It was the lifelong dream of Chris Kearns to own and promote his favorite track — Macon Speedway in Illinois. Unfortunately, those dreams were dashed after just one year at the helm when his wife, Jolene, became ill.
“Unfortunately, crap in life happens,” Kearns said. “I don’t want to and cannot do this without my wife working there.”
Kearns felt relieved by the acceptance of his predicament by the racing community.
“So far, it’s been nothing but positive comments,” said Kearns. “Everyone has been so supportive and understanding — they understand family comes first.”
Since word got out about the sale of the track, no potential buyers have emerged.
“I don’t know how long it will take to sell,” Kearns said. “I bought a racetrack, but I never sold one. Macon Speedway is one of the most unique racetracks in the country. It has versatility that many tracks do not have. I have $950,000 invested in the track and the selling price is $750,000.”
Despite the situation, Kearns added that he will continue to promote the track until a buyer comes forward.
“It will be a bit more challenging,” said Kearns. “You need to have a money person you can trust, and for me, Jolene is that person. Look at racetracks across the country — the successful ones are husbands and wives, or brothers and sisters, or fathers and mothers and their children.”
Kearns will continue to promote the Wild West Shootout at Vado Speedway Park in New Mexico on January 6-14. He will also still work with USAC.
If he does sell Macon Speedway, Chris Kearns wants to pursue another dream.
“I’m going to finish the donut truck I’ve been building,” Kearns said. “It’s a badass custom donut truck — a ’59 International Harvester Metro Van that I put on a dually chassis, with a new engine and transmission.”
He hopes to head to racetracks with it.
“All tracks need a signature desert,” Kearns said. “I had a specially designed hopper made that spits out hexagon-shaped mini donuts that we will call lug nuts.”
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.
