Kankakee County Speedway shuts down for 2017

Kankakee County Speedway: “Social media IS killing the sport”

Tomorrow night, Kankakee County Speedway was scheduled to host it’s final race of the season. However, as of this week, that has been canceled.

UPDATE: Kankakee County Speedway re-opens

The speedway staff issued a statement on Monday morning announcing they will close the track early this year. Despite the 2017 season being a success, the doors will close up early.

In the statement below, the speedway staff blamed the early closure on social media. They are tired of ‘constant complaining’.

“A group of people have put us in a position to make a decision that we did not want to make,” the statement continues.

Kankakee Speedway grandstands
Kankakee County Speedway grandstands

The track is not closing. In fact, the Kankakee County Fair issued a statement, likely in response to the track officials’ statement. The fair board announced that they have purchased an ad in Dirt on Dirt magazine, seeking a new promoter for 2018.

The Fair board placed purchased that ad on Monday. The same day the current speedway promoters announced they were calling it quits.

Read both statements below.

Kankakee County Speedway statement
September 18, 2017 (4:30pm)

To all the sponsors, fans and drivers that have supported Kankakee County Speedway in 2017, thank you. Although we have considered 2017 a success, due to relentless controversy throughout social media against Kankakee County Speedway, we have decided to make the difficult decision to shut down for the remainder of the 2017 season.

Social media IS killing the sport

Tom and Dave have decided that it is not in our families best interest to continue with this season. A group of people have put us in a position to make a decision that we did not want to make. Social media IS killing the sport that we love as it causes negative impacts towards the moral of all involved. Sometimes we need to remember the old adage “if you can’t say anything nice, say nothing at all”.

We have put our heart and soul into making Kankakee County Speedway a family friendly, fun place to go on Friday nights but it is painfully obvious no matter how hard we work it just doesn’t matter to some. We have put forth an extreme amount of effort to provide the best racing possible but apparently we have not succeeded. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Please before you say anything about this post or any other track ask yourself if it’s going to do any good or is it going to harm our sport even more. We hope that everyone involved will take this time over the off season to stop and think about their part in what makes racing great or not so great and how to come together again as a family instead of more ways to pick our track apart.

Honestly we are tired. We are tired of the constant complaining, the constant bickering, the constant lack of respect and the constant picking apart of everything we try to do to keep this track open with little to no support of the community. We are just exhausted by all of these things.

Thank you for your support.

We would like to thank all of our great sponsors, Browns Towing, Kankakee A&J Disposal, Court Street Ford, Riverside Medical Center, Miller Hydraulic, Country Chevrolet, QTD, Indulgent Creations, Chris Tippitt, Interstate Batteries, Osterhoff Fence, CED Electric Supply, 121 Graphixs, Smitty’s Landscaping & Tree Service, Mater Oil, Poor Boy Resturant, Brammmer Farms and the entire Dick Potts family.

Sincerely,
Dave Whittington
and the entire Kankakee County Speedway staff.

Kankakee County Fair
Kankakee County Fair

Kankakee County Fair statement
September 19th, 2017 (8:21am)

On Monday morning (9/18/2017) the Kankakee County Fair contacted Dirt on Dirt magazine to place the following ad: “Kankakee Illinois Area Stock Car Track is seeking Promoter for a multi-year contract effective for the 2018 or 2019 racing season. Serious inquiries only contact the Kankakee County Fair, P.O. Box 714, Kankakee, IL 60901”

Links

Kankakee County Speedway
Website | Facebook

Kankakee County Fair
Website | Facebook

Categories

Tags