By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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LOVES PARK — When Rick Porter dug his hands in for a chunk of asphalt outside the Rockford Speedway on Tuesday, he was also collecting a piece of his childhood.
Porter’s father, John, and the family business Porter Brothers had been responsible for laying the asphalt on the track decades ago.
“We have home movies of me sitting on the wall while they blacktopped it, and I was probably 3,” Porter said. “It’s so steep you had to dump the hot mix on the ground to be able to do the corners. My dad made a homemade wheel for the roller.”
Demolition of the 76-year-old oval short track, 9572 Forest Hills Road, began Monday as developers work to get the site shovel ready for its next use. So far, it hasn’t been decided what will fill the space where the Speedway stood since 1948. Two businesses — Belle Tire and Club Car Wash — are planned for the frontage property so far.
After seeing interest from longtime fans of the Speedway, a pile of the asphalt track was placed outside of pit gates for fans to collect and keep as mementos.
“Thank you so much for wanting to keep a little piece of Rockford Speedway history with you,” the Speedway wrote on social media.
Porter plans to surprise his 89-year-old father with a piece of the track. “He probably won’t get as teary as me,” Porter said. He said collecting the asphalt was like grabbing a piece of heritage.
“As far as I know it’s been the same hot mix for 60 years,” he said.
The Speedway sat in a largely rural area when it debuted nearly eight decades ago. Today it’s adjacent to a residential neighborhood, an urgent care facility and one of the busiest commercial corridors in the county.
Pressure for the family to develop the property increased as available lots were filled with businesses. Faced with the increased pressure from developers and the high cost of improvements needed to keep the Speedway up to date, the family decided to run its 76th and final season in 2023.
“It’s been around as long as I can remember. It used to be all cornfield out here; it was out in the country,” said Dan Roos of Rockford, who was at the site Tuesday to see the demolition. “They started building all around here and the people complained of the noise, but the Speedway was here way before they were.”
The Speedway also has a childhood connection for Roos, who now lives about four miles from the track and had become fond of hearing the sounds of roaring engines in the distance on Saturday nights.
“My dad painted lines in parking lots,” Roos said. “Occasionally he would come out and paint the lines around the track and I got to hang out as a kid and I got to pick up car parts and things like that, which I remember really well.”
Jack Deery, part of the family that owned and ran the Speedway for decades, said work began over the weekend to cut out the start/finish line of the track. That portion also contained bricks from the Indianapolis Speedway and from Smyrna Speedway in Florida.
A pin was also dropped at the start/finish line so it can eventually be the site of a historical marker.
Everything from the Speedway was put up for auction this summer, from the grandstand bleachers to popcorn machines and loads of memorabilia.
Much of the stadium was dismantled in the past two months, but those pieces are living on at other motorsports venues across the country.
For example, the main steel and aluminum grandstand was purchased by Owosso Speedway in Ovid, Michigan, for an addition to its grandstand seating. The lighting was purchased by Madison International Speedway in Oregon, Wisconsin, and the track stop lights were purchased by Swainsboro Raceway in Georgia.
An old scoreboard was purchased by Slinger Speedway in Slinger, Wisconsin, and the back stretch of the southside bleachers are at the Kenosha County Fairgrounds in Wilmot, Wisconsin.
Smaller components found new homes, too. Chris Hess of Belvidere purchased a popcorn holder at auction.
“It was my dad’s favorite snack. He always had to have his box of popcorn and his bottle of Pepsi,” she said.
The popcorn holder, along with a piece of asphalt she grabbed Tuesday and other mementos, will become a display that Hess is creating to pay tribute to her father, a former Speedway racer who died in 2017.
“I grew up out here. My dad actually raced Roadrunners in the ’60s before I was born, and after that it just became a tradition. I brought my two sons who are now both grown,” she said. “It was a summer event … It’s very sad to see it end.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on X at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas and Threads @thekevinhaas