Auto Racing Caps Run of 150th Illinois State Fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Major League Auto Racing Caps Run of 

150th Illinois State Fair!!!!!!

Championship Dirt Cars and Stock Cars Prepare for 

100-mile Events on Last Weekend of Fair!

Macon, Illinois July 31, 2002

The traditional last weekend of auto racing concludes what is surely to be a successful ten day run of the 150th version of the Illinois State Fair in Springfield, Illinois. Competitive auto racing celebrates it’s 90th anniversary as well, with what is believe to be the first recorded competitive motorsport event held during the Illinois State Fair in 1912.

On Saturday, August 17th the long-wheelbased big tailed machines of the United States Auto Club’s Weld Racing Silver Crown Series invade the state capitol, for the 42nd running of the Corona-Tony Bettenhausen Memorial 100. This event marks the 68th anniversary of the first national championship event contested on the Springfield Mile, won by the late Billy Winn in 1934, and the 69th such contest on the "World’s Fastest Mile Dirt Track". 

The Bettenhausen Memorial is held each year in honor of the late Tinley Park, Illinois racing great who became Springfield’s first three-time championship race winner. The Prairie State native became very popular among race fans nationally with his aggressive driving style and accessibility to the fans. Sadly, Bettenhausen lost his life in a practice accident at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May of 1961 at age 44. Not long after the accident, the Illinois State Fair named the championship event in honor of the late Tony Bettenhausen. He left three sons that carried on his racing legacy, Tony Junior who, after starting several Indianapolis 500’s perished in a recent plane crash, Merle, who lost an arm in a crash at Michigan early in his racing career, and Gary, a two-time Silver Crown champion who garnered emotional wins in his father’s event in 1978 and 1983.

A large field of the championship dirt cars is expected to grace the infield of the gumbo clay oval on the 17th, unfortunately, the field of drivers for the cars termed the "anachronistic darlings of American motorsport" won’t include four-time Bettenhausen winner Jack Hewitt. The popular Ohio ace, the oldest winner in state fair history at age 49 on 2000, severely injured his neck in a USAC Sprint Car race at North Vernon, Indiana several days ago and is likely out of action for the rest of the year.

Over 45 cars pulled into the pit gate for last year’s Bettenhausen Memorial, conducted under threatening skies. The event featured the return of Springfield’s first four-time Bettenhausen winner A.J. Foyt, who was supervising the effort of namesake and grandson A.J. Foyt IV, slated to make his championship debut in the same race and on the same track as his grandfather forty-four years prior. Unfortunately, Foyt IV crashed on his second qualifying lap after setting ninth quick time, and was out for the day. Also crashing during qualifying was local favorite Donnie Beechler, a veteran of the Indianapolis 500 and driver for Team Foyt in the Indy Racing League.

Temple Texas’ Paul White took the lead from the start and never looked back, taking just under one our to complete the 100-mile grind and pocketing over $9,000 for his effort. In doing so, he became the first Texan in thirty years to take home a Bettenhausen trophy, the last being Mr. Foyt in 1971!

Before the cheers fully die down for the winner of the Bettenhausen on Saturday, race fans will get over 120 miles of stock car action on Sunday, August 18th as the ReMax Series of the Automobile Racing Club of America comes to town for the 40th annual Allen Crowe Memorial 100, along with the Wynn’s Sportsman Nationals event.

ARCA, in it’s 20th year of sanctioning the Allen Crowe Memorial 100 is expected to bring a field of about forty full bodied stock cars to only one of two venues on the planet that still contests the NASCAR style machines on the dirt. 

The Allen Crowe Memorial is conducted annually in honor of Springfield’s own Allen Crowe, a driver of midgets, sprint and championship cars whose career was just beginning to take shape when he lost his life in a USAC Sprint Car crash at New Bremen, Ohio in June of 1963. The first Allen Crowe Memorial 100 was run after the 1963 Illinois State Fair, the first event to be a part of the fair was run in 1965.

Crowe was a regular competitor on the local short track scene, competing in midgets and supermodifieds at the now defunct Springfield Speedway with such greats as Rex Easton and Don Branson. Crowe moved into USAC competition as a way to further his dream of competing in the Indianapolis 500, a dream that was realized in 1962 when Allen started 22nd and finished 31st in the 500-mile race. The next year, he started 13th and finished 27th in what would be his last 500. 

The first stock car race at Springfield was held in 1950 under American Automobile Association sanction and won by Jay Frank in a Oldsmobile. The hardtops would not return until 1961, when the local Seratoma Club and the State Fair promoter got together and scheduled a USAC Stock Car race after the fair, won by Len Sutton. Rodger Ward won in 1962, and NASCAR star Curtis Turner won the first Crowe Memorial in 1963.

Many of the top drivers in the ARCA series are expected to be in Springfield on the 18th, including defending ARCA champion and two-time defending Crowe winner Frank Kimmel of Jeffersonville, Indiana. NASCAR flavor comes in the person of Jason Jarrett, son of 1999 NASCAR champ Dale Jarrett and grandson of two time NASCAR champ Ned Jarrett, and his teammate the ageless Red Farmer, a member of the famous "Alabama Gang" whose NASCAR career dates back nearly fifty years!

The 40th Crowe Memorial is also responsible for drawing a large contingent of Illinois drivers and teams as well, headed by Mokena’s Bob Strait, who will once again drive for the Normal based Bill Hendren team that fielded cars for popular El Paso driver Ken Rowley, who retired a few seasons ago. 

Kimmel dominated the 39th Crowe Memorial leading 92 of the 100 circuits on his way to victory. That win was marred by an early race tragedy, on lap ten a fatal heart attack claimed the life of 62 year old Dean Roper as he was running in the top ten. Roper, of Fair Grove, Missouri was a seven-time winner in stock cars at Springfield, and one of two four-time winners of the Crowe Memorial. 

The Wynn’s Sportsman National 20-mile main event joins the ARCA brigade on the 17th, a chance for local short track drivers to take on the high speed oval. Jeff Leka is the defending champion.

The Illinois State Fair’s motor racing heritage extends even beyond that first event in 1912, the great Barney Oldfield conducted match races at Springfield in the early 1900’s, and a 1910 match race paid the winner $500 in gold!

During the period after World War I fampous driver such as Sig Haugdahl, Fred Horey, and Texas Clark all competed in "big car’ races on the mile. Then, in the "Roaring Twenties", drivers such as Frankie Schneider, Leon Duray thrilled crowds that routinely approached 40,000.

The mile was reconfigured in 1927 to it’s present location, and the present day grandstand constructed. Wilson Pingrey competed during the 1929 event which saw a fatal accident involving spectators, and signaled the temporary end of auto racing at the fairgrounds.

Promoter Ralph Hankinson stepped into the picture in 1933 and convinced the fair board that auto racing was a cheap, yet profitable form of entertainment in the Depression Era. With the AAA looking for new venues for championship cars, he had little trouble securing a 100-mile national championship date for Springfield in August of 1934, and Billy Winn became a popular winner. Over the years, famous names such as Wilbur Shaw, Ted Horn, Jimmy Bryan, Jim Hurtubise, Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Tom Bigelow and Pancho Carter have all packed fans into the stands to watch the speed classic.

Stock cars were added to the lineup in 1950, and became a part of the fair in 1965. For decades stock car greats such as Roger McCluskey, Butch Hartman, Ramo Stott, Don White, Alan Kulwicki, Rusty and Mike Wallace, Joe Ruttman and Bob Keselowski battled door handle to door handle before sell out crowds.

Sprint cars, midgets, modifieds, late models and even motorcycles have all been a part of the yearly racing lineup at the "World’s Fastest One Mile Dirt Track", which currently holds world records for the Silver Crown Cars, for the ARCA cars, for the Sportsman Cars, Late Models, Modifieds, Sprint Cars and Midgets.

Thousands of race fans flock each year to view the attractions of the Illinois State Fair, sample the food, and watch some of the best auto racing in the country, and this year will be no exception. Advance tickets for the 42nd Bettenhausen 100 and the 40th Crowe 100 are selling at a fast clip, and can be obtained at the Illinois State Fair Box Office, Ticketmaster locations, or by calling Track Enterprises at 217-764-3200. Please visit us on the web at www.trackenterprises.com.