Shaheen’s Springfield Speedway

Shaheen's Springfield Speedway, 1955 . From left: Norm Scantlin, Chuck Hubbard, Jim Brown, Bob Sager, Art 'Buster' Zellers. Hubbard was the first African-American driver to make a bid in local stock car racing. (Sangamon Valley Collection)

Shaheen’s Springfield Speedway, 1955 . From left: Norm Scantlin, Chuck Hubbard, Jim Brown, Bob Sager, Art ‘Buster’ Zellers. Hubbard was the first African-American driver to make a bid in local stock car racing. (Sangamon Valley Collection)

Joe Shaheen (1905-89)  operated the Springfield Speedway on the southeast corner of Dirksen Parkway and Clear Lake Avenue from 1947 to 1988.

Shaheen’s, also known as Little Springfield, was  a quarter-mile dirt oval. Races over the years featured midgets, stock cars, hot rods. sprint cars and others.

The Shaheen family closed the Speedway at the end of the 1988 season, after Joe encountered ill health. The last car to tour the oval was the hearse that transported Shaheen’s body to Oak Hill Cemetery.

The site now is a strip mall.  See many more Speedway photos here.schs logo (2)

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16 Responses to Shaheen’s Springfield Speedway

  1. Jamie Zellers says:

    Is there any way to get a copy of this picture? Art “Buster” Zellers was my father. Bob Sager was my Uncle.

    • editor says:

      Ms. Zellers: I pulled this photo from a DVD produced by the Sangamon County Historical Society. All the photos on the DVD came from the Sangamon Valley Collection at Lincoln Library, where you can get a much better reproduction. What’s more, there are two other photos on the DVD that also show your father and/or your uncle. All three apparently were originally donated to the library by Margaret Sager Hohimer; would she also be a relative?

      Thanks for reading.

  2. kevin troesch says:

    i am after a copy of that pic to as Bob Sager was my grandfather and all his photos the family had have been lost .

  3. Jewell Young says:

    Was it later enlarged to a 3/8 mile track???

  4. Justin says:

    Did anyone know of Merle Green who raced here in 1948?

  5. tim says:

    hi I won a race at little springfield in the fall of 1985 just wundering if you have any pictures of it ? i think it was an allstar race called it the Joe shaheen super sprint weekend ?

  6. Alan Thompson says:

    When I was a kid growing up in virden I went to races with my dad. We went for a drive on clear lake where drag strip use to be. Did Joe first start a track out there by it.
    We saw a track out there and it looked a little better than the one on clear lake.

  7. Tal Boyer says:

    No, It was always a quarter mile track

    • Tal Boyer says:

      I was wrong, it was a quarter when I moved in 1973, looking at another article of pictures & track records, it stated track was enlarged in 1981, it didn’t state to the new size.

  8. Carolyn Johnson says:

    Does anyone recall Chuck Weyant’s Holiday Inn and Raceway Bar on Peoria Road ? A family member of mine who knew him from Shaheen’s had her wedding breakfast there in 1960 and doesn’t remember the exact location. Any help is appreciated.

  9. duane hetzler says:

    I remember going to the track to watch the races every weekend enjoy them alot

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