Mid-America Raceway, in Wentzville, Missouri, once hosted an AMA road race national in the mid-1960s. The MCRA club racing group ran races there in the 1970s and into the early 1980s. This photo is from a MCRA/WERA race at Mid-America in 1984. It was one of the final motorcycle road races at the track. This shot shows you how much the track had deteriorated in 20 years. In spite of MCRA’s efforts to patch the track it got so bad that fist-sized chunks of pavement were being kicked up by the bikes at triple-digit speed – a receipt for major disaster. I believe they still may be using the dragstrip at the track today, but the road course has sat silent for nearly 30 years. I can’t ID most of the riders in this photo. Based on the wide variety of machines on the grid, it must have been a short endurance race. I believe No. 902 is Steve Cline, Neil Tolhurst (No. 522), and Doug Stageman (No. 761).
Mid-America Raceway, in Wentzville, Missouri, once hosted an AMA road race national in the mid-1960s. The MCRA club racing group ran races there in the 1970s and into the early 1980s. This photo is from a MCRA/WERA race at Mid-America in 1984. It was one of the final motorcycle road races at the track. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
Sorry to say, but the track was sold a few years ago. There is a housing development being built on it now. You can still make out the track on Google Maps http://g.co/maps/jt2hv Sad. My father did pretty good there in the early 80’s. He used to call it one of the world’s longest paved motocross tracks. Which suited his enduro/hare scrambles background pretty well 🙂 We used to camp under the trees in the back of the paddock. One of the few tracks I went to more than once while dad was still road racing.
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Cool. Thanks for the Google Maps link.
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Larry, you’re awesome. You keep coming up with these historic sites I’ve never heard of. Please go visit this place soon so that you can give us some updated pics. You keep teasing us into wanting more.
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Dave Probst is 615 way over on the (Riders) left. He rode an 82 550 Katana til 87 when he won his region on the GSXR 750. Our dad raced SCCA before there before we were born. Was sad to see it go ofcourse. A “Road America style” track with elevation changes and a long up hill straight away. The owners of MAR were big in cattle and feed and had no desire to develop the track. It stayed open as a drag strip til about 2008ish.
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Wheels up Holeshot. That was a MCRA 100k I was 5th into the first turn and lead most of the race. 2 laps from the checkers ,I hit a hole blew a shift and fragged the motor. I rode the last 2 laps on 2 cyls till Tim Morrisey past me just before the checkers. I still got 2nd overall. Great times with great people…..Doug Stageman 761
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Now that you mention Morrisey, I think that’s him on the far right. As I remember, I think his number was 854, and it looks like that to me.
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I’m calling BS. I thought I had 2nd overall that race on a GPZ305 behind Steve Cline who won then recruited me to ride with Fast Company at the Nelson 24 hour that year which we won our heavy weight class. Good to see you guys here, albeit years ago.
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The first SCCA National Solo II Championship, conducted by the St. Louis Region, was held at Mid America Raceway in October 1973. I won F Stock by 1.8 seconds at that first National in my 1969 Camaro SS convertible. It was a dual course event and I was one of the two competitors that won on both courses; Chet Hansen in E Prepared was the other. Mid America Raceway was a great venue for that first SCCA National Solo II Championship.
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