Chicago's Soldier Field Racing History

[Olen McGuire]

Soldier Field has, in addition to serving as home to the Chicago Bears, served as an auto racing venue at various times in its long history. The final auto racing track was torn out in 1970. The original stadium was gutted and rebuilt in 2002.
Soldier Field was built in 1924 and was called Grant Park Stadium. It was renamed to Soldier Field the following year. The first racing was on May 19th, 1935 on a 1/4 mile cinder oval. A 1/4 mile banked board oval was built for an 8 day long midget racing festival that ran June 17th, 1939 to June 25th, 1939. A 1/4 mile dirt oval operated from May 4th 1942 through May 31st, 1942. Post war, a 1/4 mile paved oval operated from June 16th, 1946 to September 1st, 1958, and again from May 14th, 1960 through 1966 (The 1/4 mile track had been removed in 1959 for the Pan-Am games.) A 1/2 mile paved oval operated from July 21st, 1956 through 1958, and from June 17th, 1961 through 1967. A NASCAR race ran on the 1/2 mile oval on July 21st, 1956. The final track was a 3/8 mile paved oval which ran in 1967 through June 1968. The track was torn out in 1970 in anticipation of the Chicago Bears moving to the stadium; removal of the track facilitated the construction of more seating.

The fate of the track is in a league all by itself. According to famed NASCAR historian Greg Fielden,the Soldier Field track was torn out of the stadium in 1970 following protests by HIPPIES who objected to city financing of auto racing.Is that not bizarre?


Below is the old Soldier Field as it was in 1999.
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=55&pictureid=423

Here's Soldier Field as it is today.
http://autoracingmemories.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=55&pictureid=424

[lakeside #29]

When I was a teenager in the '60's, I would go to Chicago every summer to visit relatives. I guess my mother wanted to keep me away from some of my juvenile deliquent buddies. I usually stayed with an aunt. She didn't own a car so we relied on public transportation. The hot ticket race track was O'hare Stadium, but you couldn't get there on the bus. I had to do a big con job, but I talked her into going to Soldier Field. You had to go through some really bad neighborhoods to get there. One night on the way home some kids got on the same bus as us, they were loaded down with hubcaps and car radios. I think you get picture. The race track was on the outside of the football field and the track was flat. They put on a good show, lots of action. The two drivers that I remember were Sal Tovella whoe raced a '62 or '63 Chevy II hartop with smallblock Chevy motor. The car was pale blue pretty beat up but was wicked fast. Sal ran with USAC, ARCA, and NASCAR. He ran one of the early Dayotna 500's. The other guy was Bob Chapman, he also raced a Chevy II but the car was absolutelly perfect. It was school bus yellow and just as fast as Sal's. They would be all over each other lap after lap. It was great racing.
I had an Uncle who raced at Soldier Field in the early '50's with a "49 Ford. His name is Bob Mels. We eventually went to Soldier Field several times. They also had a 4th of July fireworks show that was second to none.
I did get to go O'hare for a modified show. That was very similar to Englewood in size and appearance. The modifieds were like the coupes at Englewood as well, with overhead V-8's. They were the fastest modifieds that I had ever seen at the time. They also had a class called "Cadets". They were early '50's cars that were like late models but driven by inexperienced drivers who had to drive them and work their way up to late models. They were fun to watch. Two names I remember from them were Deiter Holtz and Dick Steffens. I think they both ran '55 Chevys.

Chris Ertler

[Olen McGuire]

Great story Chris,my parents lived in Chicago in the very early 50's and right after high school I went there to get a job.I had a 49 Ford that I put dual exhausts on and we would get on the trolley tracks embedded in the streets and gun the engine to hear the rear wheels scream like you really had a souped up engine.We heard about the races at Soldier Field so us teens would go every week to see the stock car races there.Names of the racers I don't remember, but we would sit in the north-west side about turn four and I can remember cement walls around most of the track.I think that was my first encounter with stock car racing so it was one that I can't forget.Too bad that I was more into cars and girls at that time than with racing and cameras or I would've really had something to add to ARM.~Olen