Chicago Motor Speedway

[opinionated ow]

Was just thinking about one of my favourite old races from Chicago Motor Speedway. I really liked that place, the racing was good (and would have been better without the speedway wings). What happened to that event?

[devilmaster]

IIRC, The facility itself was losing money big time. They opened a horse racing/motorsport track right next to another horse track in a time where horse track betting has been on the decline.

Then add in some questionable partnerships as Ganassi's partners said that Ganassi never threw in the money he originally promised, and the venue was doomed from the start - along with the race itself.

I went to the final race there. Got heat stroke on a stupidly hot day.

[tllips]

IIRC, The facility itself was losing money big time. They opened a horse racing/motorsport track right next to another horse track in a time where horse track betting has been on the decline.

Then add in some questionable partnerships as Ganassi's partners said that Ganassi never threw in the money he originally promised, and the venue was doomed from the start - along with the race itself.

I went to the final race there. Got heat stroke on a stupidly hot day.

The Horse track was there as far back as I can remember Sportsman's had buggies and Hawthorne had thoroughbreds. They did not race at the same time as I know the buggies were at night.

Cheep and the Governer converted the horse track to Auto racing and added 50K seats. They would convert back and forth between Horses and Cars.

I remember the whole deal coming down like a house of cards and the facility was involved in Gov. George Ryan's legal troubles. But I don't remember much more of the details.

I was at all of the races there and saw the crowd go from 60-80K the first year down to about 15-20K the last year. :(

[grungex]

I went to the final race there. Got heat stroke on a stupidly hot day.

I sat inside by the food vendors in the A/C and watched it on the bigscreen.

They've since torn it down.

[TrueBrit]

Yup...it's all gone now....shame really...nice and convenient for me....

[KLang]

I was there for the final race. Too freaking hot and hardly anyone showed up. Lousy facility in a lousy part of town. IMO anyway.

[grungex]

It was pretty cool being able to wake up in the morning and walk out into my back yard, where I could hear the cars doing morning warmup.

[TrueBrit]

I was there for the final race. Too freaking hot and hardly anyone showed up. Lousy facility in a lousy part of town. IMO anyway.

The track was definitely located in the middle of a DMZ, and I remember getting roundly caned by folks at 7G for pointing out that the neighbours that were complaining about the noise and race fans should take a closer look at just how godawful their 'hood was the other 362 days in the year and maybe just STFU....

[dando]

FWIW, here's the 411 from Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Motor_Speedway

-Kevin

[devilmaster]

Anyone remember what driver collapsed on the podium during the national anthems?

He was alright, but heat exhausted also....

[RHR_Fan]

Anyone remember what driver collapsed on the podium during the national anthems?

He was alright, but heat exhausted also....

Brack or de Ferran?

[devilmaster]

Brack or de Ferran?

Actually, I went looking at the results, and I believe it was Junky.

The more we talk about it, the more I remember.

That final race wasn't going to happen at first. the track didn't want to promote anymore. So Pook and the war chest put it on. First time I heard the name Rena Sharnaman.

The race was just after the World Cup, and the brazilian drivers all shaved their heads to match Ronaldo's (i think it was him). IIRC, it got out that one of the driver's wife/gfriend was not all impressed either :laugh:

[RHR_Fan]

Actually, I went looking at the results, and I believe it was Junky.

The more we talk about it, the more I remember.

That final race wasn't going to happen at first. the track didn't want to promote anymore. So Pook and the war chest put it on. First time I heard the name Rena Sharnaman.

The race was just after the World Cup, and the brazilian drivers all shaved their heads to match Ronaldo's (i think it was him). IIRC, it got out that one of the driver's wife/gfriend was not all impressed either :laugh:

I remember that Ronaldo haircut. Oh...my...gosh. Tim saw CF walking in downtown TO (since Chicago must have been right before Toronto) and overheard CF say to someone (about the haircut) "it looks like f***ing s***." And truly it did.

[G.]

I went to the final race there. Got heat stroke on a stupidly hot day.I was there in 2001 and 02. It was unbelieveably HOT in '02.:flame:

And I brought the kids.:shakehead

So we spent the race in the AC'd hospitality suite.:p Good beer. OK food.

Wizzed me off that there was SO much to do there, non-racing, yet there was no one there. Latin music, carnival, SpongeBob, motorcycles, beach volleyball, a full day of fun, even for non-racefans. And no one cared.

The neighborhood really wasn't too bad, since any hassles would be swiftly taken care of by guys named Soprano. (big mob area around Cicero) Except for Brack, he was stealing candy from a baby.

[BNica]

I remember that Ronaldo haircut. Oh...my...gosh. Tim saw CF walking in downtown TO (since Chicago must have been right before Toronto) and overheard CF say to someone (about the haircut) "it looks like f***ing s***." And truly it did.

Junky was sick. Junky and sister were at my neighborhood store (right on Western almost the corner with Fullerton) after qualies, buying Brazilian stuff cuz they were huge distributors of Brazilian products. Wonder if it was from that stuff he got sick....

[rabbit]

Wizzed me off that there was SO much to do there, non-racing, yet there was no one there. Latin music, carnival, SpongeBob, motorcycles, beach volleyball, a full day of fun, even for non-racefans. And no one cared.
What?! Do you mean to say that all that other stuff didn't bring people in? Apparently they needed more of that stuff because who would go to a racetrack on Friday and Saturday just to watch practice and qualifying? Certainly not Steve Johnson.

[rabbit]

Don't now how current these Google Map images are:

http://www.google.com/maps?q=3301+S+Laramie+Ave,+Cicero,+IL+60804,+USA&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=41.831926,-87.749173&spn=0.000981,0.002511&z=19&iwloc=addr

[G.]

Junky was sick. Junky and sister were at my neighborhood store (right on Western almost the corner with Fullerton) after qualies, buying Brazilian stuff cuz they were huge distributors of Brazilian products. Wonder if it was from that stuff he got sick....Where the hell you been hiding?

[dando]

Don't now how current these Google Map images are:

http://www.google.com/maps?q=3301+S+Laramie+Ave,+Cicero,+IL+60804,+USA&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=41.831926,-87.749173&spn=0.000981,0.002511&z=19&iwloc=addr

Looks to be about the same time as the most recent iamges were done around these here parts, which would be spring of 2003/04. No leaves on the trees mean it's prolly March/April timeframe. I can tell the approx. year based on the state of my 'hood.

-Kevin

[Gangrel]

The Horse track was there as far back as I can remember Sportsman's had buggies and Hawthorne had thoroughbreds. They did not race at the same time as I know the buggies were at night.


Close. Sportsmans was running thoroughbreads, and Hawthorne was running harness racing. In fact, towards the end, they attempted to run CMS only and not convert it for the ponies. During that time, Hawthorne was running both harness (as usual) and thoroughbreads (billed as "Sportsmans Park Racing at Hawthorne").

On another note, while it was fun to have a track in my home town, their understanding of how to run a race track really sucked. As I always did in Milwaukee, I bought Pit & Paddock passes for this race, planning to spend the majority of the time in the pits, and watch the racing action from the infield inside one of the turns. That is when I discovered that they felt this need to close the pits to all fans during racing (unlike Milwaukee), and they used both turns 1 & 2 and turns 3 & 4 for hospitality only, thus leaving infield fans with only the option to watch the cars go past on the back straight. Combine that with the fact that the security folks could never quite figure out what different credentials mean until about halfway through race day...they really could have benefited from sending their entire crew up to Milwaukee to see how a race should be run.

Oh, well....

[tllips]

Close. Sportsmans was running thoroughbreads, and Hawthorne was running harness racing. In fact, towards the end, they attempted to run CMS only and not convert it for the ponies. During that time, Hawthorne was running both harness (as usual) and thoroughbreads (billed as "Sportsmans Park Racing at Hawthorne").



I have only been to Sportsman's for Harnesses at night (for charity fund raisers). Did they have night Harness racing when Hawthorne had day Harness racing? The only place I've seen thoroughbreds is at Arlington, so I'm sure I did not see them at Sportsman's and I have never been inside of Hawthorne.
:confused:

[CART 500]

I rember sitting in the packed stands the first year.You could feel them swaying back and forth.Seemed like they were held together with spit and bubble gum.The off duty Chicago/Cicero cops that they hire for security were not a fun bunch. :shakehead

[RTKar]

The sad thing is, the first year a whole bunch of people were there, whether they got the tickets free or not, they decided to spend their valuable free time at a CC race.... an oval nonetheless.

Now the powers that be are reinventing the wheel....and none too well

... by the way; the stands DID sway, parking was too expensive,nice pit access but the view form the infield was horrible,was told by a CART official that CART WOULD be in downtown Chicago ( he now works for an irl team :irked: ), saw Norbert Haug their (imagine that), and remember the different engine note of the Honda ?

[CART 500]

The sad thing is, the first year a whole bunch of people were there, whether they got the tickets free or not, they decided to spend their valuable free time at a CC race.... an oval nonetheless.

Now the powers that be are reinventing the wheel....and none too well

... by the way; the stands DID sway, parking was too expensive,nice pit access but the view form the infield was horrible,was told by a CART official that CART WOULD be in downtown Chicago ( he now works for an irl team :irked: ), saw Norbert Haug their (imagine that), and remember the different engine note of the Honda ?


Plus we got to see Sly filming "Driven" :D Not sure if that was the 1st year or the 2nd.
Your right though there were a lot of people there.Lots of promotion leading up ti it

[Anteater]

The race was just after the World Cup, and the brazilian drivers all shaved their heads to match Ronaldo's (i think it was him). IIRC, it got out that one of the driver's wife/gfriend was not all impressed either :laugh:
I remember that--it was da Matta's idea to cut their hair like Ronaldo's, and his mom helped with the shearing. It was Christian's wife Andrea who was upset about the haircut. They were going to the Hollywood premier of "Road to Perdition" the following week, and Christian had to wear a headscarf to camouflage the Ronaldo 'do! Actually, in the premier photos I thought he looked good in the headscarf, kinda like a gorgeous pirate. :)

The final joke was that da Matta got hassled at airport security the following week--I guess they figured anyone who looked that weird must be a security threat.
:rofl:

[sundaydriver2]

The best part about that track was going to a practice session and be able to sit on pit wall. Nobody was there but most teams were.

Nothing like being able to walk by PLN, Mario, and Montoya and say hey.

:thumbup:

[devilmaster]

The best part about that track was going to a practice session and be able to sit on pit wall. Nobody was there but most teams were.

Nothing like being able to walk by PLN, Mario, and Montoya and say hey.

:thumbup:

Here's a question - how many tracks now still allow hot pit passes? Detroit used to be great for that.

[skidmarks]

... saw Norbert Haug their (imagine that), and remember the different engine note of the Honda ?


You mean the Toyota with only one bank of cylinders through the turbo? Or the Honda just before the plenum blew off the engine? :rofl:

I recall seeing Sir Frank there - checking out Juan. :gomer:

[RTKar]

You mean the Toyota with only one bank of cylinders through the turbo? Or the Honda just before the plenum blew off the engine? :rofl:

I recall seeing Sir Frank there - checking out Juan. :gomer:

You're right , it was Toyota.

Saw Sir Frank Their too...forgot about that

..and Parnelli Jones, talked to him ,cool guy, great stories.


...and Mooses Bar :thumbup:

[Andrew Longman]

Here's a question - how many tracks now still allow hot pit passes? Detroit used to be great for that.

You can at Cleveland.