Rick Bill
I began my love for auto racing at an early age back in the late 1950s and early 1960s while attending Oswego drag strip to watch my brother race. As soon as my driver’s license was in hand I began my conquest of Oswego’s quarter-mile every Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!. By the early 1970s my attention turned to stock cars as I and a few friends built and raced street stocks in the spectator division at Santa Fe Speedway. That adventure soon progressed as they advanced to the Sportsman division.
Then around 1977, I began a long association with veteran stock car driver Denny Falkos. With me as car mechanic we focused primarily on the highly-competitive late model division at Santa Fe Speedway. However, for the next decade–when not at Santa Fe–we traveled extensively through out the Midwest and competed at many other speed plants, sometimes racing as many as three and four times a week. By the late 1980s I slowed my on-track activities to become the Motorsports writer for then Copley Press (now Sun-Times group). I penned weekly columns and feature stories covering all forms of motorsports for the Aurora Beacon, Waukegan Journal, Elgin Courier and the Joliet Herald.
I began my radio career in 1994 with the debut of Victory Lane which I co-hosted with Kenny Jacobs. With Jacobs departure, Tom Churchill and John McCrory joined the show...And the rest is history! I live in Yorkville with my wife, Susan, and two children, Erika and Jason.