Track History

One Sunday morning in the summer of 1982 Morey Denney asked his brother Gerald what he thought about building a race track on one of their farms. Gerald said, "Morey you have had some dumb ideas, but this has to be the worst of them all." Morey thought to himself "Well, that's over." Wednesday of the following week Gerald informed Morey that if he could get it zoned he would go along with it.
 
Morey drew up the blueprints, got it zone, and then started to build it.
 
Shortly after Morey Denney got all the zoning and blueprints approved for the racetrack, construction of the Speedway began on the family owned farm in the late summer of 1982.
 
Shortly after this, John Gardner, Sam Sandusky, and Ray Walden approached Morey and Gerald about leasing the track. To make a long story short they leaded the track. Several people helped both the Denney's, Gardner, Sandusky and Walden construct the track. The leased name was Dixie Speedway and the track opened in 1983 under that name.
 
After one year of operation it wasn't working so The Denney's took over and renamed the track Spoon River Speedway. Spoon River Speedway opened back up in the Spring of 1983 with Morey being the promoter.
 
Spoon River Speedway held their first race on April 28th, 1984. Three classes were ran at the Speedway. Late Model, Pro Street and Street Stock. Roger Long was the first Late Model driver to win the Trophy Dash and Heat Race, while Jeff McKay won the first Feature. The Pro Street Feature went to Dick Trout and the Street Stock Feature winner was Steve Herman.
 
Since then, over 3000 different named drivers have raced at our track. We now average over 80 race cars per event, with 155 being our largest car count for one event. Classes now consist of Pro Late Models, Modifieds, Limited Modifieds and Hornets.
 
Morey promoted the track through 2010, a total of 27 years. Morey's son Brad took the reins in 2011.