Meadowdale International Raceway 0.10

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, who was erecting a housing subdivision along the river, decided to install a road race track 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 tragically marred by a fatal accident during Race Three.

SCCA began a long series of negotiations with track management over improvements that were needed, but despite this, the 1959 and 1960 SCCA seasons contained no events at Meadowdale.

In addition to SCCA events, the track also hosted USAC auto racing, AMA motorcycle racing, and kart racing during its life.

Unfortunately, the track never committed to making a series of safety improvements requested by the various sanctioning bodies, and this, together with competition by nearby Road America, eventually led to the track's demise. The last major auto racing event, an SCCA Trans-Am Series race, was held July 7 and July 8, 1968, and the track closed soon afterward.


The track's second life

Various proposals had been put forth, over the years, to bring racing back to Meadowdale. However, these ran into the same problems that had brought down the track in the first place: unsafe track conditions, and competition from Road America and Blackhawk Farms Raceway, and none were ever successful.

In 1994, a group of local park districts purchased the north 90 acres (360,000 m2) of the track's land for use as part of a new forest preserve, and purchased the remainder of the site in 2002. The track site is now, formally, a forest and nature preserve and recreational area known as "Raceway Woods". However, the volunteers who maintain the site have recognized its importance as a race track, and have done much to keep the original track and related structures in place in the form of a hiking trail.

Raceway Woods is maintained by the Dundee (IL) Township Park District

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Umm Hi, Well i was wondering did anybody finish this? & if so can i get it i am extremely interested in this.
Jakegerber123 on Jul-19-2012

I'm awed by this community bringing these tracks to virtual life. I have quite a bit of movie footage of Meadowdale and watching that is amazing. Wish I had the knowledge and dedication to see this awesome track thru. Originally the Meadowdale Raceway concept was to mix european track key turns and features into one. Challenging for sure, it had it all.... sadly for a very short time.
intakexhaust on Jun-16-2011

Hi all,

Sorry for my slow reply and no updates here. Please see the current situation here:

http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?showtopic=116944

KJProX, the highest area (back straight, Doane's corner, start of main straight) is 274 m and the lowest point, 233 m, is at the exit of "Little Monza" (Greg's Corkscrew).

David, that is so cool! You must feel proud that your dad was involved making one of the greatest road circuits in US. Please visit the link above and post there!
-Jesse- on Oct-30-2009

I would love to see this track finished and added to the rFactor tracks as my father helped design this track in Carpentersville. His name was Dick Doane. Look at Doane's Corner on the course layout, Dad loved a challenge!

David Doane
Eldavo on Oct-07-2009

I've had an interest in this track since I drove by it in the early 90's and the guy with me told me there was an old track up beyond the tree's. It was great to find the website about it, with all the photo's. I Just got Bob's Track Builder and started working on it just for myself to drive on, I'm just learning but have a rough drivable track. Now I find this and it's already being worked on and I'm sure it will be way better then mine so looking forward to it being compleated.

Just curious MIRacer, how much of difference in elevation is there between the main straight and the lowest portion of the track? And is that portion around the silo area?
KJProX on Jun-07-2009

Ross, for some reason my e-mails don't get through to you. I send you a private message, please check it.
-Jesse- on Mar-12-2009

Jesse,

I should have included this in yesterday's note: With regard to the bumps on the Monza Wall, these were not of parking lot speed bump proportions. They were just the joints of two sections of asphalt, like you'd see on any road. However someone thought the hot set-up would be to pave the steeply banked turn up and down its face, rather than along the direction of travel. This resulted in joint bumps every 10-12 feet.

But since you'd be going over 100mph and the car would be forced down on its springs by centrifugal force, the joints would really rattle your brain. The soft springing of my Alfa handled them much better than the tractor springs of the TR3.

I think the bumps got worse over the years as cars were launched by the small bumps and landed, creating dips after each bump. The Wall was repaved once or twice over the years, so you could make it smoother if you could determine when that paving took place (early 1964?). Are you still using 1967 as your base year?

I recall that, at our last races at Meadowdale, the top half of the Monza Wall was coned off because it was so rough. For the last pro race, a Trans-Am in 1968, the Monza Wall was leveled and replaced by a large featureless slab of asphalt. So sad.

Regards,

RossFos

P.S. Will the GPL system and Thrustmaster wheel and pedal set-up I bought when I heard you were building the Meadowdale sim work with the rFactor layout? The boxes have never been opened! RF
MIRracer on Mar-12-2009

Hi Jesse,

I'm very pleased to see this is an active project again. Let me know if you need any new shots or other info. We got the silo saved, repainted, and landscaped, and both entrances much improved since we corresponded. We've cleared brush from a lot of the track, but it won't change your work at all. The website <www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com> is a little behind right now, but will be updated soon.

We had a 50th Anniversary Celebration last September. Good turn-out of old cars and veteran drivers. Movies, speakers, and kids' stuff, too. You'd be amazed at how many residents of the area had no idea of the motorsports history in their backyard!

Use my e-address from the website to send me yours.

Best regards,

Ross Fosbender
Ottawa, IL USA
www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com
MIRracer on Mar-11-2009

Thanks everyone! There will be some bumps on Monza wall, but will they be as bad as in real life, I don't know.

NickDeFender has done some awesome objects and I'm trying to get the layout perfect. The track was a blast to drive in GPL and I can't wait to drive the finished layout myself with HistorX cars
-Jesse- on Mar-05-2009

Awesome Jesse! As you know, I can't wait to drive this track.
Yippee38 on Feb-22-2009

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