Al Covington at Peoria TT Motorcycle Races
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REVVED UP
8/18/25
Peoria Journal Star USA TODAY NETWORK
BARTONVILLE — Allen Covington has virtually seen it all at the World Famous Peoria TT motorcycle races. Or at least, he’s virtually seen all of them. While the oldest continuously operated dirt track motorcycle race in the world zoomed around historic PMC Race Park in Bartonville on Saturday, Covington was there for the 68th time in his life.
This time, the 76-year- old saw Briar Bauman dip low on the opening lap and pass Dallas Daniels to take a lead he never relinquished in the Prestigious Mission SuperTwins race, a duel between American Flat Track’s top two riders in the season point series.Covington saw the debut of the AdventureTrackers class, and he saw Australian Tom Drane — who joined at age 17 as the youngest rider on the pro tour — win the AFT Kicker Singles class race by more than a quarter of the track.
“I saw my first race here when I was 5 years old, in 1953 I think,” Covington said. “My family would sit up at the top of the hill above Turn 2, and by the end of the races we’d be all the way down to the bottom. It was so much fun. “
I’ve seen so much here. I was here when Jay Springsteen was leading the race and on his way to a victory, then accidentally bumped his fuel shutoff with his knee and his bike shut down. I watched Joe Leonard, who went on to race Indy cars. RogerSoderstrom (an AMA Hall of Fame inductee) would always take the highest line possible around the track.
“I watched Chris Carr, the Prince of Peoria, who named his son Cameron after the road this race track is on.” Carr won the Peoria TT 13 straight years, a record until “King” Henry Wiles came along and won it 14 in a row. Leonard won it in 1954 and 1956.
A Single sensation Peoria Heights native Allen Covington was on hand for his 68th World Famous Peoria TT motorcycle races at PMC Race Park in Bartonville on Aug. 16.
Covington, a class of 1966 Richwoods High School grad and Bradley grad (class of ‘70) lived for many years in Peoria Heights and worked most of his life as a banker, making commercial loans on houses, cars, and yes, motorcycles. He says a Kawasaki 175 is the only motorcycle he ever owned. He’s an avid bicycle rider, too, and at age 65 he averaged 20 mph throughout a 20- mile long bike race.
The Army veteran said he missed the 1970 race because he was in basic training. He missed the race when the pandemic hit in 2020. Saturday, he was on hand as always, wearing a floppy hat and enduring 97degree heat from his perch alongside the track’s famous jump. “You ask any rider, they’ll tell you this is their favorite track, favorite place on the tour,” Covington said. “ There’s just so much history here, and this club does such a great job of presenting this race every year.”