Alex Taylor and David Schroeder Travel Route 66 (Raceway) in Six Seconds on Day One of the PEAK Performance Street Car Shootout at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals
Once a year, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) visits Joliet, Illinois and Route 66 Raceway for their Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by PEAK Performance.
Part of this event is the PEAK Street Car Shootout, showcasing some of the quickest rides in the drag and drive community, and for the four time in 2026, a select number of competitors were invited to make an appearance in Illinois to determine the champion.
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The schedule would give the contestants a couple time shots at the track between Friday and Saturday, before going into eliminations on late Saturday afternoon. The group kicked off their Joliet experience with a Thursday cruise on the streets of Joliet, as well as visiting a couple checkpoint marks and a drive-in diner.
Leading the list of rides in the first session was Alex Taylor, fresh from her Unlimited Iron victory at the Mickey Thompson Turn & Burn event last week. The ’55 Chevy laid down the best run of the session, 6.59 at 219 mph.
2024 Peak Street Car Shootout champion David Schroeder wheeled the nitrous-fed Schroder-Ens Corvette to the second-best time of the first session, 6.64 at an ‘off-the-gas’ 195 mph. He would improve on the second session to the best time of the bunch, a 6.53 at only 188 mph.
Tom McGilton’s 2013 Camaro ZL1 has proven itself at a multitude of events, and he opened with an early shut off 7.17 at 174 mph blast.
Last year’s champion Tom Bailey is on property with his newest project, a 1976 Dodge Dart with a Hellcat Redeye engine swap. The potent mill is backed with the 8-speed automatic, and clocked a 9.32 at 146 mph on his second time shot.
Local competitor Nick Cryer was debating on what car to bring to his home race track, and the crowd-pleasing 1963 DIVCO milk truck. The wheelstanding ride got a red flag for leaking water on the first shot, but returned to its wheels up ways on the second run.
Bryant Goldstone rolled his ’73 AMC Javelin out at Route 66 Raceway fresh from a revamp at fellow drag and drive competitor Devin Vanderhoof’s HCR Innovations. Bryant didn’t make a clean run in the two sessions on Friday, but thinks he has the solution for a better outing today.
After a week of sorting out a new engine combination in his refresh of the ’91 Camaro known as ‘Uncle Sam’, Nick Taylor is fighting the car at Joliet. With a lot more power on tap with the twin-turbo big block now residing under the engine bay, Nick is finding his way after just a handful of runs last week.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Sick the Magazine and Megan Taylor.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com