 On Friday, Route 66 Raceway hosted the final racing event of its 2015 season with an O'Reilly Auto Parts Test & Tune. The talk of the night was the lack of rain. Finally, a beautiful night to race. There was a great car turnout with everything from Top Alcohol Dragsters to street cars. Their were licensing runs and fun runs. My only problem with the night was that I was unable to stay to the end. Just before last weekend's NASCAR race, I suffered a knee injury that has limited my day to day activities. I was able to push through last weekend somewhat to my detriment. I was able to get a few hours in before the knee decided, no more. Here is some of the action. To see more of the action that I was able to photograph, please click here.
To see our Collection of images, please click here. Next up for Route 66 is next Sunday's Route 66 Swap Meet. For more information please click here. Next weekend, my plan is to be at the 50th Annual National Short Track Championships at the Rockford Speedway. To see further information, please click here.
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This has been a very relaxing weekend to be at the track. With no track responsibilities, i.e. Victory Lane, etc., its been fun to just walk around the pits, talk to some teams and shoot cars/activities in the pits. I have to say that the day got very hot. Not only was the racing hot, but the weather was extremely hot. On the track, racing began promptly at 10:00 a.m. The tower announced that in the first thirty minutes, 134 cars had made a pass. The racing continued all day with two rounds of qualifying followed by the start of the Eliminations. The hot weather caused me to take more breaks to cool down than normal. At one point, the outside temperature on my car dash, read 97 degrees! By 3:00 p.m., the weather finally did me in. I decided, that was enough fun for the day and headed home. Here are some images of the day's action. To see all the images from today, please click here.
To see our entire collection, please click here. I want to thank B.J. Vangsness and the entire Byron Dragway staff for their hospitality. I was impressed with the friendliness and the operation. While I would love to spend a third day at Byron, I do have tend to the homefront on this Labor Day weekend. Next up, is Route 66 O'Reilly Auto Parts Test & Tune next Friday. I decided I would try to go to a drag strip that I hadn't visited since the 60's, Byron Dragway. A lot of our Route 66 regulars also race at Byron. I contacted BJ Vangsness, the owner, and he was kind enough to grant me credentials for this weekend's 40th U.S. Bracket Nationals. When I left Elgin, it was starting to warm up under bright sunny skies. As I got closer to Byron, the sky turned cloudy and then started to rain. When I arrived, the track personnel were already trying to stay ahead of the rain with track drying operations. The rain finally stopped and the track looked dry, at least from the starting line. Unfortunately, down track in the shutdown area, there appeared to be weepers, water seeping up through the track. It took considerable time to dry that portion of the track. Finally, after a six hour delay, it was time to start racing. It was decided to only run an eighth mile and only one qualifying pass before starting eliminations. Due to the late starting time, I was unable to stay for all the day's action . I stayed for the qualifying round and half way through the first round of eliminations, Here are some images from the action I did see. My plan is to return to Byron on Sunday for the National Dragster Challenge portion of the Bracket Nationals weekend.  On August 21, 2015 during his third pass of the night, Frank Podlogar had a horrific crash. The family has started a Go Fund Me webpage to assist Frank in his long recovery. Below is the link to the webpage. Please keep Frank and his family in your prayers.
http://www.gofundme.com/frankpodlogar |
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