Event Coverage Hunnert Car Pile Up Traffic Pile Up

The only thing I have to say is I wish I could have been there this year. Had a ball last year. Last year I got to the grounds at dark thirty(6:30) knowing that it was going to be huge. Getting there as early as I did, I was not the first in line. Am I going back? You bet your ass! Great show run by a great group of VOLUNTEERS.
I always figured if you want to be sure to get in, GET THERE EARLY!
Later,
Dick

 

Just got back home to Ohio...I had to leave early... wife had food poisoning..
I did my 9a-11a volunteering for the Czars and it was a HUGE task just to get everybody in off the road(I was on the north side) Everything seemed to go well from my end (a couple overheated cars here and there) with six rows of cars I had to merge into 2. As a volunteer, I tried my best to keep everybody accomadated and happy. I hope I succeeded in that..
When I left @ 11:15 and headed back to the Quality, I couldn't believe the TRAFFIC headed to the Pile-up. It was the largest amt of people and cars I had ever seen there. I saw NO COPS anywhere and the congestion was alarming. Yes traffic was backed up into Morris and Bottlenecked on I-80 when I left @ Noon...
I guess It's outgrown The Grundy county speedway....

 

It's his own fault coming late to a Kickass show. Then has the nerve to call it a disaster and start a negative post on it.

 

maybe the show can be a two day event. I myself had to work today and so I left after work, drove for about an hour and sat in traffic for about an hour and got turned away. But I know the guys that put on the show will come up something. Well I made it to all the other years maybe next year I'll be back

 

take it easy

 

The show was amazing. The chrome czars put on an amazing event. feel bad for the people who didnt get in. You always have to go early to this event early. But i know it wasnt the czars fault

 

recap...

 

I've been going to the PileUp for 5 years now, every year it keeps getting bigger and bigger. Even knowing that, I was surprised that it took me 2 hours to get into the event (I live about 40 miles away). Due to the heavy traffic I was late for checking in for my few hours of volunteering to be one of the parking lot co-ordinators (yeah one of the guys in a red shirt with an orange flag). Everybody that I did run into was great, no bitchin or whining.

As I ramble along here I remember my point... It was all worth it. The Chrome Czars put on an awesome show every year, and I am proud to say that I was a teeny part of of it. I'll be back to volunteer again next year.

Thanks Czars.
Bob

 

Great show again, Its too bad about the traffic though. Thats not the Czars fault and come to think of it last nite there was little to no police presence downtown either. IMO the City/County dropped the ball on this.

 

I apologize for the title of this thread. That was inappropriate . That was right when I got home. How can I change the title?

 

I have to say I got there at the same time as Fin! had no problem! 2nd row! It's true what they say about thar early bird!!!

 

1200 cars? Dang. That has to be the largest car show in the Chicago area!!

Had my Merc been done I would have been there, there's always next year.

 

Now for a positive note, I had to wait quite a while to get in, but I did and the show was Great!!! Not only was I able to enjoy many cars, but meet quite a few Hamber's at the meet and greet!!! (Man they make some fine cookies!!!!)
I was sorry to hear of folks being turned away, but at least nothing harmful or disasterous happened. Although I thought over and over, as nice as the pileup is under the trees at the grundy co speedway, it's probley now outgrown itself. Mabey next year if it is held in Joliet It could be combined with the hamb drags...
Gotta go now...The post party awaits, and then the lions swap tommorrow morning.

 

I am changing the title of this thread. Again I do apologize if I offended anyone. That was not my intentions and I know how hard the volunteers and the Chrome Czars worked on this event.

 

We drove an hour, got to the main exit around 11:45 and then got in around 1:30 but had to park on the road outside. I guess we just missed the shut down. This was my first PileUp and it rocked. Saw some great rides ,heard some good music and made some new friends.The event coordinaters for this did a great job and shame on the city and county for not stepping up. Given this was the 6th year they've done this show the city and county could see this thing was starting to get legs and grow long ago. Im sure lessons will be learned and next year will kick even more ass!!!!!!!!!
I also just want to say thank you to all those who put the PileUp on and made it happen. It is appreciated. See you next year...

 

Sounds like somebody didnt do some pre planing,its bad when you show up to enter a car show and get turned away,i guess we should start turning away the all the rednecks with stick welded disc brake traditional hot rods and start letting the talent in the gate,btw,i went to a car show to day in my area,what a joke,mostly rat rods(aka...fucking junk)absolutey no talant in these

 

Well shit...you Northerners have all the fun!!! LOL...

 

I was one of red shirts (volunteers) and was supposed to park cars inside between 1 - 3pm. Instead as the cops shut the parking lot and the show down I was assigned to the north gate to turn people away. Was there until traffic cleared and I have to say those were the longest 3.5 hours that I remember. I felt so bad turning people away. Saw very cool cars and license plates from all the way from Texas etc.

Cops shut that entrance fully down and nobody was getting in or out. Most of the people were understanding and swallowed their disappointment, however some people were pretty rude - bumped other volunteers with their cars, jumped out and started yelling...

My deepest apologies for all who got turned away. As others said the show has out grown the small city of Morris.

 

I came in from Chicago at around 12:30, the interstate was backed up around 2 miles back from the exit ramp. We decided to go 10 miles down to the next exit and back track using country roads.... that worked out pretty well. We parked about 1/4 mile down from the entrance and walked the rest of the way. I was expecting to arrive at a jamb packed event, but to my surprise the crowd seemed to be about the same size as last year. In fact there was plenty of parking in the lot as well. I almost went back to the side of the road to move my car into the lot, but notice people were not be let in.

I remember last year, the highlight for me was all the cars lining up to leave, pulling out of the parking lot and just roasting the asphalt. This year there was 10 times the traffic, even towards the end of the event.... and on top of that, you could tell that most of the traffic was not people going to the event. I kept thinking to myself, geez there must be something else going on in Morris.

Sounds to me like this traffic problem hit a critical mass early on, and it took the rest of the day to work itself out???? Not sure what happened, but traffic was 10 times worse this year....

 

Hey the cops are crazy like that. When I worked at a shit rag called Super Chevy we had one of our shows just outside Baton Rouge. People came out of the wood works for that show. The traffic was lined up for over a mile in both directions off the hi-way. The state troopers showed up red faced and short tempered. They said they were going to shut the show down and ordered the promoter to park the cars in a field next to the track. So he did as ordered and had to pay a fine for parking on somebody else's land.

Moral of the story, if the cops want to shut you down there is not much you can do about it.

 

That does it, I'm leaving RIGHT NOW for next year's show.

 

What really sucked was after waiting 1 1/2 hours t get from I80 to the fair grounds, seeing empty parking spaces right behind the cop telling everyone the gate, and the whole show was closed this was ~2:00 PM.

 

Another of the many reasons why Woodstock could never happen again.

("The New York State Thruway's closed, man!" - Arlo Guthrie at Woodstock).

In the 60's it was the counter-culture's underground "grapevine" that spread the word and motivated 500,000 to attend a concert. The little town of Bethel NY didn't know what hit it. Every road for fifty miles around became one way heading towards Yasgurs farm. Imagine if we had the internet back then!

as Wavy Gravy said "There's always a little bit of Heaven in a disaster area."

Sounds like it's time for some alternate parking locations and a couple of shuttle buses it also helps to route traffic through a zig-zag path of back roads to take pressure off the interstate exit.

Congratulations to the Chrome Czars on their success!

 

Oh yeah one more moral of the story, if a show has some problems like say the pop corn vendor selling burnt pop corn or even traffic problems, the poor damned promoter always seems to get blamed whether they had anything to do with it or not. It's the way of the internet.

 

We drove down from Chicago midmorning and hit the traffic line on I80 at about 11:45. Basically there were no police directing traffic, and people were arriving a lot faster than the local stoplights would let them through. Show traffic formed a line on the highway shoulder. It took about an hour to get to the parking lot from I80. Fortunately for us, the parking lot staff was still letting people into the lot, but the lot was pretty much full. I was going to congratulate the Chrome Czars on blowing the place out, but it's a real bummer that people drove a long way and didn't get in.

If the front parking lot is the only parking available at the venue, then the show has sadly outgrown the venue. Once inside the venue, it seemed about as crowded as last year. Maybe a little more. From what I'm hearing, if everyone who tried to get in had gotten in, it would have been wildly overcrowded.

There were some fantastic cars. I shot 2 rolls of Kodachrome on my Stereo Realist and could have spent hours trying to catalog all the nice stuff I saw. It seemed that there were less rusty rat rods and more nicely finished cars this year. Maybe people are learning from other people's examples ...

The only bummer for my 9 year old girl (and my inner 9 year old) was that the circle of fire was cancelled. Still, it was a great day and we're planning to go back next year.

 

I got to 47 and 80 and st in the traffic for long time as well. I too did not make it into the fairgrounds. No biggie, next year I will have to get their early to avoid this. Hopefully the vendors made a ton of money due to the turn out.

I ended up going to starved rock and in downtown Utica there was a little car show. So it wasn't a wasted trip.

 

Did someone really come up from Texas? That is nuts. I had no idea this show was that popular.

 

I was a red shirt volunteer helping the 'Czars out with parking. All I can compare it to is a major sports event - like going to a Cubs game. Cars were parked tight in, by the time some were getting there, others were leaving. This made traffic difficult. If you got there at "game time" (9am) it went smoothly to park, but by around noon the "game" was full. The Czars were doing everything they could, even accepting show cars later than the cut-off, in order to allow as many in as possible. There were show cars clear behind the Grundy speedway area! As for getting out - I left at 3pm and waited 45 minutes - I have waited much longer to get out of a Cubs game.

It is all volunteers, and for charity - it's not Wrigley Field raking in millions - and it was an AWESOME show of vehicles, and the best that the volunteers could put on given the "overflow" crowd. I honestly thought the rain the night before would keep people away, but when I saw all those cars, I smiled to know how much was being raised for charity. I was proud to volunteer and help out.

I am really sorry for what happened with "local authority" traffic control, and ANYONE that didnt make it in. Hopefully next year the venue is bigger, or those that "want a seat" will need to get there earlier (I left my house at 5am to help out). It really was an awesome show.

Casey

 

I like the tags for this thread lmao

 

I guess some guys definition of a good show is wether they are looking IN through the fence,or looking OUT throught the fence,HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Thanks for the input Casey...