Track Schedules

Illini Racing Series presented by D’Arcy GMC E-Update 

CREST HILL, IL (Feb 29) - A few odds and end laying around to make everybody aware of so you can mark your calendars: 

**  First and foremost, we who live in the Chicago area know there are only two seasons...Winter and construction.  We race during the construction season, so most of us prefer that time of year.  To expedite the arrival of the first race of the 2008 season, the IRS has begun a construction project.  No, not a new suite of offices for the staff, not a new speedway (we seem to have plenty of those to race on this year).  No, we have begun reconstruction of the Illini website (www.illiniracingseries.com).  You may run into some problems accessing some parts of the site in the next few weeks, but it already looks pretty good. 

   If you have any ideas on what you would like to see on our (YOUR) website, let us know.  And yeah, we know, not all the buttons work just yet. 

**  Just two weeks from this Sunday (March 16th) is the annual memorabilia show put on by Stan Kalwasinski and Tommy Turtle.  Once again, we will be inside the garages at Chicagoland Speedway.  Check out http://www.chicagolandspeedway.com/cgi-bin/r.cgi/cls_photos.html?SESSION=qq2tubFTR&N=&event_id=1996 to see pictures from last year.  This is a great show that draws HUGE crowds so plan on stopping by.  It’s only $5 to get in, and worth every penny.  To be honest, if you can get out of there by only spending 5 bucks to get in, you’re doing better than most of us!

   And again, we have been invited to bring out some racecars, and I quote “4 to 6, or more”.  If you have a sponsor, you owe it to them to have your car on display, besides, it’s cool to have pictures of your car sitting inside Chicagoland Speedway.  The Illini Racing Series will be on hand with a table inside, hopefully showing videos from last year (if we get a spot with power). 

**  April 5th is the Business Expo in New Lenox.  If you, or your sponsors have any ties to New Lenox, we’ll get you a spot inside this event. 

**  One week later, on April 12th, Bureau County Speedway is hosting an open practice day and car show. 

**  Thanks to Klaus Wever for sending these folks in our direction.  We recently got these two notes from the Harsh Winters Volkswagen Club: 

“The Harsh Winters Volkswagen Club will be holding their 2nd annual "Spring Jump Start" car show on June 8th, 2008. This event will be hosted by the Roadhouse on 6. At the intersection of Rt. 6 and Ridge Road in Channahon, IL” 

“The Harsh Winters Volkswagen Club will be holding their 5th annual Volkswagen show, the "Bug-A-Palooza" on August 24th, 2008. This event will be held at D'Arcy Volkswagen, located at 2521 West Jefferson Street, in Joliet IL.”

These folks are looking for one VW powered car for the first event and maybe two for the second at D’Arcy. 

**  We started to do some history of our club as we count down the days to the 2008 season.  Let’s go back 15 seasons to 1993, when Rich Peceniak earned the driving championship just a year after claiming the Rookie of the Year Award, an award which would go to Billy Hoffmeyer in ‘93. 

LaSalle Speedway would become the 3rd track in our club’s history to host a race for us.  We ran there for the 2nd and 10th events of the year.  And ironically, the track we are scheduled to begin 2008 on, was a new track for us to finish the ‘93 campaign at...Rockford Speedway.  1999 Driving Champion Scott Shilkuski would make his first sportsman start at Rockford, qualifying 8th quick, finishing 4th in his heat, and third in the feature, behind Sue Spencer and Lyle Riggen. 

After just two years, the club has run 25 races, at four tracks, in two states, with 23 drivers in the history book.   

The final standings for 1993 were:  1.  Rich Peceniak, 2.  Sue Spencer, 3.  Bob Kenning, 4.  Mike Seeman, 5.  Bill Hoffmeyer, 6.  Mike Bender, 7.  Buzz Beverly, 8.  Dennis Peceniak, 9.  Frank Reiss, 10.  Billy Shoemaker, 11.  Mike Smith, 12.  Jerry Vining, 13.  Jerry Smith, 14.  Lyle Riggen, 15.  Scott Shilkuski, 16.  Steve Savage, &17.  Joe Paluga.