Jody Deery

Jody Deery is the matriarch of one of the "first families" in NASCAR short-track racing. Deery was CEO of Deery Companies Inc., which include Rockford Speedway, a nationally acclaimed NASCAR Weekly Racing Series quarter-mile oval; Forest Hills Lodge, a banquet and convention center in Rockford; Uncle Jack's Inc., an off-premise concession sale and wholesale racing supply distributor; and Deery Properties, which owns and manages commercial and residential rental property.

But it was her leadership of Rockford Speedway for which she was best known. The speedway celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997. Deery's husband, the late Hugh Deery, built and opened the track, which has operated continuously since.

Mr. Deery was a visionary in the short-track motorsports industry. He was among the first to recognize "Saturday night" short-track racing as an entertainment business, and the first to introduce an economical Late Model division.

Mr. Deery passed away suddenly in 1984, and immediately thrust leadership of family and business to Jody. Ten years later, Mrs. Deery was selected as the Racing Promotion Monthly (RPM) Auto Racing Promoter of the Year, an award she received in February 1995. The award, voted on by short-track operators around the country, had twice gone to Hugh Deery -- in 1976, and posthumously in 1984.

Jody Deery continued Rockford Speedway's heritage of great racing and entertainment, and expanded it. In recent years, a modern aluminum and steel structure replaced the track's main grandstand, based on the wooden structure built when the track was constructed. The new state-of the-art seating added to the track's modern, family atmosphere.

"I considered Hugh Deery to be the greatest promoter ever, and now the legacy continues with you taking your rightful place as the nation's top promoter," Lowe's Motor Speedway president H.A. "Humpy" Wheeler said to Mrs. Deery upon her RPM award. "You are an inspiration to all of us in the community of auto racing."