Drag racers ripping through the Sauk Valley on Monday

Announcer Tazz Hines and track owner Dan Crownhart are at the starting line before the races on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022.

CORDOVA – About 300 drag racers heading from one race in Cordova to another in Byron will be roaring through the Sauk Valley on Monday, past Morrison, Sterling/Rock Falls, Dixon, Grand Detour and Oregon.

Sick the Mag’s Sick Summer 2023 will last all of next week, beginning and ending at the Cordova Dragway, which is owned by Sterling businessman Dan Crownhart.

The drag and drive – when cars drag race at a strip, then pack up in street legal tires and such, then drive to the next race track – is part of the Sick Summer race event, which consists of multiple races in three states:

Monday - Cordova Dragway; racing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tuesday - Byron Dragway; racing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Wednesday - Great Lakes Dragway, Union Grove, Wisconsin; racing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Thursday - Tri-State Raceway, Earlville, Iowa; racing from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m

Friday - Cordova Dragway; racing from 11 a.m. to 5p.m.

Spectator admission is $20 for ages 13 and older; kids younger than 12 are free.

Crownhart, an avid drag racer and owner of Sterling Fence, bought the track in November 2021.

Go to sickthemagazine.com/sick-summer for information.

Kathleen Schultz

Kathleen A. Schultz

Kathleen Schultz is a Sterling native with 40 years of reporting and editing experience in Arizona, California, Montana and Illinois.