the "Tinley Park Express" in honor of his hometown. He was n ...

who died a year earlier in a racing accident. In 2000 the speedway was repaved for the first time in nearly 40 years and current owner Mike Mikuly bought the track and also installed cement walls to replace the old guard rails. In 2000 the Turbo Stox division was introduced with great success racing on Illiana's 1/4 mile. 2001 was also the last year for the Street Stock division at Illiana. For the 2003 season track owner Mike Mikuly decided to add a Limited Late Model division to Illiana Motor Speedway's racing card, bringing the track's number of racing divisions to four. The Limited Late Models run a crate (spec) engine. The crate engine is considered to be a lot cheaper to race than the engines used in the Super Late Model division. In 2004 track owner Mike Mikuly decided again to add another division to Illiana's weekly racing program; 4-cylinder Pure Stocks and would race on the tracks 1/4 mile. Illiana added the Legend cars to the weekly program in 2007. They race on the 1/4 mile. On June 24, 2016 the town of schererville announced it had purchased the track and would begin demolition of the speedway.

Notable drivers

Bobby Wawak Robert Laurence Wawak (September 4, 1939 – April 17, 2004) was an American NASCAR driver from Villa Park, Illinois. He made 141 Grand National/Winston Cup Series starts, with fourteen top-10 finishes.Late Model A late model car is a car which has been recently designed or manufactured, often the latest model. (An early model car or classic car is a car old enough to be of historical interest; there is no usual intermediate term.) The precise definition ...

champion, ran NASCAR for many years *

Larry Schuler Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

, 1976

Late Model A late model car is a car which has been recently designed or manufactured, often the latest model. (An early model car or classic car is a car old enough to be of historical interest; there is no usual intermediate term.) The precise definition ...

champion, winningest driver in the nation in 1976 *

Bobby Dotter Bobby Dotter (born July 11, 1960) is a former professional stock car racing driver. His father, Bob Dotter, is a three-time champion of the Automobile Racing Club of America. Dotter has made 209 starts in the NASCAR Busch Series, posting 42 top-te ...

, 1981

champion, NASCAR Busch Series race winner *

Brett Sontag Brett Sontag (born October 29, 1970) is an American professional stock car driver from Joliet, Illinois. He currently drives the #5 Chevrolet Impala at various midwest racetracks including the Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois, the Ill ...

, 2004 ASA National Tour Rookie of the Year

References

External links

Official Site
{{ASA National Tour racetracks Motorsport venues in Indiana Buildings and structures in Lake County, Indiana Tourist attractions in Lake County, Indiana Defunct motorsport venues in the United States 2016 disestablishments in Indiana 1947 establishments in Indiana