CHICAGO, Ill. — Grundy County Speedway kicks off its 2022 stock car racing season this coming Saturday, April 30. Late models, the Midwest MASS Stock Car Series, street stocks, pure stocks (four-cylinders) and Midwest Champ Karts are set to make up the season-opening Cabin Fever program.
Grandstand gates open at 3:00 pm with qualifying at 4:45 pm and the first race of the year set to get the green flag at 6:00 pm. Sunday has been set as a rain date. Grundy switches to its regular Friday night schedule on May 6. The MASS Series Sportsman Challenge will pay $1,000 to the winner.
Recent season opening late model feature winners include 2020 track champion Paul Shafer Jr., who won last year’s 30-lap race over former two-time champion Ricky Baker and Eddie Hoffman.
Hoffman, who now has seven career Grundy late model titles to his credit, was the winner of a COVID-19-delayed 50 lapper in 2020. Hoffman was also the feature winner in 2019 with Boris Jurkovic winning in 2018.
Defending track champion Anthony Danta won in 2017 with Hoffman claiming season opening honors in 2016. In all, Hoffman has won 10 Grundy season opening feature races during his career.
Looking through the record books, Brett Sontag (2009) and Dave Weltmeyer (1998) hold the honor of winning the earliest Friday night season opener with both winning on April 24. Joe Shear claimed the earliest feature race ever held at Grundy, capturing the ARTGO Chicagoland Opening Day 100 on April 20, 1986 ahead of Terry Baldry, Frank Gawlinski, Dick Trickle and Al Schill.
Going way back in history, Chicagoland’s Raceway Park opened its stock car racing season in the 1950s usually on Easter Sunday afternoon. With the exception of 1950, 1958 and 1959, the “World’s Busiest Track” opened its gates each year to thousands of fans who were hungry for the competition provided at the short, quarter-mile, oval.
Easter Sunday, 1951 saw Henry Smith win the opening 25 lapper on the then dirt track ahead of Don Odell and Charlie Johnson on March 25 – the earliest season opener in Raceway Park history and the last opener before the speedway was paved.
The old Waukegan Speedway pretty much tried to open during the first part of April but sometimes the weatherman had other ideas. Some early races saw Bob Roper win a 30-lap late model feature race on April 10, 1971 with Paul Heitz capturing the late model main event on April 12, 1969 when the track was newly paved.
***More Season Openers***
• Sycamore Speedway opens its season with a special open-wheel program on Saturday, May 7, with Interstate Racing Association (IRA) sprint cars and Advanced Fastening Supply (AFS) Badger Midget Series seeing action. Sycamore’s regular weekly stock car season begins the weekend of May 27-28.
• Rockford Speedway begins its weekly Saturday night competition on May 7 with the 75th NASCAR Season Opener featuring late models, sportsman, American Short Trackers, roadrunners and bandits in action.
• Shadyhill Speedway near Medaryville, Ind., presents its 6th annual White Lightning Showdown for modified stock cars on Saturday evening, May 14. A complete stock car racing program will also be on tap that night.
• With the recent Facebook announcement of Billy Knippenberg being the new promoter, Kankakee County Speedway has not set up a weekly schedule yet, although the MARS Racing Series dirt late model tour is set to appear there on May 20 with a DIRTcar Summer Nationals date on June 14.
Knippenberg was the DIRTcar Pro Late Model champion at both Kankakee and Shadyhill Speedway last year. He is also a former two-time late model champion at Grundy.
• Round two of the ARCA Midwest Tour late model schedule takes place this Sunday afternoon at Wisconsin’s Madison International Speedway. The Joe Shear Classic 200 presented by Keen Parts is on tap, featuring 2003 NASCAR Cup Champion, Matt Kenseth.
The series opener saw Luke Fenhaus win the “Miracle at the High Banks” at Wisconsin’s Slinger Super Speedway last Sunday afternoon.