OK fellow netters the latest from the Chicago Region. Camaro flipped over
today at what was an incredibly fast race course designed into the two access
roads at the Route 66 raceway in Joliet, Illinois. This was the Chicago
Region's 2nd event of the year and turnout was large. Most of the course was
done in 3rd gear in most cars and top of 4th in the mods. The roads traverse
an expanse of about 3/8 mile in each direction and is approximately 20 to 25
feet wide. You may be familiar with this place if you've read the Sportscar
issue reporting on the roadrace held there last year.
The day was wonderfully mild with bright sunshine and mild winds. The drag
racers all looked in amazement at all the strange looking cars entering their
arena but were more in admiration than jealousy. The event had gone long due
to numerous timer errors and the large number of cones being hit. Corner
workers had a tough time getting the course reset as competitors smacked and
whacked cones in the high speed offsets and multi-cone slaloms. The way the
course was designed this day would have found the dragsters to hold fast
times since there wasn't much turning involved. Cars on street tires were
running competitive raw times to their race rubber clad stock class
equivalents.
Now more on the flip...a resident local racer with a white Camaro Z28 lost
control of his car at very high speed and slid off the asphalt, then about 45
feet across grassy surface into a drainage ditch and flipped over eventually
landing back on it's wheel. The event came to an abrupt halt while the
wrecker from the dragstrip made it's way out to the car and pulled it out of
the muck. Luckily the driver was not seriously injured and the car was able
to be driven off the course. The car was badly battered and the rear window
smashed out.
Part-time Ace-reporter Jim Harn signing off...
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