Vermilion County no longer has a stock car racetrack, but there is a new remote-control, or RC, track available in Danville for both adults and kids to use.
Retired racer Mike Pollitt built the Germantown Raceway in his back yard in 2016, and built the current clay track last summer, complete with guardrails and lights. He says people have now come from long distances away to compete.
“We’ve got guys coming from Indiana, from Kokomo,” he says. “A friend of mine came up from Louisiana. He should be back again. It will pull cars and people in from a couple-hour radius, easily.”
Currently, racing at the track is being offered three nights a week. Points racing is held each Sunday beginning at 4 p.m. There is also regular racing on Wednesday nights at 6 p.m. Saturday’s are being designated as Kids Night, where area youth can race beginning at 6 p.m., and adults can also help them work on their RC cars.
(These three cars are modeled after Pollitt’s life-sized cars that he used to race in.)
One of the marquee events at the track is taking place on Monday.
“We’re having the Germantown 500 stock-slash race,” he explains. “It’s Monday–we’re going to start at 2:00 on Monday. It will be four segments of 125 laps. It’s a pretty grueling race. I got second place at Kokomo (Speedway) in the 500 up there, and I wanted to do one here.”
Germantown Raceway is located at the corner of Collett and May streets, just north of the Fairchild Street overpass.
