Chicago Street Racing
 

I know a lot of members are from the Chicago area. Thought you may enjoy this article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/b...er_new_arm_5_1

Blocked,they want me to pay for a NY Times subscription first.

Sorry about that. Was hoping the link would work. It is an article about Kevin Lawrence and how he ruled street racing in Chicago and made enough money doing it to put a down payment on his house.

Long after sundown one day 44 years ago, 21-year-old Kevin Lawrence stepped out of his ’68 Chevelle onto a sparsely traveled road just beyond Chicago’s suburban sprawl. After hushed negotiations with another young man, he settled into his car and ignited an engine that barked powerfully before settling into a bass-beat idle. He switched on the headlights, illuminating 50 feet of road. I jabbed at the shutter of a beat-up camera, clicking off frames as my flash defied the darkness.

Mr. Lawrence — a fishing hat atop his head — was intently focused on the road ahead. To his right was a Camaro with huge rear racing slicks. A few dozen young people were gathered on the roadside; among them was his wife and racing partner, Pam Pappas Lawrence.

Fun fact the Camaro on the left is still around, Mike Alberts owns it and back in 1977 his cousin Scott Fulkerson owned it:

Dukes was the BEST! Home to some of the fastest cars in the
Chicagoland area.
Many fond memories of Dukes as my brother and I grew up there!

Spent many nights at Dukes back in the 80’s with my Nova. Had some killer cars, I will always remember the Hemi Dart that showed up often. Guy named Dan Leahy had a really nice 66 or 67 blown Nova as well. The good old days!

That photo should be a poster !!!
What an awesome PIC.

Dan Leahy,there's a name I haven't heard in awhile.He was always a regular seller at every Midwest swapmeet around Chicagoland during the 1970's/80's.He had some good parts for awhile there.
Last time I saw him was in the late 1990's as a buyer when Rt.66 Raceway opened up in Joilet and hosted SuperChevy.
His full beard & oversized glasses made him stand out,and easy to find.

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Page opened Ok for me w/ no subscription request but only the one pic?:hmmm:
Great article, here below for those unable to access but maybe someone else can add the other pics?
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~ Pete

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great article. brought back all the memories. I did not live far from Dukes and we were there all the time. In 77 we were always checking out the cool disco conversion vans at Rizza chevrolet across the street. I was not into muscle cars then (it happens) like I am now. My friends would be there with our foreign cars in 77 when this article happened. I had a fiat spider I took there and it got girls attention while hanging out. Then I got a TR7 in 79 and lowered it, painted it with black imron and hung out there even more as the car was killer under the yellow lights at night. those were good times. The food was the best and the cars that showed up were amazing to look at.

Again, thanks for posting. I do remember going there after racing my dad's 70 wildcat right after I got my license and rolling in there with the brakes steaming and everyone thought there was something wrong with the car. I am lucky I am not dead from that night with a car full of guys, none of us knew how to drive well, but just were stupid with our 8 tracks blasting and not thinking.

Some crazy muscle cars rolled through there. I am sure I saw that Chevelle.

I lived on the far north side of Chicago (near Niles) and had no idea this was all going on in the 70's when I was growing up. It would have been cool to have gone to watch some of the street racing.

here is what I remember from being a kid riding my 20" bike to then working at a gas station across the street where all the muscle cars parked on Archer avenue while waiting to race or just hang out (say 69-79).

You would cruise on Archer back and forth between Harlem and Pulaski from some of the rides I went on with friends. You would not go past Harlem far as its no longer Chicago jurisdiction. Kids would be hanging out on corners on their 20" bikes waiting to see some action go by, sometimes an accident. I myself saw a candy apple red 57 chevy with chome everywhere car, wipe out and hit a pole. I was one of the first on the scene with my bike. It was a show car I will never forget. I remember a corvette wiping out and it shattered into a million pieces on the street. The good stuff was when they lit up right by the crown and the sounds were amazing. The smells were amazing . I got to gas up some of the cars at Gas city while working to go to college, this was closer to the end of the racing days. SOme of the cars were idling so high, with radical cams, it just made me wonder how does one drive these nightmare death traps. You would never hang a pump on these guys are you would get hurt. I am sure people know what that is. It paid for part of my college fund.

As I got older, I noticed people would turn off and extend their cruise on Archer to head over to dukes It was not that far away and the food was the attraction. Can't beat the beef sandwiches at dukes. Nice parking lot too. Nice suburban area too, not crowded like where I lived off archer where every lot your house sat on was 25' x 125'. Girls were different too.

Yep, you missed some good fun. Chicago cops turned a blind eye to this stuff I remember. I paid off cops $20 for speeding and it was the norm. I later ran into one at a stereo shop on archer and they offered to give my money back, said nope, all good.

Neighborhood was nothing like Shameless on tv. It was the south'west' side and you would smack someone if you called it the southside. Loads of muscle cars, many tied to vietnam guys as I remember, buying and driving what they wanted, and took them to the streets. I think you could also go off Archer and race down by the factories that hugged I55 where they was a clorox plant. Now that area was like area51 where it was like another world, there were undeveloped areas where you could ride your 20" bike through and do jumps and have many 55 gallon drums all over like a scene in Simpsons. God only knows what we were exposed to as kids in some of those lots. But great places for special races I think. The pavement down there was perfect and all concrete and no traffic at night.

Very cool. I was born in Clearing but was too young to experience the scene in its heyday.

I finished college in '89 in Hyde Park, then moved to the North side. I checked out the local scenes like the Amphitheater and others starting in the early 90s, a bunch of them died down over the following 10 years.

I used to hang out at the Lincoln Village movie theater parking lot and sometimes at Belmont and Harlem, and also went out to Schaumburg / Roselle Rd. I used to go to Fluky's and the old Strats on Grand too.

BTW, I heard next Monday's Street Outlaws is the Chicago episode, so if any of you guys are friends with Boost12 and some of the local guys they'll be on there.

Clearing was what we had to go through to get to a place called Ford city (a mall that was very popular and had an underground area that was used back in the day for tanks assembly or something I think), Ford city was a bit south on Cicero. You did not speed at all in clearing, especially 65th street. Clearing was really really close to all this stuff on Archer as well as Harlem (Dukes). Lots of factories in Clearing. Near all the train tracks. My dad made it very clear, do not speed one mile over the limit on 65th. Clearing cops were bad. I dont think it was zoned as Chicago, could be wrong. Just speed trap city.

Back the Duke's Chevelle guy, its cool he made something out of his street racing. It shows anything in moderation, can go fine without over regulation. Great ending to a great story on that. I loved that chevelle had the larger tires in front which matched what I have said here on this yenko forum that I never remember so many cars with skinny front tires like I see now. How else can you really outrun the cops with those skinny tires making hard turns, I was in more than a few car rides where we had to ditch the cops. I dont think many get that when they do these day2 cars. Yes the skinny tires look better.

1987 Street Machine Nats, photos thanks to Mike Fox.

PeteLeathersac, thanks for posting the article. I couldn't get in there either...:biggthumpup:

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Thanks Mitch also don't miss the first couple pages of the article on Pg. 1 of this thread w/ 1x picture.
It looked like there were more pics I couldn't see, hoping someone else can capture and post if so.
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~ Pete


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One more pic

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Did Dukes ever reopen at a new location anywhere after closing 08/19?
Google shows Dukes Hot Dog stand on Central also Grand Dukes Lithuanian Restaurant Downers Grove?
Wonder where the signs etc ended up?:hmmm:
:beers:
~ Pete

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Below page somehow appeared on my F'Book w/ the good news Dukes is reopening at a new location.
Best of success to the New Dukes owners also a great summer cruising season for everyone!
:beers:
~ Pete

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Awesome!!