r Field on Saturday night, July 8, defeating White, Bowsher, Tovella, Darnell and Hirschfield in the 30-lap feature. Earlier in the evening, White grabbed fast time honors with a qualifying lap of 20.39 seconds. Two International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) stock car events were held with Ramo Stott of Keokuk, Iowa winning 75 and 100-lap races. These two races also counted towards the overall Soldier Field championship. These events were held on a 3/8’s mile oval inside the arena and were promoted by N. Perry Luster, a Chicago area racing insurance businessman-turned race promoter. Previously, USAC sanctioned one stock car race at Soldier Field in 1961 with Les Snow in a Pontiac winning the 30-lap (15 mile) event on June 17, 1961. By season’s end, the weekly USAC races were replaced by a series of demolition derbies.
Giving up on the “National” racing idea (USAC, IMCA, etc.), Luster came up with a three-track circuit for 1968 with local late model stock car drivers again being the headliners. Raceway Park (Blue Island, IL), the Mazon (IL) Speedbowl and Soldier Field would be part of Luster’s weekly, three-track promotion. Racing at the Field made it only four nights with Bob Pronger, Bud Koehler, Ed Hoffman and Tovella claiming feature race win honors. Tovella, who won his first Soldier feature of his career on June 21, 1952, had the honor of winning the last stock car feature race ever held at Soldier Field on Sunday evening, June 9, 1968.
Pistone, who during his career competed in both the NASCAR Grand National and convertible divisions, was the all-time leading stock car feature winner at Soldier Field, having won, by best account, 38 main events. His nearest rival is Kenny Netzel with 16 wins, followed by Rathmann (15 wins) and Flaherty and Chapman, each with 14 scores. Other leading stock car feature winners at the “Field” over the years were Michaels, Marmor, Tucker, Jordan, Lou Fegers and Oldenberg.
After that June night in 1968, the roar of racing engines would not be heard again inside the massive edifice. Some claim that “hippies” put an end to racing there, protesting the use of city tax dollars to support a private business enterprise. Others feel that it was just the extraordinarily huge expense that a promoter would have to handle just to swing open the gates for a particular racing event that put an end to racing on Chicago’s lakefront. As home of the Chicago Bears football team, the stadium underwent a major reconstruction and renovation project in 1979 with the football field being moved more to the south end of the stadium, basically covering up turns one and two of the race track.
So when someone says they don’t remember racing at Soldier Field, tell them the missed a whole bunch of action and a lot of great memories.