The Street Machine Nationals in Du Quoin, Ilinois, has always been one of my favorite shows. Du Quoin is where Pro Street was born. Although the crazy days of yesteryear are behind us, it is still a great venue and a terrific show to attend. The great editor of Hot Rod Magazine, Jeff Smith, helped put this show on the map back in the day. It was THE show to go to if you wanted to be noticed and get your car in one of the major Petersen publications. Du Quoin is a small little town in Southern Illinois. If the state fairgrounds weren’t there, the town probably wouldn’t exist. With very few hotel options, people would stay well over an hour away in neighboring towns — Carbondale being the largest — and the party would go on in each town after the fairground gates closed for the night.
Pro Stock drag racing was in its heyday and people started building cars for the street to mimic what they saw on the track. Back-halved chassis with fat Mickey Thompson tires and gigantic blowers sticking through the hood would lope their way around the fairgrounds at a snail’s pace. The unmistakable sound of blower surge let everyone know you meant business (or at least appeared as though you did). Cars became even more exaggerated with extra power adders: superchargers on top of superchargers, turbos with superchargers, and nitrous on top of that. These cars were unceremoniously tagged as “fairground cruisers” and “trailer queens.” Scott Sullivan put an end to that when he and Jeff Smith drove his “Cheez Whiz”1955 Chevy across the country to prove them wrong.
Unfortunately, it didn’t help and Car Craft declared on the cover “Pro Street Is Dead.” Of course, it never really died. People still love Pro Street cars and a new crop of passionate builders are arriving on the scene, as are legends of the genre. Du Quoin is their homecoming and each year, more Pro Street vehicles are filling up the parking spots. 2022 has the makings of a record turnout after 60-plus Pro Street vehicles showed up and Wally Elder debuted his ’69 Dodge Daytona 2.0.
I have been lucky enough to become friends with many of the heroes of my youth who built these cars and have warped my brain with their builds. In 2021, while staying at the same hotel as the majority of Pro Streeters, I decided to try lightpainting Tony Netzel’s ’61 Plymouth Belvedere. What started out as a one-car experiment turned out to be a three-night (til 3:00 am) multi-car shoot. I had so much fun doing these photos and the owners were so gracious about having their cars shot. I was completely blown away at the response these photos got, so much so that it’s kind of “my thing.” Here are all of the photos I took for three glorious nights in the coliseum parking lot under the cover of darkness.
