Trevor Gundaker announced that his family and specifically his mom and dad, Tammy and Kevin, have put Tri-City Speedway up for sale.
In a post to Facebook, Gundaker shared, “For the last 20 something years mom and dad put their heart and soul into this place, spending countless amounts of money, trying to better everything for the better of dirt racing! There comes a time when people just get wore out and tire down, over the last 4-5 years I’ve seen that out of them. Trying as much as they can but in the end beating themselves into the ground to try and do the thing they love! It internally killed them day in and day out! Nobody got to see what was going on behind the scenes but I did, it was time!
He added, “It’s time for a new person to get the keys to the racetrack, someone who can invest and get granite back to its glory days!”
“Before you bash on why or whatever, they were one of the striving features behind St. Louis Area dirt track racing and I’m proud to see everything they’ve done, the people who’ve showed up, and the races they’ve put on! Not every weekend was perfect but they put their necks on the line for every racer and fan!”
He concluded, “Thank you mom and dad, it was an adventure but every adventure has to come to end! Someone buy this thing and make Granite great again!”
Tri-City Speedway is located in Granite City, Illinois just outside of St. Louis, Missouri. The track is a 3/8 mile dirt oval that hosts Late Models, Modifieds, B-Modifieds, Street Stocks, and 4-Cylinders. It also has an inner 1/5 mile race track for Micros, Winged Karts, and Go Karts.
The track traces its roots to 1961 and early USAC Midget and Sprint Car races. It was purchased by Kevin and Tammy Gundaker back in 2005. Gundaker had been racing at the track since 1973. After purchasing the track, the Gundakers reconfigured it in 2007 to its current 3/8-mile and added the 1/5 mile track.
The track was supposed to host the American Big Rig Racing series at the end of May, but unfortunately rain scrapped those plans and the race was postponed to September 4th. Gordy Gundaker explained in a post to Facebook, “As much as I wanted to have this race this weekend, after talking with Nick and just the pure amount of rain we’ve got over the last 2 weeks, I did not want to bring them in without knowing what kind of track we could give them.”
“Our grounds have been soaked over at Tri City and without having a race on the track this year, the last thing I want is to have a show that wasn’t great for the teams and fans,” he added.
Additionally, the track was expected to play host to the Summer Nationals on Friday, June 12th. However, it was replaced with Coles County Speedway.
It was also supposed to have the POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprints come into town on June 26th, but it was canceled earlier this month and instead the series shifted the date to Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. However, the POWRi WAR Sprint League event that was also supposed to be in town with the Outlaw Sprints was completely canceled. Furthermore, the dates previously scheduled for September 10 and 11th at the track were also removed the schedule.
It is unclear what the plans are for the track, but Kevin did respond to one individual who claimed the track had already been bought and the plan to tear it down. He wrote, “NOT True!!”
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