Grab your masks and earplugs. We’re going racing.

Opening night at Grundy County Speedway is scheduled for Friday, June 26. The highlight event will be the Cabin Fever 50 for late models.

Co-promoter Steve Bechtel made probably the most liked and shared post of his social media life on June 12 when he broke the news.

“We’ve been working with the Illinois Motorsports Coalition and with local health officials and put everything in place that we needed to,” Bechtel said. “We’re excited for people to be there.

“We’re allowed 35 percent capacity, and we’ll have some rules and social distancing guidelines on the website in the days before. We’re pumped.”

I haven’t been to the facility for any of the practice sessions, but the “new” Grundy County Speedway is getting rave reviews.

There have been several upgrades to the speedway, both in the pits and around the midway.

The biggest change was made on the track, where new lights have been installed.

Late model driver and former champion Anthony Danta is impressed with what he’s seen on the internet.

“I was watching the promotional video and I was like, ‘Yeah, it looks brighter,’” Danta said. “Then someone posted a side by side of before, and after and it looks night-and-day different.

“It literally looks like a whole different track. It’ll be cool to get out there. I’m so used to how it was, hopefully it doesn’t mess me up when it’s nighttime.”

Danta is recovering from a back ailment and it will be a last-minute decision whether he runs on opening night. But late model competitor James Gregait is ready. He has been ready for almost 12 months.

His 2019 season ended on Fourth of July weekend when a tangle with another driver resulted in a serious crash.

“When the wreck happened, it basically pretzeled the back third of the car,” Gregait said. “We had to have it rebuilt. Last year was a tough pill to swallow. We’re excited and looking forward to this season.”

Mikuly remembered:The local racing community lost a big benefactor on June 16 when former Illiana Speedway owner/promoter Mike Mikuly died.

Mikuly, who was a street stock track champion at Illiana in the early 1990s, bought the speedway in 1999 from founder Harry Molenaar. He completely renovated the half-mile Schererville, Indiana track before the 2000 season, turning it into one of the Midwest’s short track jewels.

Former late model competitor and current Grundy County tire man John Brolick said the renovation did wonders for the competition at Illiana.

“Oh, it was horrible to race on before,” Brolick said. “Frank Gawlinski had it mastered, but nobody could compete against him. Once they redid the track, we were getting different winners.”

Indeed, thanks to Mikuly, Illiana became known for its tremendous two-groove, competitive racing. As an example, Danta was the late model champion in 2015, but there were nine different late model feature winners.

“He took the track over and put a ton of work and effort into it,” Danta said. “He turned it into an awesome facility. He kept it going. Even the last couple of years, when you could tell things weren’t going well financially, he stuck it out as long as he could.

“Not many people would do that. He took the initiative to take the track and turn it into something more than it was. He tried. But not everything lasts forever.”

Mikuly sold the speedway property to the town of Schererville in 2016. He faced a share of criticism within the racing community, but late model competitor Dean Patterson put it in its best perspective.

“I liked him,” Patterson said. “He’s a business guy, and we talked about business quite a bit. We had 17 more years of racing because he put it all on the line to share what he enjoyed doing with all of us.

“Thank God that Mike Mikuly was there.”