County begins demolishing old Belle-Clair Speedway, a fixture of Belleville for decades
Demolition of the old Belle-Clair Speedway racetrack that has been a fixture of Belleville for more than seven decades began Thursday morning.
The track first opened for racing in 1948 featuring a fifth-of-a-mile, banked dirt oval with a grandstand seating 5,000 people. It shut down in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, the track and grandstands fell into disrepair.
St. Clair County approved an agreement to purchase the property from private ownership in late 2022. The county soon plans to build a new racetrack and bring auto racing back to the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds.
The County Board signed a contract with Hank’s Excavating and Landscaping Inc. in late 2024 to complete the old racetrack demolition for $85,000, paid for with federal COVID-related relief funds from the American Rescue Plan.
The contract also included demolitions of four other structures the county purchased last year to expand the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds property and make way for the new track, which the county plans to construct in the southeast corner of the 200 South Belt East property. The cost of those demolitions is $65,800.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM with the headline "County begins demolishing old Belle-Clair Speedway, a fixture of Belleville for decades."
