Meadowdale International Raceway

Meadowdale International Raceway was a racetrack located in Carpentersville, Illinois. It was used for motor racing from 1958 to 1968.

The track's first life
Meadowdale Raceway was built in 1958 north of Carpentersville, Illinois, to attract development to the suburbs of Chicago. It is located at the intersection of Illinois Route 31 and Huntley Road.

At the time the track was built, Carpentersville was a very small industrial town on the Fox River that was just beginning to see the effects of the post-war housing boom in the United States. One developer, Besinger, who was erecting a housing subdivision along the river, decided to install a road racetrack across the highway from the subdivision as an attraction.



As originally opened, the track was 3.27 miles (5.26 km) long, with a steep 180-degree curve, known as the Monza Wall, leading onto the 3/4-mile front straight. The Chicago Region of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) conducted the track's inaugural event on September 13 and September 14, 1958, a regional race. However, SCCA indicates that the inaugural race was something less than a complete success:

Seeding of the grounds was unsatisfactory or had not been done, and dust enveloped everything and everyone. Earth embankments lined much of the course and several turns did not offer escape roads. The weekend was marred by a fatal accident during Race Three.

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