It's been rumored for a few months now that Route 66 was going bye, bye due to the relatively low revenue generated and the high costs of operating that place taking into account ALL of the events that run there. Obviously, the NHRA is/was the primary factor though.
The rumor circulating in tandem with that one is that as a result of the demise of Route 66, someone (or a group of someones) are planning on building a new, more sensibly built (i.e. more realistic seating capacity), facility somewhere in the Western/Southwestern suburbs that would take the place of Route 66 and then hold an NHRA event.
If the first rumor is true, I sure hope the second one is too. Having grown up in the Chicago area I loved going to Route 66 and felt some sense of home state pride knowing that it was widely regarded as the quickest and fastest track on the circuit even though I've been in Indianapolis for the past 20 years.
I've had A LOT of great memories there from my son's infamous 7th birthday with Gilby and Wilk in 2004, Doug Kalitta's mind blowing 4.42/333mph run in 2003, the Parties raising funds for John Lawson across from the track and the seemingly endless one upping of the Funny Car times (Scelzi, Pedregon, etc....) from year to year not to mention the "I wonder what will we have to endure this year?" weather events that seemed to plague this place.
I also remember the Fall race in 2005 where in what I think was his 1st year on his own after JFR, Gary Densham's "slow" 16th place qualifying time of 4.842 kept it from being the 1st ever field to run in the 4.70's or better in Funny Car. Cruz was #1 @ 4.680 and Tony Bartone was 15th with a 4.792.
Joliet was also the place my brother got "baptized" into the NHRA. I remember my cousin and former 'Mater Dozer and I taking him up to the starting line along the concrete wall during a Funny Car session and Dozer says to him, "If you're lucky, you might see a body fly off." Well, damn if right on cue, it didn't happen the very next pair and the car in the lane closest to us (oddly enough I think it was also Densham) bangs the blower right off the line and jettisons the body fully intact into the air only to float down like a piece of paper right in front of us. Should have played the lottery that day.
Obviously, I hope it stays and if not hope that someone wants to build a new place in the Chicago area keeping the tradition of it being the track where records are set.
