It all began after a tire issue at Peoria Speedway in the 1982 race season. One Sunday morning in the summer of 1982, Morey Denney asked his brother Gerald what he thought about building a racetrack 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." On 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 zoned, 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 leased the track. Several people helped 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. At the end of the '83 season, Dixie was forced to declare bankruptcy. The Denney's were forced to either sell the track and ground on the family farm or pay off Dixie’s debt and run the track themselves. Well, they decided to pay the debt and rename the track Spoon River Speedway in 1984.
Spoon River Speedway held their first race on April 28th, 1984. Three classes were run 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 8000 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. Over the years, the track has had many Nascar drivers come through its gates in its long history to watch or driver, including drivers like Kenny Schrader, Kenny Wallace, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Sr, Dick Trickle, Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and David Stremme, just to name a few. Billy Moyer, Sr, Roger Long, Scott Bloomquist, Jack Hewitt, Don O’Neil, John Gill, Donnie Beechler, Steve Knepper and Kevin Doty are just some of the famous dirt track drivers. So, you never know who may show up to run the high-banked oval or which young star that you're watching at Spoon may emerge to race in the future of Nascar or the big stage of dirt track racing