ADMIRAL STADIUM

Year of operation:  1951

Location:  South River Road – just south of Redecker Rd., Des Plaines, Ill. (according to Ronnie Kaplan in 2007, the track was on River Rd., north of the railroad tracks – between Rand and Golf Roads)\

Notes:  Thunder Bug (Three Quarter Midget) Racing took place at the Des Plaines baseball field in 1951…owned by Mike Boyle, Chicago electrical union head, and home of Chicago-based National Girls Baseball League team…the Chicago Tribune shows the stadium being built for girls baseball in the summer of 1949…The Music Maids, owned by Frank Darling played there from 1949 through 1951…Tribune reported the property being sold in December of 1951 by Darling…Ted Hartley of Roanoke, Ind. and Chicago’s Ronnie Kaplan were the two top drivers in competition…Hartley in his Indian “45” – powered car won six features, including three in a row at the 1/8-mile clay track…Kaplan won four features also winning three in-a-row…first race held on 6/14/51 and 25-lap feature was won by Earl “Smokey” Smith…Soldier Field stock car racer Gil “Skippy” Michaels, in a Crosley Eight-powered car, also won a feature race there in July…three of the first five race meets canceled because of rain.  Kaplan remembered the track as a good 1/8-mile with a dugout in the area of turn three – “a guy slid into the dugout once”…Property eventually sold to electric utility company for new sub station.

Three gentlemen pose in the Three Quarter Midget Racing Association Midget Division exhibit at an undisclosed trade show prior to the 1951 season.  Notice the signs for the opening race at Admiral Stadium and a "field meet" at the Schererville (later Illiana) Speedway.  The No. 2 car was owned by Illiana owner Harry Molenaar.  The Molenaar Special was powered by a Harley-Davidson motorcycle engine.
(James Kuehnke Photo)

 Ronnie Kaplan (#9) and Bob Netzel (#1) race their three-quarter midgets at Admiral Stadium in Des Plaines, Ill., on June 28, 1951. 
(Bob Sheldon Photo)