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The History Of The Lebanon I-44 Speedway LEBANON, MO (Mar 24) - With a passion for local area racing and a downward swing in the local area racing, Lebanon Businessman and racefan Bill Willard decided it was time to set the pace for local racing and with some land he owned right off of Historic Rt 66 and I-44 began the building of the then state of the art I-44 Speedway. During the late part of 1982 and the winter of 1983,land was cleared,dirt was put down and the foundation for a 3/8ths mile clay oval was formed. Bill constructed a dirttrack that was both fan and driver friendly.After taking many notes from his travels to many different tracks,Bill would take shorttrack racing to a new level constructing pits on the outside of the track,a self service quick moving concession area,a parking lot to where the fans had strong lighting to find there cars afterwards and a picture perfect setting with hillsides to be able to view of An Ozark setting. After over 3 weeks of having to delay the opening,it was in May the track opened before an estimated crowd of 5,000 with MonettSpeedway promoter Randy Monneyham leading the opening season with the track featuring LateModels,Sportsman and StreetStocks. Fans were treated to an asphalt sloped hillside with long benched-back seats and plenty of leg room for all. The Speedway also held it's first special event in the fall with a 2 day format and drivers from over 5 states competing for a 5,000 to win purse.Some young hotshoe named Billy Moyer outran the local track kingpin Ken Essary and area hotsohe Larry Phillips to grab the victory and special events were a popular term with the fans. In 1985-The term high-banks became the term as Bill who felt the need to do something different with the track to attract new crowds and drivers took the corners from a semi-banked 8 degrees to the over 20 degrees providing consistant 3 wide racing.1985 also brought a new class to the Speedway as the IMCA Modified division was introduce to the crowd.The new High-Banks also broght in a talented field in StreetStock Racing as 2 young guns named Rex McCroskey and Bill Frye fought for the title and a driver named Mike Wallace became a regular racer at I-44.The season also saw the first of what was known as a sanctioned event as the NDRA made the visit to I-44 before a crowd estimated of close to 5700 plus with Willy Kraft nipping Larry Phillips for the win in the tracks first ever 100 lap feature. During 1986-Bill trimmed down the High-Banks and Randy Mooneyham returned as promoter as the track offered strong weekly shows and several sanctioned and independent specials with the USAC LateModels and NCRA LateModels competing. The Speedway continued strong with Open LateModels,Sportsman,StreetStocks and Modifieds on the weekly shows as the reputation was if you could win at I-44 you could win most anywhere and special events always brought large crowds and talented drivers. In 1988-The World Of Outlaw LateModels raced before the 3rd largest crowd at I-44 up to that time. Bill was always a man of vision and was seeing the trend change.During that winter of 1988 and 1989,he laid asphalt down and put back the high-banks at over 20 degrees and brought the Nascar Weekly Racing Series to the area. While a young driver named Kirk Shaw won the track title,it was veteran Larry Phillips who brought attention to I-44 as he won the Nascar National Championship. In 1990-The track made the LateModels put on what was called-Stockcar Bodies and Mike Wallace won the Mid-America Regional Championship as drivers competed hard to finish in the top 10 of the region.Wallace would gather a Busch Series Ride later that season at Martisville and climbed to finish 6th in the Race.1990-also saw the USAC SprintCars compete with names like Rich Volger,Bettenhauser,Steve Butler and others compete.The track also hosted some 100 lap specials with Nascar Drivers Ted Musgrave,Rick Carrelli,Rich Bickle and others compete. The 1990 season was also the opening of tier parking or what we call"The WildSide"where tailgating became very popular. 1991-would see the independent specials go by the wayside as the ARTGO Series competed with NASCAR'S Ken Schrader competing before a packed house as the car count continued to grow. It was in 1992 that Bill redesigned the banking of I-44 to make it where the drivers would just run on the top of the track and changed it to a progessive banking-this provided plenty of 2-3 wide racing. In 1993-Nascar's Race of Champions came to the speedway before the largest crowd ever as over 7,000 people were in attendance to see Rusty Walace,Ken Schrader,Kenny Wallace,Harry Gant,Micheal Waltrip,and Rick Wilson compete in a 20 lap exhibition race along with an autograph session. The Speedway continued as an Asphalt track with drivers such as Tony Stewart,Johnny Parsons,Matt Kenseth,Steve Carlson,Tony Roper and other top named drivers would leave there tire tracks on the I-44 Asphalt Larry Phillips captured 5 Nascar National Titles with 3 coming from I-44. 1997-Jamie McMurray captured the LateModel title and would later moved on to the Nascar ranks while Carl Edwards was making his name at I-44 in 2002 in the BabyGrand Division-this lead to the St Louis Nascar Truck team of the Mittler Bros to give Carl a shot. Bill Willard passed away on May 27,2002 at the age of 71. In the winter of 2004,Randy Mooneyham took back over control of the High-banks and brough dirt back over the Asphalt.Traveling circuits such as the MARS Series,ASCS Sprints,WOW 360 Sprints,USMTS Modifieds and the World of Outlaw LateModels have competed on the High-Banks.Currently the track sanctions the LateModel through the UMP sanction and the Modified through USRA out of Iowa. This allows drivers to compete for national championships with drivers all over the United States. Billed as the fastest 3/8ths mile oval,it was in 2006 that Billy Moyer would blister the old Asphalt record during the World of Outlaw show.THe old track record was set at 14.198 and Moyer turned the oval at 13.670. For the Silver Anniversay season-I-44 will provide an action packed schedule featuring the World Of Outlaw LateModels,WOW 360 Sprints,USMTS Modifieds,THe DLRA and MARS LateModel Series along with the MRSA LateModels. |