Quincy Raceways owners announce move to Friday night features beginning in 2026

QUINCY — Quincy Raceways will be moving to Friday nights for the 2026 dirt-track race season.

That was the official announcement when wet weather again forced cancellation of a Sunday night program at 8000 Broadway.

The track has been cursed by wet weather this year. There have been only two race dates since May 25. Ironically, the season opened with five uninterrupted nights of racing between April 27 and May 25. Since then, there have been only two nights of racing, June 22 and July 6.

“Mother Nature has not been kind, to say the least,” said Jeff DeLonjay, who with his wife, Renee, are in the midst of their first year as track owners. “Next year we are moving to Friday night lights.”

Jeff DeLonjay said Sunday nights will be used as rain dates.

“There is no other way to do it,” he said. “It is the way to assure there is enough racing each year to keep racing alive in Quincy.”

While committing to the move to weekly Friday night racing in 2026, DeLonjay said he is also studying the possibility of moving some late-season race nights next year to Sunday. That would accommodate area high school football fans since prep football traditionally opens on Friday nights in mid-to-late August. 

The six rainouts this season are believed to be the most since 1993 when a flood that summer washed out much of the season. The six dates are definitely the most since 1999 when those and other track numbers started being tracked and compiled on a regular basis.

DeLonjay said he is continuing to look at extending the current season into the early fall to try to help offset the recent rash of rainouts. Attendance, however, tends to drop, in terms of both participants and fans, once school begins. Additional race dates, if any, will be announced in the near future.

At this point, track championships will still be decided on Aug. 24. DeLonjay said he does not foresee any change in that schedule.

The next scheduled night of racing is Aug. 3. DeLonjay said July 27 will remain an off night due to a pre-season arrangement with Lee County Speedway in Donnellson, Iowa, which will be running that night rather than on Saturday.

MARS makeup date

There was at least one dose of good news emerging from the track over the weekend. DeLonjay said a makeup date with Mid-America Racing Series (MARS) will see the organization returning to Quincy on Sept. 14 to make up Sunday’s rainout.