Abraham Lincoln may always be Springfield’s top tourist attraction, but the capital city is expected to draw thousands of visitors this weekend for the kickoff of an internationally popular road rally.
For the first time in its long history, the annual Hemmings Great Race will start in Springfield on June 20. A crowd will gather at the Old State Capitol to cheer when the starter’s gun goes off for the Great Race, whose main rule is that no car made after 1974 can compete. The nine-day race will conclude in Pasadena, California and this year’s defending champion is a family from Illinois.
Kankakee’s Jeff Fredette and his son, Eric, will run in the same 1933 Ford Model B truck the family has used since 2004. They will compete against close to 140 others, with the oldest car a 1912 Chevy. Contestants pay a $7,500 entry fee, with a winning prize of $50,000 amid a total purse of $160,000.
Jeff Fredette was handed a check for that amount last year in Irmo, South Carolina, where the race concluded, with St. Paul, Minnesota, as the starting point.
As an Illinoisan, Fredette has been counting the days until his ’33 Ford rolls into Springfield. Festooned with stickers and U.S. and Illinois state flags, the yellow pickup with red-rimmed skinny tires seats only two and has no AC. But she rides like a champ, literally and figuratively.
“It’s the family pride and joy,” said Fredette, who has been a champion motorcycle racer as well. “My father (Wayne), when he passed about 11 years ago, one of his wishes was for us to stay in the race and keep driving this truck. He didn’t need to tell us. Racing and vintage cars are in our blood as a family.”
Being the host city as the starting point for the Great Race is something of a Super Bowl event for people such as Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau director Scott Dahl. The competition to be the host city is fierce, as two additional days of festivities accompany it. The vintage cars are the major attraction, as gearheads the world over come to see and, if they’re lucky, take one for a spin. The route to Pasadena will traverse much of Route 66.
Springfield was given the honor as a stopover city for last year’s Great Race, and Collinsville will be the first stop in this year’s event. All competitors either buy hotel rooms or stay with friends, as do many of the race’s diehard fans who follow along. Dahl said
The 100th birthday of Route 66 will officially take place on Nov. 11, with many tangential celebrations leading up to the big day itself. Springfield is poised to have one of its best tourist years in a long time, starting with the Great Race.
A 1932 Ford Speedster from Motor City Racing Team makes its way through downtown Springfield. One hundred and forty vintage automobiles, with models ranging from the early 1900s through 1974, will compete in this year’s race. PHOTO COURTESY GREAT RACE
“Springfield is what we call the ‘heart’ of Route 66 in Illinois, and so what better place than here to have the race in its centennial year?” Dahl said. “People might wonder why it didn’t start in Chicago, where Route 66 actually starts.”
Great Race organizer Houston Gibson said the route he preferred made Springfield a more attractive starting point, but the doggedness of Dahl and other Springfield tourism officials was what really won him over.
“They really were thorough in their presentation, and they approached us a few years ago about this. Their enthusiasm and persistence paid off,” Gibson said.
Dahl said he started in 2019 pitching Springfield as the Route 66 centennial starting city for the Great Race. He wouldn’t provide an estimate of the economic impact hosting it might have for Springfield, but believes it will be no small figure.
“This is an event that cities from all over Illinois vied to compete for as the starting point, along with many other states,” Dahl said. “Along with the start comes the advertising with it. So, for the past 10 months, they have been advertising that it starts in Springfield and ends in Pasadena. We have been on every one of those marketing pieces, on their merch, their graphics and social media posts. That kind of earned media is invaluable.”
Capitalizing on Route 66
Route 66, nicknamed “The Mother Road,” will be a top draw within Springfield until the official birthday on Nov. 11. On that day, Route 66 Motorheads Bar and Grill will host a party that should see dignitaries from all over make an appearance, along with the band Starship, whose hits include “We Built This City,” “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now,” “Jane” and “Find Your Way Back.”
Motorheads remains a destination attraction for serious Mother Road enthusiasts, with its giant replica of the iconic Route 66 sign and a museum inside.
Another must-stop on the maps of Route 66 tourists is Cozy Dog Drive In on South Sixth Street. Proprietor Josh Waldmire’s uncle, Bob, after all, designed the first official Mother Road map, which still sells briskly inside. Waldmire’s grandfather, Ed, sold the first corn dogs in 1946 at the Illinois State Fair.
On a recent day inside, with the aroma of the sizzling signature corndogs filling the air, Waldmire told a reporter about a special event Cozy Dog will participate in that is also anticipated to draw dedicated fans from all over – featuring the sport of competitive eating.
“They’re going to have a corndog-eating contest in September at the International Route 66 Mother Road Festival, run by Major League Eating, and our dogs will be the ones on the plate,” Waldmire said. “That’s the biggest thing we’re doing (for the centennial), other than just trying to make our food as good as it ever was.”
Rumor has it that legendary eater Joey Chestnut, the reigning champion of the nationally televised annual July 4 hot-dog eating contest at Coney Island, New York, and holder of 55 world records in competitive eating, might be in Springfield to consume Cozy-Dogs.
“That isn’t official or anything yet,” Waldmire said. “But either way, Major League Eating people will be competing.”
Kankakee residents Jeff Fredette and his son, Eric, won last year’s Great Race with the 1933 Ford Model B truck the family has used since 2004 and are competing again this year. PHOTO COURTESY VISIT PASADENA FACEBOOK PAGE
Springfield might also see a larger influx of July 4 tourism this year, with the nation turning 250 years old. Abraham Lincoln wasn’t a Founding Father, but other than George Washington, his image is perhaps most associated with the United States to millions here and around the world.
On July 4, admission to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum will be free to the public. Across the street, “America’s Ultimate Block Party” – described as the largest synchronized Fourth of July celebration in U.S. history – will be taking place in Union Square Park with food trucks, live music and kids’ activities.
The city of Springfield is also hosting its own fireworks show this year, taking place on the Y-Block across from the Governor’s Mansion on July 4 and preceded by a concert by the Springfield Municipal Band.
And, of course, the Illinois State Fair, Aug. 13-23, will bring in visitors from all over.
“It’s a really exciting time for Springfield,” Dahl said. “It’s our goal, our vision, to make Springfield as good a memory as possible for all the new people who might pass through here. This is a great chance to do it. A lot of national media will probably also be here, and Springfield will get the added exposure that comes with it.”
Other businesses taking notice
Marla Cummings grew up in Springfield and attended Carl Sandburg Elementary School. Today, she is a real estate developer based in Tennessee.
An urge to “give back to a city that was so good to me” prompted Cummings to make plans to open a short-term rental business geared to Route 66 aficionados. She plans to use shipping containers to construct five units at 1901 Peoria Road, just across from the State Fair grounds. Route 66 Hideaways promises an “immersive experience,” with each unit featuring original Mother Road memorabilia to go along with modern amenities such as TV, internet and two-burner stoves.
Cummings has received zoning approval from the city of Springfield for the project, and she hopes to start renting out the units by November at prices likely to range from $110 to $150 per night.
“The vision is to combine immersive lodging with cultural storytelling and local history,” Cummings said. “It’ll all be inspired by the classic Route 66 and Americana. But it will still have a modern feel.”
Some might be surprised, but Springfield was recently listed at No. 5 among U.S. cities as the best places to invest for short-term rental owners. According to AirDNA, a research firm that analyzes data from such markets, the average profit margin for property owners of Airbnb and smaller competitors such as Vrbo, in Springfield was $35,000 a year.
People such as Cummings took notice, and while she hopes to make a nice annual profit as the owner, she insists it’s as much a giveback to the community as it is a business opportunity.
“I mean, for the prices we’re going to ask, I think visitors will get a much more unique experience than your typical hotel room. You’re going to come out of there with a much better idea of what Springfield and what Route 66 are all about,” Cummings said.
Across town, at Robin Roberts Stadium, the inaugural season of the Women’s Professional Baseball League will start on Aug. 1. It’s another business entity that saw Springfield as an opportunistic place.
Four teams, from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, and New York, will play a seven-week inaugural regular season in Springfield and then depart for their home cities for a second season. The WPBL will maintain a developmental league in Springfield, starting in 2027.
“I mean, these are the best women baseball players in the world, in a brand-new league that is projecting to do very well into the future,” Dahl said. “They could have chosen most anywhere to start their league, but they chose Springfield. It’s a nice feather in our cap this year as well.”
Making a good impression
Is Dahl worried about it feeling like a ghost town once all the summer and fall celebrations are complete?
“No way. I mean, sure, a lot of people will just be passing through and going back to wherever after these things all take place, but it’s going to be how it was for them while in town that we hope makes them repeat customers, so to speak. And, I’m very confident that they’re going to remember Springfield well.”
That is the case with Jeff Fredette and his family.
“We had the stopover in Springfield last year as part of the (Great Race), and it was one of our favorite ones,” Jeff said. “It’s your classic American city with a lot of great history. You can really feel, when you come through here, that people like it here. Yeah, I’m sure there area some who like to complain, but that’s the case in any town or city really. But we were made to feel very welcome there.”
His wife, Teri Fredette, will drive in a newer car behind her son and husband for logistical and other support.
“We’ve been looking forward to this every day since the last race ended,” Teri said. “In many senses, this is our annual summer vacation as a family, and Springfield is a heck of a place for it to start.”
With a standard 21-stud flathead V8 engine, the Fredette’s Ford figures to be a top competitor again. The family also won the 2018 Great Race, which started in Buffalo and finished in Nova Scotia. All contestants have is a daily set of clues on a multi-page, hand-drawn map for the next destination, not given out until that morning. Competitors are tasked with arriving in each city at predetermined times. They get points added or subtracted for how precisely they arrive at the checkpoints.
“It really isn’t a big, cutthroat contest,” Teri said. “Sure, you want to win, and maybe there are a couple groups you really want to beat. But for the most part, it’s a thing where you see a lot of the same people every year, and you socialize with them and just have a great time on the open road, but mostly on the great backroads that this country has. Much of the course this year is on Route 66, and honestly, I still think it’s the best way to see the real America.”
The Fredettes, retired and in their late 60s, estimate it takes about $20,000 of annual upkeep to keep the ’33 Ford “purring like a kitten.”
“Some might see it as a waste of money and time. Not me,” Jeff said. “This truck has been in my family for a long, long time, and it’s the emotional bond we still have with people like my dad, who drove it originally. When that motor starts on race day in Springfield, I know he’ll be looking down on us very fondly.”
Adrian Dater, a longtime former sportswriter in Denver and author of seven books, moved to Springfield in 2023 to get his first taste of life in the Midwest.
This article appears in June 18-24, 2026.
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