By JONATHAN ZWEYGART
Hays Post
STOCKTON—The Rooks County Fairgrounds will once again roar to life Friday as action returns to the Rooks County Speedway in Stockton.
But the track once known as the “historic half mile,” has undergone some of the most significant changes in its 125 years.
Not only is the track scheduled to race seven times this summer, an increase from just twice during the fair, in prior years, but the track features a complete reconfiguration.
Gone is the half-mile oval that began as a horse racing track and in its place a 1/3-mile oval with tight corners and variable banking.
Video courtesy of Adam Bryant
Area racer Chad Sterling, whose father promoted Rooks County Speedway for about 10 years in the mid-'90s and early 2000s, took over as promoter this season and said the decision to redesign the track was driven by several factors, including changing race formats, rising costs and a desire to improve competition for both fans and drivers.
“With the rules packages that we currently run in this area, everybody’s restricted by carburetor or chip or something,” he explained. “On those big racetracks, once the leader gets out there and gets away, it’s kind of over.”
The cost of maintaining the track is also a reason for the change.
“The price of diesel fuel, the price of water, the manpower hours it takes to prep a track — it takes quite a little bit,” he said.
Sterling said they were still putting the finishing touches on the dimensions late last week, and now they will begin to put water on the surface so its ready for the season opener on Friday night.
He said after touring the U.S. and the well-known tracks, they want to track to be similar to Marshalltown and Boone, Iowa. Both are extremely popular tracks in the IMCA ranks, and each fall hundreds of racers travel to Boone for the annual IMCA Super Nationals.
“Those are two tracks in Iowa that are similar in size to this, and they're getting a bunch of cars every night,” Sterling said. “It's not just the track size, it's also their promoter, and prep, and they know they're going to have a good track.”
He also added that the dirt oval in Stockon won’t be like any other tracks in the region.
“There's nothing close to this, even La Crosse is shorter than this, or is about the same size, but it's still pretty wide, as far as between the front straightaway and back straightaway," Sterling said.
The new reconfiguration is also expected to bring a better view for the spectators who sit in the limestone grandstands that date back to the 1930s WPA era.
“There’s not a bad seat in the house now,” Sterling said. “You could sit anywhere and watch the races and get a good view.”
Under the old setup, large haulers and trailers often blocked views from the grandstands. With the redesigned configuration, pit parking has moved north of the track.
“We want the crowd to get their money’s worth, and I also want the racers to get their money’s worth,” Sterling said.
There was some initial pushback from the community and longtime drivers and fans, when they heard about the changes, Sterling said.
“But this track was built to race horses on, not cars. At some point, they changed from horses to cars, and times change," he said.
Sterling has also seen a great deal of support.
A video of them breaking ground, “went viral,” Sterling said.
“When we broke ground on this thing, I had over 100,000 views in 24 hours," he said.
A practice round for a handful of cars last week also grew a great deal of interest with several people stopping by or driving through the fairgrounds to get a peak at the action.
Sterling hopes the added excitement and the extra nights of racing will help draw crowds and cars from around the region.
“I keep hearing people say, ‘That reminds me of when I was growing up and hearing race cars every weekend,’” Sterling said. “Now they want to bring their kids.”
Sterling stressed this Friday night is just the beginning and they still have ways to go, but they could not have done it without the support of the city, the county, the fair board and the numerous volunteers who have given a significant amount of support.
Stockton Raceway is scheduled to begin its season next Friday and will host seven race nights this year, a major increase from the two annual fair races traditionally held at the facility. The schedule includes regular race nights along with several special events featuring IMCA divisions, sprint cars and late models.