New plans, grand opening date unveiled for Belle-Clair Speedway’s comeback
St. Clair County officials have released an updated design for the new Belle-Clair Speedway racetrack, along with their latest target for when racing will return to Belleville.
County Board Chairman Mark Kern said the goal is to have the first races on the new track in July, during the 2026 St. Clair County Fair. The event is scheduled to take place July 30-Aug. 1 at the Belle-Clair Fairgrounds, 200 South Belt East.
“They’re already pouring the footings, and it’s moving along,” Kern said of the track’s construction in a late January interview.
“The cold weather has slowed us down a little bit, but we had gotten significant work done before the cold weather hit, and so we believe we’re still on schedule to be racing in July.”
Officials originally hoped to reopen the track for auto races in 2024, but that target was first moved to 2025 and now to 2026.
The track will be slightly larger than officials initially planned. A rendering of the updated design includes a quarter-mile track replacing the old one-fifth mile oval that had been a fixture of Belleville for more than seven decades.
The expansion was made possible after the county acquired all the land bordering the property’s southeast corner, where the new track will be constructed. Most of the lots were privately owned, while some were owned by the city of Belleville, which transferred ownership to the county.
The county’s Public Building Commission approved spending $2.1 million to purchase a total of 14 properties from individuals or companies.
The commission manages county-owned properties, including the fairgrounds, courthouse and MidAmerica St. Louis Airport.
Fairgrounds construction costs
At its January meeting, the Public Building Commission also accepted Impact Strategies’ final guaranteed maximum price for racetrack construction: $9.4 million. The board had previously hired Impact Strategies for $4.5 million in preconstruction work, including design, grading and utility relocation, bringing the total project cost to $13.9 million.
County Buildings Director Jim Brede said funding will come from Public Building Commission reserves, with at least $5 million expected to be reimbursed through a state grant.
The St. Clair County Board also allocated $15.2 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds for improvements to the fairgrounds, including a new roof, HVAC system and other upgrades to the expo center.
Previously, the county used COVID relief funds to buy the property from private ownership and demolish the old racetrack for $2.3 million and $85,000, respectively. Counties have until the end of 2026 to spend their COVID money.
