With Rockford Speedway closing last year, you now can own a piece of the legendary Illinois track. Items up for bid range from grandstands to concessions to playground equipment to signage.
“It is very bittersweet for our family,” said Dave Deery, one of the members of the family that managed the track in recent years. “Our parents, Hugh and Jodie, took over Rockford Speedway in 1967. I am going to miss this track. I’ve been working here my whole life.”
Deery said that the neighborhood changing prompted the closure.
“There is a Menards and a hospital right across the street,” Deery said. “When we first started working here the track was out in a big cornfield. Six years ago, they improved the road in front of the track to four lanes and that’s when the development of the area was sparked.”
The online auction features four rings of different item categories, with more than 1,200 lots offered in total. The preview for the auction starts today, May 22. Bidding opens on Monday, May 27, ad runs through Monday, June 3.
- Ring 1: https://steffesgroup.com/Auction/AuctionDetails?Name=rockford-speedway-equipment-auction-ring-1-35279
- Ring 2: https://steffesgroup.com/Auction/AuctionDetails?Name=rockford-speedway-equipment-auction-ring-2-35280
- Ring 3: https://steffesgroup.com/Auction/AuctionDetails?Name=rockford-speedway-equipment-auction-ring-3-35281
- Ring 4: https://steffesgroup.com/Auction/AuctionDetails?Name=rockford-speedway-equipment-auction-ring-4-35282
“The memorabilia ring will have 500 lots,” said Deery. “Signage, historic photos, old posters, autographs, and even a hood from Joe Shear’s car will be auctioned.”
While the chapter on Rockford Speedway has closed for Deery, he will continue promoting. Those engagements Rockford specials that live on at Grundy County Speedway in Morris, Illinois, the National Short Track Championships at Dells Raceway Park in Wisconsin, and the Big 8 Late Models series.
“Who will I miss the most? The people,” Deery said. “The staff, the fans, the racers are a huge family that will now be moving to different households, those would be different tracks. Rockford had a great base of local racers and fans. Not all of them will travel.”
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.
