Curt Rhodes won three modified championships at Macon Speedway in Illinois. On Monday, at age 54, the Taylorville, Illinois, driver passed away after battling Covid-19. Friends remember the winning racer as someone who enjoyed helping others have success.
“Curt was well known and well liked,” said longtime Macon Speedway promoter Bob Sargent, “He was known for his kindness. He’d loan anyone parts or offer advice. Curt was well known for helping competitors work on their cars. He was not only a friend, but he was that guy willing to bring his car out for any media event or public appearance to help the track.”
Rodney Standerfer won a DIRTcar Summer Nationals feature at Macon Speedway, thanks in part to his friend of 30 years.
“When I blew up my engine, he told me to go to his house and get his brand-new, $30,000 Pro Power engine,” said Standerfer, of Summerfield, Illinois. “I was worried I would blow it up. He said, ‘Don’t worry about that.’”
Certainly Rhodes enjoyed when he won, too. According to Standerfer, Rhodes treasured two victories — a modified win at the 1-mile DuQuoin State Fairgrounds Racetrack and a modified win at 1/5-mile Macon Speedway when the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series was in town.
However, Standerfer said one victory lane visit, in particular, brought Curt Rhodes great joy.
“The best moment of his life was when [his son] Zach won his first feature in 2020,” Standerfer said. “He was all choked up. Curt was a guy who truly lived to race and raced to live.”
His passion for the sport and his friends often gets repeated.
“He was a die-hard racer,” said Don Jumper, of Impressive Race Cars in Hillsboro, Missouri. “He gave everything he had to the world of racing. It was his passion.”
Visitation will be held on Friday, February 4, 4-7 p.m., at the Sutton Memorial Home in Taylorville, Illinois. His wife, Katrina, has asked that all drivers in attendance wear their race suits.
Memorials may be made to the family to assist with funeral expenses in care of:
Sutton Memorial Home
327 N. Clay St.
Taylorville, IL 62568
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
