Get your kicks…

This is the 100th Anniversary of Route 66.

The 2026 Great Race is running from Springfield, Illinois to Pasadena, California.

We have been in Springfield, Illinois since Tuesday, June 16th watching the different cars coming into town for the beginning of The 2026 Great Race.

The field of cars is large this year. There are about 150 entries. There are people from all over the world, and every state. There are people from Japan, Australia, Canada, England and Sweden.

Springfield is an historic city because of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln started a law firm and his political career in Springfield. Aside from starting in Springfield, Mary Lincoln wanted Abe to be buried with one of their son’s in Springfield. Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential Library is also located in Springfield.

We visited the library and museum on Wednesday and enjoyed the different exhibits. One of the original copies of the Emancipation Proclamations is located in the Library.

After visiting the museum and learning more about Honest Abe and his family, we returned to the hotel. The weather was turning for the worse.

We returned just in time for the impromptu festivities in the basement of our hotel in Springfield. Wednesday, June 17th was scheduled to see over 24 tornadoes in the Midwest. The sirens went off at about 4pm and the participants and their crew (along with hotel employees and other guests)headed for the basement. We spent an hour catching up with friends waiting for the weather to pass. We had experienced a tornado at a rally where we were told to be ready to go to the middle of the hotel, but the sirens never rang. This was our first experience going in the basement for a tornado warning. (For those of you not familiar with tornadoes, Warning, danger is eminent, Watch is watch out it might be coming)

Thursday was a day for registration and technical inspection. It was a beautiful day and there were no weather concerns. The cars were taken out. We passed our technical inspection and spent the late morning driving to calibrate our rally speedometer.

Friday began with a meeting with the entire group of drivers, navigators, support crews, and the team of more than 50 who put the event on. The entire group is over 500 people.

After the meeting, we headed out for our first day of rallying. We rallied throughout the afternoon and stayed mostly local. We headed South out of downtown Springfield where the state Capitol is located and crossed over Springfield Lake. We left the new highway and made our way to the old parts of Route 66. We went between the original Route 66 and rural roads that crossed back and forth over the infamous Route 66. We continued along roads with tall stocks of corn and beautiful farms with red, brown and white barns. The areas where we rally are rural. You see huge combines and other farm implements on the roads, along with trucks pulling trailers full of hay, and an occasional Amazon guy. The area is green and lush. We ended the day along some of the original brick section of Route 66.

We finished our day by stopping at an Americana Route 66 road side attraction, Motorhead’s Route 66. It was a restaurant with a bar and big screen tvs, but more importantly it has a ton of auto memorabilia.

We finished the day with a clean run. We were so happy to have a great first day.

Saturday, June 20, 2026

“Well it winds from Chicago to LA, More than 2000 Miles all the way! Get your Kicks on Route 66”

Today was the first official day of the 2026 Great Race. We started the cross country adventure from Springfield, IL. to Pasadena, CA. The race began next to the old Capitol of Illinois. It is just down the street from the “new” Capitol.

We started early and it was a perfect day. Blue sky with puffy white clouds. Springfield rolled out the red carpet with their modern day Abe Lincoln and all the glory and fanfare of the start of an exciting event.

The day started out smoothly as we headed Southwest toward Collinsville, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. We followed each instruction and all was well. A little over 2/3rds of the day was behind us. We went through a check point and then a stop sign. When we reached the far side of the intersection, there was a huge dip which neither Brad nor I noticed. We hit the dip so hard the horn button on the center of my steering wheel fell into my lap. It was not good! I started smelling radiator fluid shortly after. I didn’t say anything, but kept an eye on the thermostat. It remained cool. I continued to smell the fluid, but didn’t say anything. Within five minutes we had a transit (not on the clock) so as we pulled in for gas. I told Brad to check the radiator. Sure enough, we had punctured the radiator. Brad was never a Boy Scout, but had he been, he would have been an Eagle Scout. He is always prepared. We had stop leak in the trunk. We quickly poured it in the radiator and we were rolling again.

We finished the day in Collinsville, Illinois. Collinsville is a pretty little town that borders Illinois and Missouri. It is full of beautiful trees and rolling hills. They greeted us in there old town with the biggest Corvette Club we have ever seen. Over 100 Corvettes were in attendance.

We were so happy to finish the first day. We are so grateful to all of the people who make the rally happen. We are also thankful to everyone who helps us along the way.

Thank you to Mustang Country for shipping out a new radiator (in case the current one gives out). It should arrive Monday!!! Mustang Country does incredible work prepping and supporting Miss Jane!

Thank you to Jeff Ferdette for sharing your stock of leak stop when ours was depleted.

Thank you to Barry Jason for teaching us how to rally, and keep cool heads at unpredictable times.