La Salle Speedway
Racers glad to see 'old friend' La Salle's rebirth
By Kyle McFadden
DirtonDirt staff reporter
The throng that welcomed La Salle Speedway back. (joshjamesartwork.com)
La SALLE, Ill. (May 6) — If you browsed the pit area Tuesday at La Salle Speedway, you likely found drivers and industry personnel alike with sentimental attachment to the resurrected quarter-mile oval. | RaceWire
The night’s $20,000 winner on FloRacing Night in America, Bobby Pierce, once raced KidModz at the facility that shuttered for four years in 2021. Illinois stalwart Jason Feger started his racing career in the sportsman division — stock cars with crate engines — at La Salle.
One of the sport’s ambassadors of the Southeast, FloRacing Night in America series tech director Ray Cook, is reminded of his years on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series when he visited La Salle for the first time Tuesday since 2010. DirtonDirt contributing photographer Mike Ruefer even started his media career at the Illinois oval he once called his home track.
“It’s like an old friend you haven’t seen time in a long time,” Ruefer said. “It’s changed a lot since you last saw it, but it’s still the same, old friend.”
Pierce, who on Tuesday won his 12th feature of the season, said La Salle has "always been a really good Illinois track. When it’s right, it’s a lot of fun and puts on great racing. It’s good to see it back. I just hope they sustain it.”
Along with his family and business partner Justin McCoy, who pushed the speedway’s revival forward with a financial boost, La Salle promoter Tony Izzo Jr. was overjoyed with Tuesday’s reopening marked by a packed crowd, an overflowing parking lot, a star-studded 49-car field, dazzling heat races and three lead changes in the 50-lap feature.
“Everything we were up against, knowing the unknown, being away for so long, it could’ve went bad for us. But everything went great. It was unbelievable. I can finally take a deep breath,” said Izzo, who actually exhaled in relief upon those words as he reflected on an incredible six-month journey to reopen his family’s racetrack.
“There was added pressure. We knew we were going to have a great field of cars,” Izzo added. “We knew a lot of people were going to be watching.
“And we know we made some mistakes. We know there’s things we need to address. But first race back, I made sure the production of the race was good, and I think we accomplished that. It got dirty and dusty at the end, but I don’t know if I’ve seen better heat races than those six heats. All in all, we’re super happy.”
Just last November, La Salle was an overgrown, barren property. But it was then that Izzo pulled up to the property and found McCoy, the new speedway partner who operates G&M Recycling and Disposal in Streator, Ill., suddenly getting to work to restore the facility.
Izzo decided, “OK, I think we’re doing this,” and the rest was put on display Tuesday.
“For (FloRacing vice president) Michael Rigsby and (FloRacing tour general manager) Ben Shelton to trust us, it means the world to us,” Izzo said. “They called us and said, ‘You think you’ll be ready? You think you’ll be good?’ Well, it was all the reason in the world to do it. It was the driving force.”
Bobby Pierce’s father, Hall of Fame race Bob Pierce, couldn’t believe how clean the facility looked.
For a racetrack that sat dormant for four years, “it didn’t look like a racetrack that’s sat that long,” he said. “As soon as I pulled in, I could tell they put a lot of work in because it’s really cleaned up. If it sits this long, you know it’s going to fall apart and weather. They really, really worked their butt off. (McCoy) put his life into it. He loves racing. I talked to him today. And of course I’m happy because we won.”
The Pierces, of course, are ecstatic to win the return of La Salle. Bobby remembers the track’s Thaw Brawl event fondly, which often served as the first Illinois Late Model race the last weekend of March from 2012-21. The younger Pierce won the event in 2015 and came second in ’14, ’16 and ’19. Two of his 49 career DIRTcar Summer Nationals victories came at La Salle in 2013 and 2016, too.
“Come feature time, that was some vintage Summer Nationals racing,” said Pierce, who led the final 25 of 50 laps Tuesday. “A track that had a good top and bottom to it. The top was tricky. Every lap, it was easy to hit that cushion wrong and junk it.”
Even though it was a challenging night for Feger, who missed transferring to the A-main by one spot, he pointed out that “the racing was really good tonight.”
“I have a lot of great memories here. This is where I started racing pretty much,” Feger said. “When I started my sportsman cars, I came here on Saturday nights pretty much. Tony was always good to me. This track was a lot of fun.”
Racingwise, new-version La Salle Speedway is a little different characteristically. The backstretch has been slightly widened for more racing room, especially exiting turn two and entering turn three. Turn two is now the track’s pit opening as opposed to turn four, which 100-time Summer Nationals winner Billy Moyer likes.
“It’s definitely a lot safer the way they have it now. Put the wall up over there off in turn four and it looks like they took a little banking out of it,” Moyer said. “You can run the bottom and the top about the same speed. It looks like it ought to be good to me.”
Aspects of the track’s black dirt was a topic among drivers, too. Tyler Erb had a hard time comparing La Salle’s racing surface to any other Illinois track because “it got real crumby and dirty” in the 50-lap feature.
“I don’t know, the cushion is hard to run,” Erb said. “After the heats, it was hard. Even in the heats it was hard to run. Live and learn.”
A heat race victory would’ve given Erb a front-row starting spot in the feature, but he lost the prelim lead to Drake Troutman and was nipped for second Garrett Alberson and started 14th in the main event.
“If you make a mistake, there’s not a lot of room for error. I’m not upset about it,” Erb said. “I know where I ruined my night, and it was lap six of the heat race when I tried sliding Drake for the lead but lost two spots.”
Izzo was actually able to reuse and rework the original dirt on La Salle’s racetrack, the same dirt that’s sat there since 2021, for its reopening.
“I was able to till it and work it. The spring weather cooperated enough so I was able to work it,” said Izzo, who added he tacked on five truckloads from the facility’s 60-acre property to smooth out parts of the racetrack.
For Cook, the longtime promoter and former touring racer is impressed at how spacious La Salle has become in terms of parking for teams and patrons. Eighty-two race cars were in La Salle’s pits Tuesday between Late Models and modifieds with plenty of room left for more.
“It’s really nice. Everything is grass. The parking area is as good as you can get,” Cook said. “You can fit a lot of cars in here, and that’s the thing. We used to come here and spots were a premium. You had to get right up there in turn three and four, that was the best spot. Now there ain’t a bad spot in the pit area.
“Somebody’s done a lot of work here. It’s really refreshing to come see a track that’s done this. It’s really nice.”
The track’s new wooden pit bleachers along the backstretch were a hit among racegoers, too. Izzo and his team moved those grandstands that were traditionally in turn four to the backstretch, along with replacing every seating and footing board for the newly-located bleachers.
“We were very pleased with how that turned out,” said Izzo, who made sure to emphasis he had “volunteers like you wouldn’t believe” work “13- to 14-hour days” to start the year to ensure Tuesday’s event would go smoothly.
“The sun would come up if I told you every person who donated their time, their equipment, their everything to make this happen,” Izzo said. “I get to reap the benefits and do these interviews and all, but without our people, this isn’t possible.”
Ruefer, who’s been a DirtonDirt contributor since its 2007 founding, likely wouldn’t have gotten into racing media without memorable trips to La Salle. He remembers the night he started his side-gig of writing that ultimately led to photography.
“It was the summer of 1996 … and there was a columnist for a racing paper (at the track) we all got at the time. I said to my friend, ‘Yeah, I can write as good as that guy.’ (My friend) said, ‘Well, do it Ruefer.’ It was kind of a challenge. Then after that, I had to learn how to be a writer. Back in the day, it was hard to break into a racing paper and column.
“So, it all started with a dare,” said Ruefer, who wrote for various local racing publications before meeting the Izzos in 1998 where “they read my stories about La Salle and gave me a track pass.”
“It’s just a special place. So many of the people I grew up with were there tonight,” Ruefer said. “I took my kids when they were little to La Salle Speedway. Now our kids are taking their kids to La Salle Speedway. It holds a special place in my heart, La Salle does.”
The speedway has a handful of special events left on its schedule this year: May 30-31’s MARS tour event paying $25,000-to-win, a DIRTcar Summer Nationals event July 3, a 410 sprint car race on Aug. 23 and the World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series on Oct. 18.
Does Izzo ever see the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series (13 series races at La Salle from 2005-17) and World of Outlaws Real American Beer Late Model Series (one tour race in 2007) return? He “would think that after they seen the way it races,” he said, “but if they don’t come, I’m good with the racing we have.”
“I used to own the MARS series and I’m glad to have them come back to highlight our big May 30-31 race at $25,000-to-win, the biggest race in the history of La Salle. I think (the national tours will) come. That’s our goal, is to have every premier series.”
“Like my partner Justin said, ‘We’re back, baby.’ ”
