17th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Super Start Batteries6/24/2014 This week is a big week at Route 66 Raceway with the arrival of the NHRA Mello Yellow Series. For those who don't know too much about drag racing, this is the top of the NHRA food chain. In addition to John Force, Tony Schumacher and others there is the JEGS All-Stars. The JEGS All-Stars has all the best from the Lucas Oil Series regions running against each other. There will be a total of 460 cars starting on Thursday. To see the complete entry list click here. Its going to be a great weekend of drag racing at 66! Here are some photos from last year's event. To see more from last year, click here.
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This Saturday we will be covering two events at Route 66. The first is the Summit Racing Junior Drag Racing League Challenge and the second is Team Demolition Derby at the Dirt Oval. It will be a long, but enjoyable, day of shooting. The Juniors run in two classes, Modified and Sportsman, by age. In the Modified class it has two divisions based on an ET speed. The Juniors run an eighth mile track. Please click here to see the Junior actions from the past couple seasons. Following the Junior Drag event, the Dirt Oval comes alive with non-stop action of racing and crashing. This will be the second round of the Tournament of Destruction, AKA Team Demolition Derby. If you haven't seen Team Demo, I would highly recommend it. It has been described as Roller Derby with cars in that each team has a designated car that, to win, must complete five laps before the opposing team does. Your support cars are there to block and to crash the other team's car before they can achieve five laps. In between heats, there are two figure eight races. One with cars, the other with trucks. Its usually a night of non-stop mayhem! To see the previous Team Demo action please click here. Saturday was a beautiful day for racing at Route 66 raceway. It was the Rockett Brand Fuels ET Bracket Series race #4 along with NHRA Summit Racing King of the Track. The King of the Track pits the four division winners in direct competition with each other with the winner taking home a Wally. The fifth, High School, division is excluded from participation in the King of the Track. The competition was hot and heavy today with what seemed like more "red lights" than normal. Congratulations to the five division winners. Next up was the NHRA Summit Racing King of the Track. First up was Michael Opielinski versus Jay Allen with Allen taking the win. Followed by John Singleton Jr. going up against the motorcycle of Greg Darm. John Singleton Jr. took the win. In the final, it was Jay Allen in the dragster versus John Singleton Jr. in the Pro Eliminator. Jay Allen took the win light to take the NHRA Summit Racing King of the Track title. To see all the action from today's racing, please click here.
To see all the recent Route 66 racing, please click here. Our schedule for the next week includes the NHRA Junior Dragster League at Route 66 and the Team Demolition Derby at the Dirt Oval, both on Saturday. If I can arrange it, I may try to go to the Wednesday, Rockford Speedway event. What a weekend of racing and exhibitions at Route 66! Three days of Top Alcohol and Funny Car Dragsters along with Top Sportsman, Super Comp, snowmobiles, etc., and then the Burndown at Sundown on Saturday which because of some precipitation, stretched into Sunday. In all, there were eleven classes of dragsters. Friday was the first round of Qualifications for the Lucas Oil Series. To see all of Friday's action please click here. Saturday The day started out bright and sunny, with a large crowd and finished with a persistent, drizzly rain which shortened the program. In between, there was some great racing and the first half of the Burndown at Sundown. The Qualifications and some eliminations continued all day until the rains came and then the fields were locked. We did get the completion of the first round of the Burndown at Sundown. It was decided that the second half of the program would be completed, as much as possible, on Sunday. Fans could present their tickets and be admitted free for the entire day. Please click here to see all of Saturday's action.
Sunday The day started a little cool, however the action on the track was as hot as ever! A whole day of eliminations with the second half of the Burndown at Sundown at the halfway point. Friday night was the "Schools Out" Test & Tune with Beat the Cops. It was a late arriving car count. Early on, I was a little disappointed, however as the night went on more and more showed up. It wound up with a pretty good car count and good racing. Photography wise, I was down one of my front line cameras due it being in for repair. Second, I had to look for some different angles because the sun was directly in my face. After the sun went down, I attempted to use the back-up camera similar to the way I was used to doing, however it just wasn't working well. As long as I have good light, that camera will work fine, but when the sun went down things got more difficult. I did get some good shots, but overall I was a little disappointed in the night, photography wise. Below are some of the night's action. Please click here to see the photos from the entire night. In the NHRA, congratulations to Richie Crampton-Top Fuel, Cruz Pedregon-Funny Car, Jeg Coughlin-Pro Stock and Andrew Hines-Pro Stock Motorcycle for their wins at Englishtown in the Summernationals. Next weekend will be the Burndown at Sundown in conjunction with NHRA Lucas Oil Division 3 Series. On Saturday, I met Phil Rider at Grundy County Speedway for the STARS Midget opening night. We have been trying to hook up for the past year at Grundy County. This was my first visit there. There were five series running, Mini-Cup, INEX Legends, Classic Modified, Illini Midgets and STARS Midgets. The racing was hot and heavy with one wreck in each of the Mini-Cup, Modified and Stars Midgets. Congratulations to Min-Cup winner Dallas Frueh, Legends winner Andy Jones, Modified winner Tom Scnabel, Illini Midget winner Mike Anderson and Stars Midget winner Austin Prock. To see all the night's action please click here.
Also congratulations in the NASCAR world to Kyle Busch for his Truck and Nationwide wins at Dover and congratulations to Jimmie Johnson for his Sprint Cup victory, which literally guarantees him an opportunity to run for the championship, which just happens to begin at Chicagoland Speedway. On Saturday, I was supposed to go to Rt. 66 for the Test & Tune. Unfortunately, at 4:00 a.m. I woke up feeling very ill. That killed my racing for that day. On Sunday, Janet and I attended the ET Bracket Race. Due to several breakdowns the day ran long and we had to leave before the end. However, it was a very interesting day. There was a dragster that had a history in the movies. The car pictured was used in the movie More American Graffiti. It has several autographs in the in trunk of actors and crew that worked on the movie. The actor, Paul Le Mat, was one of the signatures. One of the Shake, Rattle and Run Chevy's also made several runs. Janet decided to take some images from last week and make some post processing "art". She has done this in the past using sepia, B & W, and muted colors with excellent results. This weekend we will be at Route 66 for the Saturday Test & Tune and the Sunday, Rockett Brand Fuels ET Bracket Racing Series. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is racing under the lights at Charlotte with Sprint Cup on Saturday for the All-Star race. The Nationwide Series is at Iowa Speedway on Sunday. IndyCar will be qualifying on Sunday for the 500. We leave early Thursday for Indy. Janet has never been to Indy so she is very excited! If you want to see all the action from the previous weeks action at Route 66 click here.
It was a beautiful day at Route 66 today. The weather was spectacular and the racing the same. This was the first race ever for the Midwest Outlaw Series. This series was formed since last season with two classes, Street and Pro. Congratulations to all the winners, Midwest Top Sportsman-Alex Bosak, Midwest Super Comp-Chad Lamont, Midwest Outlaw Street-Rod Buie and Midwest Outlaw Pro-Gino Cavallo. Next up for Rt. 66 is Saturday, May 17 Test & Tune w/ Chicagoland Buick Club / Gamblers Drag Racing Association. Congratulations to Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon on their Camping World Truck Series and Sprint Cup Series wins, respectively. Congratulations also go out to Simon Pagenaud on his win in the Inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis Please click here to see all of today's action. Please click here to see the complete portfolio This weekend is Mothers Day and on Saturday, Janet and I will be at Route 66 for the Test & Tune featuring the Midwest Top Sportsman Series, Midwest Super Comp Series and the Midwest Outlaw Racing Series. This will be the first appearance of the Outlaw Series at 66. They run two classes on an 1/8 mile format. Click here to visit their website. It will be fun to see if Larry Wasielewski and Tony Grzelinski can defend their Midwest Super Comp and Top Sportsman wins from their last trip down the 1/4 mile! The early weather forecast looks to be spectacular, so I hope everyone can come and enjoy some great drag racing. If you see us, please stop us, say hello and get a picture with your favorite car. On the NASCAR front, the Camping World Truck Series will be running Friday night and the Sprint Cup Series will be on Saturday night at Kansas Speedway. IndyCar will be at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Saturday, running on the road course in the Inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. This race is a prelude to the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500. Janet and I will be attending the 500. To see photos from the last Test & Tune, please click here and to see our complete portfolio please click here. Today's racing at Route 66 started right on time, however about half way through the second qualifying round the dark clouds rolled in and it began to rain. After a bout of intermittent rain, it was decided to pull the plug on the day's activities. I did get some photography in, so please click here to see some of the abbreviated action. The next scheduled event for Route 66 is Saturday, May 10th. This will be a Test & Tune with Midwest Top Sportsman, Super Comp and Outlaw Racing Series. |
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