Originally compiled by past East Peoria Historical Society President, Frank Borror, in November 2016

In the late 1940s and early 1950s East Peoria was home to an automotive racetrack – Death Valley Raceway. It was operated by Frank Hoffer on property owned by his brother George Hoffer. Gus, the youngest Hoffer brother and his wife rented the farm above the racetrack from George and charged twenty-five cents to park in a farm field while watching the races.

George Hoffer owned a construction company and had a gravel pit on this property. He was the Fondulac Township road commissioner for a number of years. George also owned another gravel pit located where EastSide Center sits today. The half-mile racetrack was located at the end of Reinders Road off of Meadows Avenue (U.S. 150) and the farm was later divided into a seventy- eight lot residential subdivision — Hoffer Knolls. 

The racetrack was laid out similar to a motorcycle TT track with the course starting up a hill, across the top and down a hill before turning. There was a lake at the race track and the racing path ran beside the lake or crossed the dam, according to two separate accounts, and was interspersed with trees. The lake was said to be west of the straightaway coming into the judge’s stand and a concession stand sat in turn three. Unlike most race tracks, the pits were located on the outside of the track and the spectators sat in the middle (where there were no bleachers) or on a hillside outside the track. 

The circuit was advertised as a dirt-oil track, but Marilyn Hoffer Harrmann, George Hoffer’s daughter, remembers it mostly as dust. The George Hoffer family lived on Pleasant Hill Road and Marilyn recalls sitting on a hillside and watching many wrecks on the curve below. The track operated from 1947 through 1952 and was sanctioned by the Peoria Stock Car Racing Association. 

Where the name Death Valley originated is unknown and only one fatality was known to have happened on the track. A flagman named Les ran onto the track during a woman’s race in 1949 to warn his wife of a pile-up ahead and he was struck and killed by a racecar. Some say it was the car his wife was driving. It is also said a man absconded with the prize money for this race and reportedly went to California. Both occurrences increased the notoriety and consequently the popularity of the track.

A number of young drivers got their racing starts here. Local racing star Herb Shannon started racing here when he was sixteen and went on to be a NASCAR driver. He was the first racing inductee into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame. Other drivers included Shorty Schumm, Johnie Langford, Lee Tosi, Tony Antonini, Phil Lance, and Dave Board. Local favorite Bob Wagner, a 1942 graduate of East Peoria High School, visited the racetrack one day, having never driven a racecar. One of the Hoffers let him drive a convertible around the track, and he was told that was the fastest anyone had ever completed a circuit. He borrowed a Studebaker from one of the Hoffer’s friends for his first race. The race started from a standing start, up a hill, across the top, and on the way down, Bob collided with a stump, wrecking the car. He later drove for Robinson’s Junkyard located on Camp Street. His 1934 two-door sedan Ford V8, built by Robinson’s son Burt and Burt’s wife Flossie, was all but unbeatable. 

Bob’s racing memorabilia and that of Death Valley Raceway can be viewed at Joe’s Garage, a racecar museum on Route 66 in Towanda, Illinois. Marilyn Harrmann has some 16-millimeter footage of the race track and the Historical Society hopes to have it digitized and placed in the Local History section of Fondulac Library.