Belle-Clair Speedway had been dead for six years. The grandstands were rotting. Weeds had eaten the dirt. By 2022, the whole place was deemed uninsurable. Nobody thought it was coming back, not even the people trying to save it.

Kenny Wallace had been one of those people. The NASCAR veteran spent years pointing his camera at the decay, posting videos, making noise. Still, when it finally happened, even he could not quite believe it.

“I cannot believe this happened,” Wallace said. “Everybody was thinking, ‘There’s no way they’re going to pull this off.'”

St. Clair County Board Chairman Mark Kern had a simple answer for why they did.

“It had to happen. The identity of St. Clair County was tied to this racetrack.”

That identity goes back to 1948. Belle-Clair opened as a half-mile banked dirt oval in Belleville, Illinois, before being tightened down to a 1/5-mile bullring, one of the smallest, most chaotic tracks in the country.

The World of Outlaws came through. The DIRTcar Summer Nationals ran there. For decades, it was where Midwest racing talent cut its teeth. Then COVID shut it down in 2020, the owners walked away, and nature moved in.

There was no saving the old track. Engineers said so clearly. In March 2025, it was torn down. Hank’s Excavating leveled the site for $85,000 using federal relief funds. What went up in its place cost $13.9 million — funded through the American Rescue Plan and state grants.

This is not a restoration. The new facility of Belle-Clair Speedway sits slightly southeast of where the original stood. The cramped 1/5-mile layout is gone. In its place is a 1/4-mile high-banked dirt oval with modern drainage, covered grandstands for up to 4,000 fans, and pit areas wide enough for today’s full-size haulers.

The doors open August 1, 2026, with KKM Midgets, DIRTcar Modifieds, and NARA Winged Micro Sprints kicking things off at the St. Clair Fair Classic.

The man running Belle-Clair Speedway is Curtis Francois, owner of the nearby World Wide Technology Raceway, which hosts NASCAR Cup events. He did not just show up to sign a lease. He helped design the track. His company, WM Marketing, locked in an 11-year deal starting July 1, 2026. Francois knows exactly what he wants this place to be.

“The goal is to make sure this is known as a place to come from all over the Midwest to find the best racing in the country,” he said. “There was nothing left on the table.”

The Belle-Clair Speedway Deal Meant to Last

The lease was written with patience in mind. The fee starts at $15,000 for 2026, climbs to $30,000 annually through 2031, then settles at $35,000 through 2036. Once events start pulling over $100,000 in ticket sales, the county takes a 10% cut.

Concessions go the same way: St. Clair County gets a share of everything sold at the track and the overhauled Expo Center, handled by local restaurateur Rob Lenhardt of Mac’s restaurants.

Day-to-day, the track is run by Chris Blair and Toby Kruse. Kruse has won Regional Promoter of the Year four times. These are not rookies figuring it out as they go.

Kenny Wallace summed it up simply. A county, a racetrack owner, and a team of promoters looked at a rotting bullring and decided it was worth $13.9 million to bring back.

For Belle-Clair Speedway, it was never really about the money. It was about what that little dirt oval meant to the people who grew up watching it.