Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

or another, the Superdome was taken off the schedule for 18 years, before making a '98 return that is quite popular - especially for those who like to tip back a few. Tickets: 504/522-5555 ROUN015 ROUTE 66 RACEWAY· ,JOLIET, ILLINOIS It was John Steinbeck, through his epic story The Grapes of Wrath, who first made famous the area along the Trans-American Highway. In Steinbeck's novel, a man named Tom Joad loads his immediate family into a clapped-out, beat-to-crap Hudson and rolls along Route 66 - out of dust ravaged, depression-era Oklahoma in an effort find a better life out west in California. Tom's road trip doesn't work out too well. Why the literature lesson? Because this will be the first-ever supercross at Route 66 Raceway, and with the exception of a few NHRA Drag Racing National events recently held there, we honestly don't know too much about the place. However, we do know that Chicago is the third-largest DMA (that's an A.C. Nielsen term, kids) market in America. Thus, it's not too much of a stretch to predict that it will love the sport of supercross. Tell them Mr. Joad sent you. Tickets: 312/559·1212 ROUN016 SAM SOYO STAOIUM· LAS VEGAS, NEVAOA The Las Vegas Supercross is the apple of PACE Motor Sports overlord Gary Becker's eye. For it was there on June 10, 1995, that the sport of supercross as we know it almost imploded. To make a long story short, the lights went off that night, and the promoters had to make a quick decision: no lights [, no race, or temporary lights [, race? An hour later, portable lights lit up Sam's stadium. Already at each other's throats over a host of political and operational issues, the riders, led by Jeremy McGrath, incensed the promoters by boycotting the race. You could practically see steam coming out of a few people's ears. Yes sir, it was downright ugly. That was the moment that Becker stepped in and began doing everything in his power to get the sport on track. After a major public relations tour, the end result was that everything began to come together, and as fate would have it, the Las Vegas Supercross would become the sport's most opulent and glamorous event. Today, some five years after the night the lights went out in despair, the Vegas supercross is arguably the most-loved event on the circuit. If you can only make one all year, this is it. CN Tickets: 800/462·4112 ti()T~L l2~§~l2V~TI()~§ fv.. I)A ~T()~A I3~ACI-l 13.1\~ ~~~I\ 2()()() can~t find a .-oom anyWhe.-e'? call us! We have a It.-eat seloctivn '" Ivw pliws! I)~~T()~~ ~peedwa'Y Area IivWI§ 1)~~Tf)~~ Ver'fe£1: r=vr ~a£er§ & TealU§! t3.-ea't I3lke Week AI.. & ti()tel VadUllIe 'ta..Unlt at Sti7~ P.P.d.~. • Ai..fa..e • ti n.lthb I-f()tel • tAl.. !:?ental .-vn't I-ivWI§ Lv~'tlvn§ ~'"~ §uper-bike atl()nal§ .. ~~r=() Il~ Price quote per person based on double occupancy. Airfare based on New.York City to Orlando. For price from olher air· ports please call. Prices subject to change and availability ~Ide f)~ean • Mea lidels: L{)IJoon. I...aItuna. 4tlanta. IlVad .

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