![]() ![]() “People tell me, ‘You’re a legend,” he said. Perhaps time away from slaving over a hot microphone will give the humble Hammond a chance to assess a local-media career that might be close to unparalleled. ![]() Hammond plans to continue as play-by-play voice of Bradley women’s basketball on WMBD, including the upcoming season that begins in November. But he’ll still be on the radio, in limited doses. If things didn’t work out in Peoria broadcasting, he’d just do something else locally.Īfter retiring, Hammond doesn’t intend to do much else, except spend more time with his two daughters and his grandson. Never during that career did Hammond consider working in a different market, he said. “To me, it’s almost mind-blowing to think about nearly five decades of that type of service and how many people he has impacted and touched over his career.” “Literally, he has probably saved lives,” Wild said. That latter event in the Hammond portfolio was particularly important, according to Wild. It also led to his coverage of the Peoria area’s biggest stories over the past four decades.Īmong them were the mid-1980s recovery from the Illinois River of missing Morton couple Elmo and Edna Batterton the 1987 killing of Peoria County Sheriff’s deputy John Sack and the 2013 Washington tornado. The training Hammond received at WIRL and later at WXCL helped prepare him to become news director at WMBD, a position he’s held about five years. “I just kind of rolled with the flow and took the punches that went along and tried to say yes to just about every opportunity that came along,” Hammond said. There he learned from two big names in Peoria broadcasting history, news director Ira Bitner and Bradley University basketball play-by-play man Mort Cantor. Hammond’s experience in radio news started in earnest in 1981, when he landed at WIRL. Sports play-by-play and playing host to music programming comprised much of those early days. The 2022 Silver Crown race was also postponed to October, this time by rain.Thus began a career that simultaneously was nomadic and Peoria-centric. The 2020 Silver Crown race was delayed until October 18 by the COVID-19 pandemic it was the latest that a race has been held at the track in a year and became the series' finale of the season. Grand National Champion was crowned based solely on the results of the Springfield Mile held at the fairground racetrack. The Bettenhausen 100 was part of the AAA/USAC Championship Car schedule from 1934 to 1940, 1947 to 1970 and again in 19, and has been a Silver Crown]championship race since then.įrom 1946 to 1953, the A.M.A. Chuck Gurney is the only seven-time winner of the Bettenhausen 100, while ARCA driver Frank Kimmel won the Allen Crowe Memorial for the seventh time in 2008. Both races are now held on the last weekend of the Illinois State Fair. The track is host to two of the older memorial events in the United States, the Bettenhausen 100 for the USAC dirt championship cars, first run in 1961 and the Allen Crowe Memorial 100 stock car event for USAC, now ARCA, stock cars, first held in 1963. Foyt ran his first national championship race there in August 1957. īilly Winn won the first national championship dirt track race held at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 1934. The only driver who has won races in three disciplines of racing in Ken Schrader who won in ARCA cars (1998), UMP Modifieds (1998), and midgets. The Illinois State Fair mile currently hosts the Allen Crowe Memorial 100 ARCA stock car race, USAC Silver Crown championship dirt cars, UMP Late Models and Modifieds and the A.M.A. Since 1993, the venue is managed by Bob Sargent's Track Enterprises. It is the home of five world records for automobile racing, making it one of the fastest dirt tracks in the world. It is the oldest track to continually host national championship dirt track racing, holding its first national championship race in 1934 under the American Automobile Association banner. The original mile track utilized the current frontstretch and the other side was behind the current grandstands and the straightaways were connected by tight turns. Constructed in the late 19th century and reconstructed in 1927, the track has hosted competitive auto racing since 1910, making it one of the oldest speedways in the United States. It is frequently nicknamed The Springfield Mile. Illinois State Fairgrounds Racetrack is a one mile long clay oval motor racetrack on the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, the state capital.
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