Chicagoland drag racing is much different now than it was back in the 1970s.

A stadium-style facility, built in the late 1990s, plays host to the 13th stop on the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in Joliet, Ill. Up until 1984, a coliseum of sorts, located 30 miles east of Joliet, once served as the host to the nitro gladiators of yesteryear.

Don’t be confused, US 30 Drag Strip in Gary, Indiana was no Route 66 Raceway. However, it served a purpose for hundreds of thousands of drag racing fans in Chicago.

Four drivers are participating in this weekend’s Lucas Oil NHRA Route 66 Nationals who also ran at US 30, a place where a driver was probably safer inside of his nitro-burning race car than outside.

“It was probably more dangerous outside of the car than inside,” Top Fuel racer Luigi Novelli said with a laugh. “There was a lot of betting going on there. There was some bullets flying from time to time too.”

Novelli, along with Pat Dakin, Chris Karamesines and John Force made laps on the now defunct drag strip.

Dakin only raced US 30 once and the experience was more than enough to last a lifetime.

“It was definitely an experience,” Dakin said with a smile.

US 30's reputation was built largely on its weekly Nitro shows but even more because of its major betting in the grandstands. Those who raced there pointed out as much as $500,000 could change hands as a result of what happened on the track.

“You know they used to bet heavily there and if someone lost a bet, he’d just shoot the guy he owed," Dakin said, with a serious look on his face. "There were several shootings that night I went. [Former Top Fuel racer] Paul Longnecker had a couple of bullets go through his trailer, and one exploded a battery.”

Dakin won in his lone appearance, racing the traditional US 30 Chicago Style format, a program derived from the weekly show where a number of fuel cars would make two runs with the quickest two returning for the final and a larger share of the guaranteed money.

Because of the unsavory individuals who would lie in wait for a victim, Dakin learned at the end of the victory, his greatest asset was not his tune-up. It was the police escort as he left the track with a pocketful of cash.

“We got paid and back then they paid you in cash,” Dakin explained. “We were starting to load up and this cop just walked over to our pits and made himself comfortable. I asked if I could help him, and he said, ‘You’re one of the two guys who won the money?”

Dakin nodded yes, and the cop responded, "I will be by your side until you leave here.”

“I asked him why, and he then told me, ‘trust me, you are going to need me.”

Those betting in the stands had simple rules, red lights didn't matter nor did crossing the center-line. The driver who got to the finish line was the winner even if they left before the opponent had staged such as Raymond Beadle did against Don Prudhomme one night. Beadle was awarded the victory and the extra money, but beforehand he was counseled by the betting stewards losing was not an option.

Even if a racer broke a part as Beadle once did, the betting community came over to inspect the part to determine if the attrition was acceptable to those who had lost the wager.

“There was a lot of heavy-handed betting and it didn’t matter if you red-lit or what, just who got to the finish line first," confirmed Don Schumacher, who made his first runs down a drag strip at US 30. "They’d get mad at you if you messed up. It was simple, you didn’t mess up.”

Schumacher wasn't the only local who knew the serious nature of the betting pool.

Ron O'Donnell, who raced a Funny Car back in those days, admits his childhood growing up on the south side of Chicago prepared him for the experience. Even as tough as he was, he decided it was best to stay away from the grandstands after a race.

"You could go into the grandstands, but if you had just run and they bet on you and you lost, it was not a good place to be,” Cook said.

Dennis Swearingen, a crewmember for Chris Karamesines, experienced US 30 as a crewman for Billy Meyer. Crewmembers were in the crosshairs as much as the drivers.

“You’d get approached by fans wanting to know if we were going to win before they bet on us,” Swearingen recalled. “You knew then; it was a subtle threat that you couldn’t lose. If they had to come back, they wouldn’t be too happy with you. It you lost, you had better get packed up and get out of there quickly.”

Even John Force raced at US 30, the only active Funny Car driver to have raced there and won, won an AHRA event and after deep thought realized the race fans weren’t so concerned for his success because they were fans.

“They loved their racing almost as much as their betting,” Force recalled. “You’d get back to the pits and someone would be there waiting to ask you, ‘you mean to win that race?”

“It took me years later to understand why they asked me.”

Looking at today's Route 66 Raceway's features, those who raced at US 30 confirmed the facility wasn’t as amenity sound as the modern.

Retired Funny Car driver turned tuner Paul Smith said racers ignored the public safety dangers in the pursuit of earning a living. They also ignored the lack of current technology associated with running drag races.

“They didn’t even have a real tree,” Smith explained. “They had a wire with a stoplight hanging down. It went from red to blue. Then you took off.”

Dakin can attest to Smith's point, citing the night races had the tendency to be “sporty.”

“I remember distinctly we had roller starters back then but then you looked down the track and there were no lights in the place. I asked them ‘well, where do you go?”

“One of the track guys pointed to the end of the track where there was a light, and said, ‘Just aim for that light.”

“I asked my partner Gary Rupp, what should I do, ‘the guy told me to aim for the light.”

“Rupp thought about it, and responded, ‘I guess you had better aim for the light.”

EDITOR'S NOTE - Veteran photographer Mike Sopko has an incredible gallery of images from US 30 and other Chicagoland race tracks, and are available for purchase. CLICK HERE TO SEE HIS GALLERY