Rockford Speedway History

Rockford Speedway History I thought this may be easier for showing from time to time part of what we have collected.

A great picture of Benny Olson with a win at Rockford Speedway in 1978. Pictured with Benny are his daughter’s Pam Olso...
08/03/2026

A great picture of Benny Olson with a win at Rockford Speedway in 1978. Pictured with Benny are his daughter’s Pam Olson, Sandy Olson & Paula DeWitt. Picture supplied by Paula Folk (JG)

Bill Lapacek with the win in the Roadrunner feature at an early 80's NSTC driving the car normally driven Rose Akre. Als...
08/02/2026

Bill Lapacek with the win in the Roadrunner feature at an early 80's NSTC driving the car normally driven Rose Akre. Also in the picture is Top- David Deery, Brian Larson
Bottom-
Mark Gaspie, Ted Papini, Al Papini.....picture supplied by Alex Papini (JG)

Danny Ballard behind the wheel of the Wagner Bros. car normally driven by Joe Shear. Picture is from the 1967 National S...
07/30/2026

Danny Ballard behind the wheel of the Wagner Bros. car normally driven by Joe Shear. Picture is from the 1967 National Short Track Championships. Supplied by Ron Thruman (JG)

John knaus with a preliminary win at the 1979 NSTC. ...picture supplied by Ron Thruman (JG)
07/19/2026

John knaus with a preliminary win at the 1979 NSTC. ...picture supplied by Ron Thruman (JG)

Sorry to learn of the passing of former stock car racer Wayne Swartwout on July 11 at the age of 86. Swartwout, working...
07/12/2026

Sorry to learn of the passing of former stock car racer Wayne Swartwout on July 11 at the age of 86. Swartwout, working for the Union Pacific Railroad, and his brothers raced at various Midwest raceways, including Illinois’ Rockford Speedway. Racing out of Janesville, Wis., and later Beloit, and racing since the 1960s, Wayne Swartwout was pretty much a regular at the Rockford quarter-mile paved oval, winning a number of feature races during his speed career. His biggest victory perhaps was in 1983 when he won the 100-lap “Rockford Rules” late model special in his Camaro No. 27 during the track’s annual National Short Track Championships in September. Rest in Peace. Story by Stan Kalwasinski (JG)

Cool picture of one tough old son of a gun! Vaughn Gerke from the 1969 season. Picture supplied by Ron Thruman (JG)
07/06/2026

Cool picture of one tough old son of a gun! Vaughn Gerke from the 1969 season. Picture supplied by Ron Thruman (JG)

A couple of great pictures of Jack Heiman along with the late great Joe Shear and Danny Ballard. Thank you Ron Thruman f...
06/09/2026

A couple of great pictures of Jack Heiman along with the late great Joe Shear and Danny Ballard. Thank you Ron Thruman for sharing! (JG)

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Longtime official starter at the Rockford Speedway, Jack Heiman, passed away on June 7 at the age of 90...
06/09/2026

ROCKFORD, Ill. — Longtime official starter at the Rockford Speedway, Jack Heiman, passed away on June 7 at the age of 90 years old.

Heiman, nicknamed “Jumping Jack,” became the flagman at the Rockford quarter-mile paved oval around 1960, working for promoter Hugh Deery. He retired in 1976 after having flagged more than an estimated 5,000 races with his high-profile, jumping in the air, race-flagging, performance.

Heiman flagged the first National Short Track Championships 200 at the Rockford Speedway in 1966 with Dick Trickle the winner and was in the starter’s stand for the last NSTC before the speedway closed in 2023.

Heiman was also the starter at other Midwest speedways from time to time including Solider Field, Sterling, Meadowdale, Indiana’s Illiana Motor Speedway and Road America, Milwaukee, Kaukauna, and Lake Geneva in Wisconsin.

As a youngster, Heiman dreamed of going to the Indianapolis 500. He ventured away from home in the late 1950s, traveling to California where he got involved in auto racing. He helped the likes of Tony Bettenhausen and Rodger Ward, flat towing Bettenhausen’s stock car from the Midwest to Arizona.

Coming back to the Midwest, Heiman was part of the Leader Cards, Inc. racing team in 1961 and 1962 with the team finishing first and second in the “500” in 1962 with race winner Ward and Len Sutton the drivers. During the race, Heiman changed the left rear tire on Ward’s winning car.

“I was in victorylane with the winner,” remembered Heiman years later. “That’s my biggest thrill (in racing). My boyhood dream when I was planting corn on the farm in Compton (Illinois) was to watch a 500 race and here I am in the pits with the winner.”

The owner of Heiman Sign Studio, Heiman was an accomplished sign painter and lettered numerous race cars – from Indy 500 machines, USAC stock cars, open-wheel cars and countless Rockford Speedway race cars.

For a number of years, Heiman was involved in the Rockford area Soap Box Derby, lending a hand with his racing expertise.

Living in Arizona during the winter months, Heiman was inducted into the Illinois Stock Car Hall of Fame in 2017. Heiman was the “official starter” for many Hall of Fame events, including flagging last year’s Legends Parade. Story by Stan Kalwasinski from Speed Sport!
.....personally, Jack was a true icon of the Rockford Speedway. His work could be seen all over the property. Not only was he extremely talented, he was genuinely a good person. Jack will be missed by many associated with Rockford Speedway (JG)

From the 1972 season we have Chicagoland "hotshoe" Wh**ey Gerken in the #77 Bob Zimmerman in the #64 and longtime Ro...
05/30/2026

From the 1972 season we have Chicagoland "hotshoe" Wh**ey Gerken in the #77 Bob Zimmerman in the #64 and longtime Rockford Speedway competitor Boyce Sparkman in the #5 thank you Ron Thruman for the picture! (JG)

“Back in the Day” – Herman Jordan was one of the leading stock car drivers in the Chicago area in the early 1950s, conce...
03/12/2026

“Back in the Day” – Herman Jordan was one of the leading stock car drivers in the Chicago area in the early 1950s, concentrating his efforts with Andy Granatelli’s Hurricane speed group out of Chicago. Racing out of Chicago himself, Jordan’s name first appeared as a feature winner when the relatively new speedster won a hot rod feature race at Rockford Speedway in July of 1949 and followed up with a victory at Prather Field in DeKalb, Ill., in August, defeating track favorite, Bill Seaman. Jordan competed in both hot rod and stock car competition at Chicago’s Soldier Field in 1950 with the racing supervised by Granatelli and company. Jordan scored his first stock car feature win at Soldier Field on July 20, 1950, as he defeated future Indianapolis 500 winner Jim Rathmann and Skippy Michaels in the 25-lap headliner before a reported 7,632 fans. He won five stock car feature races at the “Field” in 1951 and continued racing there in 1952, 1953 and in 1954. He also was a front runner at the Rockford Speedway – a feature winner there in 1950, winning a main event there in a steady rain in May. Jordan campaigned on the Hurricane circuit, picking up wins at Rockford and on the quarter-mile at Milwaukee’s State Fair Park. Jordan made two starts in American Automobile Association (AAA)-sanctioned stock car competition at the “Milwaukee Mile” in 1952, driving a 1952 Oldsmobile. By 1955, Jordan all but seemed to have disappeared from racing in the Chicago area. Whatever happened to Herman Jordan?

Photos: An Ed Coffey photo shows Herman Jordan posed next to his stock car No. 1 at Soldier Field in 1952. A year or two earlier, Jordan (on the right) poses with Tom Pistone at Soldier Field for photographer Bill Blaisdell. (JG)

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