A look at Rockford Speedway's final season, through eyes of a veteran and a youngster

The Rockford Speedway has been a launching point for race car drivers for decades, and now it is headed down the backstretch of its final season.

Drivers both young and old have flocked back to the Rockford Speedway in hopes of earning one more win there — or their first, depending on who you talk to. A couple of drivers from completely different generations, but who have found success at the local track both in the past and present, Russ Goodwin and Max Kahler, are helping make this Rockford Speedway sendoff a memorable one.

Both for the fans, and for themselves.

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"This wasn't the plan, but I just had to come back for the last season," said Goodwin, a 55-year-old racer who took 20 years off before returning for one more season this year. "I wanted to make one more run at it here at my home track, and, well, I guess this became my last chance, didn't it? We're having fun. And I just felt like I had to do it."

On the other end of the scale, 20-year-old racer Max Kahler has run a few more races at Rockford Speedway than he had the past two seasons, mainly because he knows his home track won't be around much longer. His father Bob Kahler raced Late Models at Rockford for years as Max was growing up, and now the track he's grown so familiar with from the driver's seat as well will soon be closing its doors.

"It's always been so convenient; so perfect, right down the road for me," Kahler said.

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In 2020 Kahler won the National Short Track Championship at age 17. He was also the 2020 Big 8 Series champion.

These days, he is racing Super Late Models in Rockford, at the Dells Raceway Park in the Wisconsin Dells, at Jefferson Speedway in Cambridge, Wisconsin, at Madison International Speedway in Rutland, Wisconsin, and at Warsaw Speedway in Warsaw, Indiana.

But his home track is nearing its own checkered flag.

Rockford Speedway's farewell

After opening in 1948, the Rockford Speedway has been one of the premiere racing stops in Illinois and the Midwest. But just before this season began, the Deery family, sole owners of the racetrack since 1967, announced they would be closing the track for good after this season.

The 50-acre lot at the corner of Forest Hills Road and Illinois Rt-173 has been transferred to HJS Development for future commercial use. The tear-down and leveling of the speedway are expected to begin in the fall after the final race. The final race on the schedule is Oct. 28: The Last Lap Season Classic Finale.

"It's sure going to change things around here," Goodwin said. He was rookie of the year in the Road Runner division back in 1983. "And this season, there is just a different vibe out there."

The Rockford Speedway is located in Loves Park, and it is a 1/4-mile, short-track, high-banked asphalt oval. Along with the Chicagoland Speedway and World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, these three are the only racetracks sanctioned under NASCAR in Illinois.

The veteran: Russ Goodwin

Goodwin raced Road Runners and Late Models at the Rockford Speedway from 1983 to 2004. He stepped away to help kickstart his son and his daughter's racing careers and never returned.

Until he found out this was going to be the last year for the Rockford Speedway, and he quickly found a way back into the driver's seat.

"I found out, and I said I wanted to give it one more go, and the next day I had a car and it was on," Goodwin said. "The first race this year, it was the first time I was racing in 20 years. It was so weird. The feeling was kind of like it was so familiar, but so different, at the same time. I wasn't sure I'd ever get back."

Goodwin's best finishes were two second-place finishes in the Road Runner division. He took seventh in the Late Models' division in 2004, his last full season at the track.

He was nudged back into racing by his 13-year-old grandson, Levi.

"I just felt like it was too long that our family was off the track," Levi Goodwin said. "I do want to race someday, and it stinks that I can't do it here (at the Rockford Speedway). At least my grandpa can race the last season here."

And this year, grandpa wants to go out on top. Russ Goodwin has placed third in the main-event feature the past two weekends and is climbing the rankings. He was in fourth place in the Short Tracker standings heading into this Saturday's race night.

"I felt like I had to get out here and give it a go," Goodwin said. "I just had to. For Levi, and for me."

The youngster: Max Kahler

Kahler didn't have any grandkids pushing him back onto the track.

The 20-year-old is still working on his associate's degree from Rock Valley College and plans to move on to his bachelor's degree next. But he made sure he had plenty of time, and plenty of enthusiasm, built up for this season in Rockford.

He has come a long way since he started racing go-karts at 7-years-old and racing Late Models at the Rockford Speedway at 13. He's on a tear in Super Late Models' points races all across the Midwest.

Still, his home track, and one of his favorite places to race, is and always will be Rockford Speedway.

"My big goal this year is to win a championship," Kahler said. "And if I can do it in Rockford's last year, that would be great... I'm going to miss racing here, that's for sure. I grew up here; I learned here. It means a lot to me and my family."

And to fans all across the area.

Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: A veteran and a youngster talk about final season at Rockford Speedway