Santa Fe Speedway, Willow Springs, IL 1953-1995 Hoodie

Santa Fe Speedway, 9100 South Wolf Road, Willow Springs, IL 1953-1995. The speedway featured a quarter-mile and a 'short' half-mile clay oval for Motorcycle and Stock Car racing. Howard Tiedt built and operated the speedway on the property where his father, Frederick, had built the original Santa Fe Park, a picnic grove/race track complex, in 1896 in the area that became known as Tiedtville. The early track saw horses, bicycles, motorcycles and automobiles raced there until a tornado in the late 1920s destroyed the grandstands, bringing a halt to the racing activity at the site located adjacent to the Santa Fe Railroad tracks, thus the name.