Drag Illustrated Issue 140, January 2019 | Page 48

D.I. COLUMNIST On the Road with Van Abernethy F or a small town of ap- proximately 7,000 Midwest- erners, Benton, Illinois, has certainly had a few notable things go down here, which all still get dis- cussed by the locals and occasionally raises eyebrows of passersby. Not every town you come across would be eager to memorialize the lynching of a criminal, but Benton actually constructed replica gallows to commemorate the occasion! It seems that back in 1928 a local gangster was hanged and the execution took place beside the county jail in Benton, which is where they prominently placed the replica gallows and hang- man’s noose. This event proved to be the last hang- ing on record in the state of Illinois. I guess every town has one of those “We shall never forget” moments, and this just happens to be what sticks in the minds of Ben- ton residents. On a happier note, George Harrison, the late Beatles lead guitarist, once spent the night in Benton at his sister Louise’s house over on McCann Street in September 1963. This was the first time that any member of the “Fab Four” visited America, and Harrison famously bought a guitar in nearby Fenton on this same trip, which later fetched $657,000 at auction. His sister’s bungalow was later turned into a bed-and-breakfast called “A Hard Day’s Night”, named after the band’s third studio album. While in Benton, I drove over to see the house, but it has since been turned into a duplex. The lady standing on the front porch told me that a steady stream of people come here to see the house, and even plan on checking in, thinking it’s still a bed-and-breakfast. “I won’t be able to let you come inside, but you’re welcome to gawk at it from the sidewalk like everyone else,” she smiled. I took a quick picture with my iPhone and hurried off. For certain, Benton also has a bustling drag strip, which was my express purpose for visiting. I mere- ly uncovered these other gems just by knocking around town and eat- ing in local diners. Dur- ing the summer, I was in Benton for the JEGS Door Car Shootout when I snapped this picture of Steve Hooper lined up beside Camaro Costello. Decades earlier, Dr. C.L. “Doc” McElwee and his wife, Nona, broke track was Buddy Inger- soll, who lived a few miles away in Zeigler, Illinois. Ingersoll rose to fame in 1986 after he convinced IHRA to let him race a 260ci V6 twin-turbo Buick Regal in Pro Stock. It was a short-lived mani- festo, which pretty much ended the day Ingersoll went to the finals with Bob Glidden after qualifying in the ground on I-57 Drag Strip, and spent the next couple years laboring on it. “They were using pretty primitive equipment and although they held some local races by 1968, I don’t think they had their first advertised e vent until probably 1970,” says Scott Bai- ley, who is the second owner of the track after purchasing the facility in 2006 from the McElwee family estate. Perhaps the most well-known personality who frequented the No. 2 spot. That was not the direction IHRA wanted the class to go, so they told him to take his 6-banger Buick and hit the road. It was truly the future of un- conventional h o r s e p o w e r, although pro- fessional drag racing, name- ly Pro Stock, simply wasn’t ready for it. There’s a few other interesting legends surrounding I-57 Drag Strip. Take the track’s earliest timing sys- tem for example. Instead of a Christ- mas tree, they originally had a giant clock positioned near the starting line, and somehow this hand would swing around and when it reached a certain position the cars would take off. “I wish I could tell you more about it, but the clock was before my time, but some of the racers have told me about it,” says Bailey. Another infamous story sur- rounding I-57 involves the original owners burying a crashed-up 1964 Ford Thunderbolt on the adjacent farmland. Bailey knows the precise spot and confirms there’s even an indention in the ground, but since he doesn’t own the land he doesn’t dare dig it up. Ac- cording to Bailey, this car was actually the motivation to build I-57 Drag Strip af- ter a locked-up rear end caused the crash. Suppos- edly there was some bad blood between the McElwee family, Ford Motor Com- pany and NHRA. Legend has it, they hauled the car on a trailer to the U.S. Na- tionals with an unflattering sign, and were allegedly ran out of town by Ford and the local police. Once they re- turned home, they report- edly buried the car on the farm and broke ground on I-57 Drag Strip! Consequently, this eighth-miler has very seldom been sanctioned, but Bailey thinks they might have had IHRA affiliation at some point. The track underwent its most sig- nificant updates in 2015 after a new concrete racing surface was poured, along with concrete walls and a new tower. “Although we haven’t officially advertised it, the track is actually for sale,” Bailey reveals. “My wife and I have three daughters and they grew up working here at the track, but they’ve since grown up and relocated to Texas. We’d like to do the same, so I think it’s time for us to move on.” So, the future is wide open for a new owner to step in and be the proud owner of a drag strip that’s steeped in legend and perhaps has buried treasure, depending, of course, on how you view a crashed- up Thunderbolt. DI DI DI DI DI DI DI 48 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com DI DI DI Issue 140