New promoter sets Kankakee plans
Sport compact racer Evan Eckhoff of Onarga, Ill., has taken over promotions of Kankakee County Speedway for 2026 with the quarter-mile oval adding a MARS Championship Series Late Model event and planning for a new weekly Late Model division that allows a mix of engine combinations that’s intended to draw bigger car counts.
“I want to keep this (track) continuing,” said Eckhoff, who will get consulting assistantance from Billy Knippenberg, the promoter of the 77-year-old Kankakee, Ill., fairgrounds track stepping down after four seasons. “I’ve been coming here 40-plus years and I grew up here, watching all the old-timers. It would suck not to have this for Friday nights.”
Along with the originally scheduled June 10 DIRTcar Summer Nationals date, the track’s other full-blown Super Late Model event will be the Sept. 18 MARS-sanctioned Big Daddy Scrap 40, announced this evening. The track plans a 16-race schedule starting April 17 with preseason practices set for March 28, April 5 and April 12.
The track has run weekly DIRTcar-sanctioned Crate Late Models in recent seasons, averaging 16 entrants per event in 2025, but Knippenberg decided to establish new rules based on DIRTcar Super Late Models. Super Late Model cars will run with restricted engines under rules that allow for a mix of competitors using steel-block and Crate engines (with 12-inch spoilers). The division will pay $1,500-to-win and $200-to-start (see the track’s Facebook page for complete rules).
“The Crate class is dropping off,” Knippenberg said. “That’s coming from a person, I own a Crate car that my son drives and we have three engines. It’s the last thing that I really wanted to do, but for the future of the speedway, I felt like it was the right time to do this and I think it’s going to be a good thing. It’s going to put on good racing for everybody.”
He hopes Eckhoff gets support in taking the reins.
“Evan’s a hard-working guy, but he’s not coming from money, so we’ve gotta make this place to where it’s successful for him and he can keep it going for many years to come,” Knippenberg said. “I think Evan’s the right guy for this and I think he brings a lot of great ideas to the track and I think it’ll work out.”
