Meadowdale Raceway Make a Difference Day (near Chicago)

[BadAssPerformance]

Meadowdale Raceway, Carpentersville, IL, was a world renowned road racing course during the 1950s and '60s. It was 3.27 miles long and its steeply banked 180 degree Monza Wall led onto a 4,000 foot roller coaster straight. Meadowdale Raceway woods was an awesome racetrack back in the day and is now a forest preserve/park called Raceway Woods.

Several of the SDAC-Chicago folks are planning to get out to the Meadowdale Raceway "Make a Difference Day" to help cleanup the track.

The event is planned for Saturday October 21st from 8am till noon. Maybe we can go out as a group for lunch afterwards?

So come on out and help if you can!

Directions to the track and historical information available on the Meadowdale Raceway site: http://www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com/

For those that do not know, the Silo was scheduled to be torn down earlier this year, but several enthusisats including SDAC-Chicago member Keith Dale went to the forrest preserve and city of Carpentersville to get the motion stopped.

A "Save the Silo" fund is now in place and they are taking donations to restore the Silo, as it is the premiere landmark of the old Raceway. Additional funds are needed to get the raceway historical landmark status.

SDAC-Chicago is planning to host a car show at the historical track in 2007 as well... details to come.

[MoparMarc]

I will be there. Im also part of the group who is trying to help any way I can to save the silo and preserving the tracks history. I was able to show my support and speak at a village hall meeting months ago. Any little help goes a long way.

If anyone is near the area, please come out. Even if you don't feel like helping with the clean up work you can still come out. You will have a great time just walking and learning the history of the raceway. If You can't go but would like to show your support, a donation is greatly respected.

This is a very cool place to visit and neat to walk around. Very Historic.
Bring family, friends, girlfriend, or dogs, etc...

Here are some silo pics from a few days ago.

More Silo Pics from this Summer

Raceway Pics from February 2006

[BadAssPerformance]

Information from the Redmer's who are the Meadowdale Raceway caretakers. I have taken out their phone number for their privacy (and this is teh internet so you should be able to e-mail them... if you would like their phone number, please PM me. Thank you, JT

MEADOWDALE RACEWAY
(RACEWAY WOODS)
”MAKE A DIFFERENCE DAY AT RACEWAY”
Dundee Township Open Space
Western Sector
*Also*
HELP SAVE THE HISTORIC MEADOWDALE SILO on Rt. 31
Go to the website for more details:
http://www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com/
Saturday, October 21, 2006
8:00 – 12:00 Noon

Join us for a day of work and fun. Volunteers will meet at the parking lot on Huntley Road, one mile west of Rt. 31.
If the weather is friendly, and even if it is not…we will be working on completion of the path system for the Western Sector crossing the Infield and joining up to the Park District Woods. We also plan to plant trees and do a little clearing of invasive growth at Doan’s Corner.

If you come: bring a tool if you can. (Some tools will be provided.) Useful tools include rakes, loppers, or nippers. If you have heavy equipment that will help us move wood chips please call ahead at ***-***-****.

Snacks and water will be provided. Portable bathrooms will be on site. At the end of the day, tired workers are taken on a hayride to view the track in total.

If you plan to come, it is best to leave a message so we can plan for supplies. We had a great time last year with 45 volunteers showing up! If you missed it here’s your chance to get involved! We hope to see you there Saturday morning October 21st.

Jack & Donna Redmer
Phone: ***-***-****
E-mail: donnazip<at>comcast<dot>net
Website: http://www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com/

[WickedShelby88]

I will be there JT along with my son Noah. I will at least be able to make a donation. As far as helping maybe just be showing my son such a place as he grows older will at least inspire the next gen. to help out. yes area around the silo looks excellent. Wouldnt it be great if we could have the whole area in which the track ran clear from side to side so people could see what am awesome place this was.

[mcsvt]

Wish I was closer. That is definately a worthwhile cause.

Good job SDAC-Chicago

[BadAssPerformance]

Thanks, one of our members has a personal interest in the track and our club has as well. It is definitely a good cause!

[shmedley]

I am going to try to make it. Looks like because I live close to work I get Screwed and have to go in to work. I don't know what time I have to go in though...

[BadAssPerformance]

We had nice weather and a decent turnout today, Keith, Dave, Marc, Jim, Joe B. and myself worked all morning and Josh L. was able to join us as we were breaking for the day. There were several others out there as well. I think we really showed them how we can bust our asses to help out! Cool club pics to come!

[MoparMarc]

Here are my Pics from Saturday

Was a very good time.

[WickedShelby88]

Good pix Marc! It was a fun time, I wish I could have stayed longer. That place is awesome.

[Turbodave]

Good pics Marc, it was a good time and I was impressed at how well a bunch of car guys can do landscaping. I wish I could have stuck around a little longer and done lunch afterwards, but it was a haul to go get that CSX-T. Didn't get home til after midnight from that little adventure.

[BadAssPerformance]

I wish I could have stuck around a little longer and done lunch afterwards, but it was a haul to go get that CSX-T. Didn't get home til after midnight from that little adventure.

Yeah, we just ended up going our seperate ways...

Wow, long day for you!

[devlish]

maybe a silly question...doesn't look like the track is still open to drive on, are they planning to re-open it? or just a historical place to visit now? just curious, looks like a fun track to drive...

[MiniMopar]

It's a historical place now. The land is owned by different agencies now...forest preserve, park district, etc. The problem has been that they have lost sight of the land's past. Recently the forest preserve wanted to tear down the silo, which is an important landmark of the original track, but that has been stopped and now they are trying to raise money to shore it up.

http://www.meadowdaleraceway.homestead.com/

[MiniMopar]

Looks like a good turnout. I fully intended to go, but I got called in to work. I got there early so I was hoping to bail out before lunch, but I ended up getting home around midnight. I really hate this job sometimes.