The new name for Crawford County Speedway is Revving It Up at Hwy 39 Speedway. That’s one of the first changes the county fair board recently made. The other is hiring new promoter Mike Van Genderen.
The name change came to avoid confusion with the Crawford County Speedway in Arkansas. And the fair board tapped Van Genderen for his large body of work in the sport.
“Crawford County Speedway becoming Revving it Up at Hwy 39 Speedway is a new beginning for that track,” Van Genderen said. “We’re changing it up. New name. New track preparation. A great show. It will be exciting.”
Revving It Up at Hwy 39 Speedway, operating on Friday nights, becomes the fifth oval that Van Genderen runs. He co-promotes Independence Motor Speedway on Saturdays and promotes Stuart International Speedway on Wednesdays. Van Genderen runs specials at Mountain Dew Bloomfield Speedway and Scotland County Speedway.
“My tracks are not in the same area,” Van Genderen said. “I have West, East, Central and South tracks in Iowa and one in Missouri — all at least two hours apart.”
Operating tracks closer together might make Van Genderen’s commute a bit easier. However, he promotes tracks far away from each other for a reason.
“I have different drivers at each track,” Van Genderen said. “In racing there is intense competition, and that competition breeds drama. We all love it, but if I had the same group of drivers at more than one of my tracks, you pretty much know what would happen.”
Van Genderen has built a reputation for his dirt track prep. When NASCAR facilities Bristol Motor Speedway and New Hampshire Motor Speedway need someone to prepare dirt tracks, they call on him. For Revving It Up at Hwy 39 Speedway, he’ll apply his talent there, too.
“I don’t know the track [surface] in Denison — I raced there maybe once, years ago,” Van Genderen said. “I didn’t know Independence Motor Speedway, but we built the show successfully.
“You need to have a smooth, multi-groove surface. I hate dust and I hate rubber racing — no one gets sicker about either than me. If it is dusty, you have to fix it. If it is rough, you have to fix it. If it is one lane, you have to bring in another lane. If it is dominant high, low, or middle, make another groove available for racers. All it takes is water and equipment.”
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.
