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Grundy County Speedway with Steve Bechtel · Midwest Racing Central Today

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hi everybody, Pete Bistoni here for Midwest Racing Central today.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, one of the more popular tracks here in our area of the country, down in Morris, Illinois, Grundy County Speedway.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: They are already off and running for their 2026 season.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: And let's bring from in from Grundy County Steve Bechtel with us to tell us what's ahead here in this coming season.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Steve, how are you?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Good to see you.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm great, Pete.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Doing well.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Appreciate the the time.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh looking forward to uh what's happening down there and getting down to see you guys this summer.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I know you know, like all of us here in the Midwest, the weather's not been great, but you guys have gotten two shows in already.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Tell everybody what's happened so far at your racetrack down there more, Steve.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've sold a lot of hot chocolate.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I guess that's a plus for the concession stand.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: We had the spring classic a couple of weeks ago.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of like a uh a holdover from the Rockford Speedway days.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And um Big Eight Series was there, some of our weekly divisions, some of our NASCAR divisions.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then this past Saturday was our uh our weekly opener, you could say, um, with some of our divisions.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's it's great to maybe kind of get out in front of everybody and get some racing in and get some stuff under our belt.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, like I said, it's been cold, but it's uh it's just great to be back after a long winter.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you guys have done the last couple years a lot of renovation down near that racetrack.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh give everybody a little bit of an overview of what's new if they've not been down to Grundy County, Steve, in the last couple years.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the last probably five years, we kind of have like a new team in place, and they really kind of made an emphasis on um sprucing the place up some, you know, a lot, a lot of paint.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last five years, um, we redid the the bathrooms.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I talked with our general manager Joe, and he went to the uh you know the RPM meetings down in you know Daytona, and he said he he heard an interesting quote, and he said the the man of the house normally decides where they want to go and kind of do some of their entertainment stuff.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're gonna go to the racetrack, but the woman decides if they're gonna go back.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: So bathrooms is was one of our things where we completely redid all of our bathrooms.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, did some grandstand uh kind of upkeep maintenance uh over the winter here to make it a little bit more handicapped accessible with some areas, and uh like I said, just a lot of uh, you know, we got new scoreboard, new new lights on the racetrack.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: We went all uh LED lights about five years ago throughout the whole fairground property, so it's well lit, you know, compared to what it used to be.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, got a full backstretch of billboards, so just uh anything that really you know kind of needed an update, other than the track.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's a big one.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody, you know, would love a repave, as would we, but that's just a little bit uh pricey for us to do that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, we've we've really kind of hit every other aspect of the of the place trying to make it a little bit more fan-friendly and just you know more appealing to to people to come out.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you haven't touched the oval track, but you did put in the figure eight track a couple of years ago.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was so we were talking about that, you know, probably again, you know, a big expenditure to do that.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: We were probably talking about that about five years ago, and then I think you know, again with Rockford Speedway closing, it kind of you know maybe saw some of the people on the board that were a little hesitant to to spend that money to to want to go forward with it.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: And it is it's just been huge to be able to do you know, bus races and trailer races and all the the novelty stuff that we do.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh those as a longtime race fan, it it I guess it's always gonna boggle my mind to you know, I could watch a late model feature with Eddie Hoffman and Larry Schuler side by side or you know, exchanging the lead 20 times and in 20 laps, and that doesn't get the pop that uh a bus does getting T-boned or flipped over or a trailer race stuff.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: But um, you know, we try to, you know, we got the race fans and we got what I call derby, you know, type fans that just l you know live for that stuff and uh you know the proofs in the pudding when you look at the grandstand area, how many people are for that.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we've had a lot of fun with the the bus races and and trailer races and night of thrills type events, uh just stuff that's never really you know happened at the at the Grande County Speedway.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it's nice to you know see a demo derby and a whole bunch of other things that really, you know, they you know back in the day they had some demo derbies, but it's been quite a while since we've had something like that at the track.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: Well, uh again, you mentioned Rockford Speedway, which again still tears my hair uh my heart out that it's not there any longer, but some things have migrated to your track, including the Bahama brackets, which is always a fun event when we did it at Rockford.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: How's that gone since you moved it down to Grundy, Steve?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's been great.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when you work at the track, uh or like you know, I do working at Ileana before I closed and Grundy.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: You don't, you know, it's it's it's you're working, so it's kind of hard to sit back and kind of enjoy something.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: So me going to the Bahama brackets at the end of the year with my friends was my you know favorite event to do.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when it you know came up, is you know, again, definitely sad.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh losing Rockford because that was my little getaway to let you know go to Spring Classic, go to Short Track Nationals, hit up the big shows and stuff.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: But no, we you know had a good relationship with with David and Sue Deary up there, and we just talked to David and we didn't, you know, we didn't want you know stuff to end up there.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's you know, I you know grew up at Raceway Park and lost that track.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up at Illina Speedway, lost that track.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's tough when your home track closes down.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So we kind of you know got some of their divisions, you know, gave them a home, you know, to to run with us.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: We brought the spring classic over there, the Bahama brackets, the Goblin 250 enduro.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the butt, but the but the brackets are like to me, it's the most fun uh event.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like a low-key weekend of you know, you're on the track Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it's growing.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: And like I said, we're really looking forward to to kind of get people back to the numbers that it used to be, you know, at the at the Rockford Speedway.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Steve, you mentioned the term growing up.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like you.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up at all those racetracks, Rockford Raceway Park, Ileana, up at Lake Geneva, which isn't far from me because I'm in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: What about today's youth, the generation that we're trying to hand off to motorsports?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: What do you guys do at Grundy to get the kids involved?
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's tough to to sometimes to get the you know the kids engaged.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, to us, it was just being at the track was enough.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And and now it's it just seems like it's like a different kind of generation and technology, and and you know, everybody would rather be playing on their phone than go into the racetrack and stuff like that.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we we try to give different options to stuff, you know.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: We think obviously the bus race and a trailer race that you know appeals to kids.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Monster Truck Show.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: We had one last year for the first time, and that was you know just a complete home run to do that.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: We have a person that, you know, former racer and she's on the fairboard, but Cheryl ran racing for kids.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: She does a lot of stuff at the track.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: We do a kids' night where we give away a hundred plus brand new bicycles.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: She does a back to school night where it used to be, you know, three, four hundred backpacks, you know, given away, and now it's three, four hundred backpacks filled with school supplies.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that gets the kids want to come and do that.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: We do the on-track autograph parties where you know I remember first time I, you know, snuck onto Raceway Park, you know, when a friend of mine won a feature and I was like, ooh, I'm on the track thinking it's a big deal.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: But as time goes by, you just you don't even think about it.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: But to some people, it's we get to go on the racetrack, that is so awesome.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you know, we get all the cars on the racetrack before the races start and let everybody go out there and meet the drivers, and everybody has handouts, giveaway stuff.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: So we just try to make it more interactive, you know, for kids to come and include them.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: We do a kids co-pilot program where we pass out ballots every night, and you know, they get a driver, and if that driver wins, then they get a matching trophy that the driver gets.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we're always just trying to throw as many, you know, little, you know, kid-friendly things.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like if you can, you know, I'm here today because I went as a kid, grew up two blocks from Raceway Park, went, went every night that I possibly could.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I'm an adult and now I'm here.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: So if we can try to hook them, you know, maybe with different, you know, maybe it's not the racing that hooks a 10-year-old, but if we can give them some other reasons to come out, then they see the stuff, and it's like, man, this is this is pretty cool.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Can we go back?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's we just try to throw as you know, we're always evolving, we're always trying to throw more stuff at them, and uh it's definitely difficult.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: But we're like I said, we we just try to throw as much as we can out there.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that's great.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: So when you think about Grundy County Speedway, for me, it's always been sort of the signature super late model track, and you mentioned some of the names there: Eddie Hoffman, Larry Schuler, Dave Weltmeyer, Tom Jones.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: We know super late model racing in the Midwest on pavement is a little different these days, but you guys put together what you're calling the summer six pack, and the first one's gonna be Saturday, and we'll talk about that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: What was sort of the genesis behind that, Stephen?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Getting in line with the other tracks to try to get some sort of uniform rules for super late model racing here in the Midwest.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we started working with them with the Alliance up in Wisconsin.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: We we knew that you know we we had to be on the same roles to to maybe try to get some of these guys to come down and race with us, and we just kind of wanted to confirm to you know, conform to that.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that really I think has has worked out well.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: We we were pretty much the only track in the in the Midwest that was running super late models on a nightly basis, and it just got to, you know, you know as well as anybody in the sport that the cost of a super late model is just skyrocketed, it's almost impossible to to run them every single week.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: We saw that with car counts, we saw that with you know, if you had an accident and you took out three, four cars, it you know, it's not like the 70s or excuse me, the 80s to where these guys are back the next week.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes it was you know, they'd be out a month, two months, it might be their season, might be over.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: So we've been gradually cutting back, you know, from 20 nights to 16 to 14, and we just kind of thought, you know what, let's just, you know, let's kind of do like what the Dells is doing.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Slinger kind of has their own little thing, and let's let's run a deal to where you know we're gonna maybe cut our races in half, but they're gonna be, you know, more money, they're gonna be more laps, it's gonna be a bigger deal.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: We waited until everybody's schedule is out, and you know, we wanted to make sure we scheduled around everybody else to try to get some cars, and and it's been uh it's been you know pretty good.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: We've talked to a lot of people.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: We got Tommy White, who's a longtime you know official in the area for for decades.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: He's been helping us with this, and and it seems like we got some, you know, uh, we expect to see more cars basically is you know, is what we're gonna say, you know, coming down the road that a lot of people want to commit to it.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: But early in the season, cars aren't done yet.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some some guys had some commitments, but we're we're happy with, you know, like I said, we got 22 cars signed up for for this Saturday.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, like I said, we're we're hoping to get more as the as the summer continues with that.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the Wayne Cover Classic this week, uh, five more races, one of them a Thursday night before the weekend at Chicagoland Speedway.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: I would expect to get a lot of race fans, hopefully, Steve, got to spill over to see some super late model racing that Thursday night.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that was the reason we wanted to do it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, usually our fair is 4th of July weekend, and for it's been like that for years, and we actually switched the week of that.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we didn't have nothing going on.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: We thought let's, you know, it's it's tough to go against um, you know, the 4th of July holiday, and it's definitely going to be tough to go against NASCAR.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: So we knew we weren't gonna run, you know, Friday or Saturday, but then um, you know, thought came up, let's try to do Thursday.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's really no other specials going on.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can get some guys to come down.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are a NASCAR track, so we fingers crossed, got some stuff uh, you know, to hopefully announce down the road with some with some NASCAR people maybe uh gonna be there helping us out with some stuff.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: And uh we like I said, there's there's a lot more that's gonna be announced coming, you know, from that race tour.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: We're really um you know excited for that for that Hunter Laver.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: We look forward to that.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you are NASCAR track.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'll ask you sort of how that's working out and then your regular divisions for those that are gonna come out on a regular Friday night.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: What are you guys running in 2026?
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, NASCAR uh we last year was our first year, and um we kind of got a late start on it.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it, you know, we we think it's a plus.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: We with the benefits we get from NASCAR, kind of the you know, the overage to where people are finding out about us because you know they're on the NASCAR website and see that we're a home track with them.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, the benefits that we you know, we think the drivers uh are are happy with that.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: We changed up divisions this year because the super late models weren't gonna you know technically run enough nights to be eligible for the NASCAR point.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we have you know big eight style late models, we have our mid-American sportsmen, our street stocks, and our pure stocks um that are gonna be NASCAR divisions, and then you know, with Rockford closing and trying to give some of those drivers uh a home, you know, we got um you know the high school racing association, we got, like we said, we added the the big eight-style late models, we got sixers, we got the crown VIX, which seem to be blowing up across across the country, you know, we got uh you know, mini cups, we got the Midwest pavement midgets that are coming in, I think six, seven times this year.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: We got four enduro.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we we have a lot of classes, probably more than than anybody else, similar to kind of how Rockford did it, but it also gives us options to where we can mix stuff up and and you know, instead of our street stocks running 20 nights, you know, now they can run 14 and we can when they're off, we can run our Crown VIX and it lets people have a life to where they can plan a vacation or get married or or just you know do normal, you know, go to the lake for a weekend because we're not running.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: So again, we have a lot of classes, but it's nice to be able to, you know, mix them up and and give people nights off.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: So the last point when you talk about your weekly program, you talked about concessions and bathrooms and those kinds of things.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, sort of what's your philosophy?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, starting on time, getting people home at a decent hour.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: How do you guys kind of go about that, Steve, up there at Grunt?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I think we're we're like every other racetrack.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, for years we started at eight o'clock and you know, couple about probably five again with the new regime that kind of came in.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: We switched that to 7:30.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the sooner we can get started, the sooner we can get them out of there.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Fridays are tough um when everybody's working, they're really tough, you know, at the beginning of the season, in the end, when kids are in school.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you get kids that are up at six o'clock in the morning to go to school and sometimes they're falling asleep in the stands at nine o'clock.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to run a you know a quick program.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, just you know, again, make it as entertaining as as possible and you know, have the next race lined up and ready to go, or for our features, you know, the the winners getting interviewed on the front stretch and our whole feature field is lined up on the back stretch, just ready to go.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: So just keep you know things moving, try to make it you know entertaining, try to um, like I said, just appeal to to people that if you had a long day and the races are over at you know 10, 10, 15, they can get out, but then it's also early enough to where if you want to go in the you know what me and you I'm sure did you want to go in the pits and sit in race cars and talk to drivers and and stuff like that, then you also have the option to kind of go do that as well.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's key for sure.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I appreciate you giving us some time.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's good to see uh wishing nothing but the best this year at Grundy County.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: We'll look forward to covering everything here at uh Midwest Central Racing and uh appreciate seeing you and look forward to seeing you this summer.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Pete.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh hope you guys can you and your group.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I know you guys do some outings and stuff, so we'd love to see you at Grundy County Speedway this year.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Look forward to it.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: That is Steve Beckville, Grundy County Speedway, big racing weekend coming up, double header weekend, actually.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna race Friday with their weekly show, and then as we mentioned, super late matter Saturday for the Wing Target Classic.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Pete Fistoni, we'll see you next time right here at Midwest Racing Central today.