Peoria Speedway and track owner and promoter Brandon Dean announced this past weekend that the Peoria, Illinois track will cease weekly racing and go up for sale.
In a post to Facebook, the track stated, “Brandon Dean has owned and promoted Peoria Speedway for 13 years. Tonight the announcement was made weekly racing will come to an end.”
The track does have a Summer Nationals Hell Tour race on the schedule for June 11th. That event will go on and it will be promoted by Bob Sargent and Adam Mackey. The track shared, “The Summer Nationals on June 11th will go on. We want to thank Bob Sargent and Adam Mackey for stepping up and promoting the race. We hope to see everyone come out for Summer Nationals.”
The track had announced on Thursday, May 28th that Track Enterprises, which is owned and operated by Sargent would promote the event. The track stated, “The Thursday night event will mark just the third event on the 2026 DIRTcar Summer Nationals schedule and is expected to bring some of the nation’s top dirt late model drivers to the historic Peoria, Illinois bullring. Track Enterprises and its staff will also promote the Father’s Day Sunday, June 21 Summer Nationals event at Lincoln Speedway.”
Sargent said of the opportunity, “We are excited to work with Brandon Dean and his staff on this event. The Summer Nationals fields have been strong the last couple of seasons and we can’t wait to see what this year has in store. Peoria Speedway has a tremendous history and we’re looking forward to helping bring another exciting Summer Nationals event to the fans.”
Peoria Speedway originally opened in 1948 and was called the Peoria Midget Speedway or Mount Hawley Speedway and was located near the Mount Hawley Airport. The track was built by I.G. Lane and promoted by Frank Dixon.
Dixon would build a new track in 1965, where it is currently located on West Farmington Road, due to pressures from the development of the airport. The track was purchased by Hank Hamilton in 1974 and was operated by his son, Chuck, until h is death in 2002. His wife Sherrie would continue operation of the track until it was purchased by Curt Mottaz in January 2011. Mottaz operated and promoted the track until 2014 where he sold it to Jason Plumer and current owner Brandon Dean. Dean took full ownership from Plumer in May 2019 and has owned and promoted since then.
The track hosted weekly DIRTcar sanctioned Late Modes as well as UMP Modifieds. It also had the MARS Late Models and Modifieds roll into town on April 25th. Ryan Unzicker won in the late models while Michael Ledford got the win in the modifieds. The series was expected to return to the track on September 19th for the Illinois State Championship.
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