Rock Island Grand Prix brings crowd, karts and fun to downtown (2024)

Different things make the Rock Island Grand Prix special for different people.

There was Jason Burgess, the flagman wearing a green-sequin blazer, commanding the attention of drivers and spectators alike as he leapt and gestured with signaling flags telling drivers to go, to exercise caution or that the race was won.

There was John Baxter, who’s been coming to the race every year it's been held, perched on top of a wooden painter’s ladder modified with a few pieces of wood and pillows into the tallest chair with the best view at Turn 1.

Or race fans like Chuck Saffell and Randy Wince, who met at the races on Saturday and spent the Sunday races hanging out together, talking through the course and the moves racers made to pass each other at one of the action-filled corners.

“It brings people together,” Saffell said.

Lief Maston and Nicole Sheckles considered passing on the race this year but were convinced to go by their kids because it’s a family tradition. Sheckles said that it was an event unique to Rock Island.

“We want this to continue, we need this,” Sheckles said.

There’s nothing else like it in the Quad-Cities, but the race also has a reputation for kart-racers, who come from places as close-by as Milan and as far away as the island of Bermuda.

Grand Prix Steering Committee President Roger Ruthhart said that the different variables of street racing make the course both exciting and challenging for the racers. Changes in the road’s surface, temperature and potholes, all with spectators just feet away and less uniformity in general are extra considerations racers might not be exposed to if they just race on tracks. Ruthhart said that no matter if racers win or lose, they’ll be much better drivers after racing here.

“It’s part of the attraction and part of the deterrent,” Ruthhart said.

The challenges are clear in the races themselves. Wheels regularly lifted off the ground as karts and drivers clattered across different road surfaces on some of the faster turns. Drivers stay within inches of the walls and bumpers of their competitors.

With construction in downtown Rock Island, this year's course was different from the usual as well.

Becky Rasmussen, who’s been the lead corner marshal for 25 years, and her team of volunteers had to spring into action to remove two karts that got tangled up entering a turn, hitting safety barriers and blocking part of the course. Rasmussen slid over the low plastic wall to get the karts off the track and move the barriers back into place so the race could continue safely, all within a few minutes while kart drivers flew by at speeds approaching 70 and 80 miles an hour.

“I’m extremely proud (of my team). We got the track put back in order within what, three, four laps?” Rasmussen said. “It was incredible.”

The love for the event is what keeps people coming back. Felicity Kruger is 21 years old and has been racing karts for four years. She said that her first year coming to the race was in 2019, and that she started racing it herself in 2021. She competed in the vintage open class, where the kart’s chassis must be at least 30 years old.

“You come out here, and you get on the track, and you look around at all the fans,” Kruger said. “In the vintage class, we’re not really out here racing for money, so you’ve just got to put on the best show you can put on.”