How popular is auto racing in the Chicago area these days? For Exhibit A, look no farther than the turnout at the inaugural weekend of racing the last weekend in May at the new state-of-the-art Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. The four days of racing attracted 135,000 fans, making it the second-largest crowd ever for a National Hot Rod Association weekend event.
“We had a super turnout,” says Chris Gallas, Route 66 director of marketing and sales. “We’ll be racing four days a week at Route 66 Raceway until October. Drag racing, motocross, sprint cars, motorcycles, trucks, stock cars, open-wheeled cars; just about anything that rolls can and will race at Route 66.”
Route 66 Raceway (815-722-5500; www.rt66raceway.com) features a dragstrip, a three-eighths-mile paved oval track, a half-mile clay oval track, an off-road truck course and a two-mile, 15-turn road course on its 230 acres.
Route 66 isn’t the area’s only racing venue. For instance, many of the planet’s top drivers, such as Jimmy Vasser, Alex Zanardi and Christian Fittipaldi, will race at Elkhart Lake on Aug. 15 and 16 in the Texaco-Havoline 200.
And you don’t have to be one of the great drivers to race around here. There are several local old-time tracks, where drivers pursue their hobby at breakneck speeds just for the fun of it, and maybe to earn a few bucks.
Bob Wilberg, 34, of Orfordville, Wis., is a four-time late-model stock car track champion at Rockford Speedway, where he’s been racing for 11 years. “It’s in the blood,” said Wilberg, who started racing go-karts as a kid. “I’d hot-rod around in high school, and I got my share of tickets. Then I realized it makes more sense to jump in a race car and do it legally. You have to love to go fast, and you have to love to work on cars.”
Along with existing tracks, Sportsman’s Park in Cicero is being transformed into the Chicago Motor Speedway, with auto racing planned for next year. There are also plans for a 1.5-mile speedway near Aurora in Plano, being built by a partnership between owners of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the International Speedway Corp. of Daytona Beach, Fla.
Are there enough motor sports fans to go around? Or will some of these tracks end up on the junk heap, like the U.S. 30 Dragstrip, Santa Fe Speedway and Meadowdale Raceways? Jack Deery, president of Rockford Speedway, believes the sport has rebounded.
“The Chicago market is dying for a venue like Route 66 Raceway,” he says. “There are so many people who want to race or attend as fans. People are realizing that racing provides a lot of entertainment for the dollar. Lots of people have the bug.”
Whether you want to see a Bob Wilberg or an Al Unser Jr., here’s what’s out there within a few hours drive of Chicago:
Rockford Speedway: They’re racing Wednesday and Saturday nights at the quarter-mile banked oval at Rockford (815-633-1500; www.rockfordspeedway.com), as they’ve been doing for the past 50 years. What’s it like racing at Rockford? Imagine 30 or so cars flying around a football field, and that gives you a good idea. There are 12 divisions of racing at Rockford, including NASCAR late models and American short trackers. Then there’s the crazy stuff, like school bus races, double-decker car races and the world-famous trailer races, scheduled for Aug. 1. Current NASCAR drivers Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Dick Trickle and Ted Musgrave used to race at Rockford.
Sycamore Speedway: There’s racing Friday and Saturday nights in Sycamore (815-895-5454) until September. Friday night’s festivities usually include a demolition derby, while Saturday nights feature all classes of stock car racing. Sycamore Speedway is on Illinois Highway 64 three miles east of downtown Sycamore.
Wilmot Speedway: The dirt’s always flying at Wilmot Speedway (847-838-RACE; www.racingonline.com/wilmot), just over the Illinois border in southeast Wisconsin. Sprint cars are king at the one-third-mile oval, located at the Kenosha County Fairgrounds. Racing is held at Wilmot most Friday and Saturday nights.
Lake Geneva Motor Sports Raceway: Lake Geneva Raceway (414-248-8566; www.racingonline.com/LGR), located southeast of the downtown area on Bloomfield Road, offers motocross racing on Friday nights and stock car racing on the one-third-mile paved oval on Saturdays until October. Overnight camping is also available at the track, which opened in 1966, on selected race weekends.
Road America: Road America (800-365-7223; www.roadamerica.com) in Elkhart Lake, Wis., is a four-mile, 14-turn road course, the second-longest road course in the world. This year’s big race is the CART race on Aug. 16. Other events include the Merrill Lynch Brian Redman International Challenge, Thursday-July 19.
Southlake Speedway: Located in Crown Point, Ind., Southlake (219-662-4007; www.southlakespeedway.com) offers racing every Saturday night until Oct. 10. Among the drivers who have raced at the three-eighths-mile, semibanked oval is Benny Parsons, ESPN motorsports analyst and 1983 Winston Cup champion.
Milwaukee Mile: The Milwaukee Mile (414-453-8277; www.milmile.com) in West Allis, Wis., is racing at its purest, a simple one-mile oval. They used to race horses there, and in 1903 the first auto race was held when William Jones from Chicago won a five-mile race. Horses and autos shared the facility until 1954, when cars took over for good.
