Street Racer Takeover Shuts Down Archer and Hoyne in McKinley Park

Street racers returned to the McKinley Park neighborhood of Chicago in the early morning hours of Sunday, May 23, 2021, to block off and then stunt-drive around the intersection of South Archer and South Hoyne avenues.

Dozens of cars blocked the six-way intersection around 1 a.m., including blocking all directions for Archer, Hoyne and West 35th Street.

A motorcyclist lies unconscious in the intersection of South Archer and South Hoyne avenues in the early morning hours of Sunday, May 23, 2021.A street cone and a road flare were placed in the middle of the intersection, and racers spun around it, watched by a large crowd, for about 20 minutes until they drove off, many filming on camera phones as they sat on cars’ windowsills.

A motorcyclist on a Harley-style bike was engaged in a crash in the intersection after the street racers had mostly dispersed. The motorcycle rider, who was not wearing a helmet, lay unconscious in the intersection, with Chicago police arriving very quickly, and an ambulance arriving several minutes after that.

As previously reported here in the McKinley Park News, the street racers who congregated by the hundreds in the River’s Edge and Riverside Plaza shopping mall parking lots along South Ashland Avenue had been routed by measures to control access to the property.

Dozens of spectators and cars block the intersection of South Archer and Hoyne avenues to watch cars spin out early in the morning of Sunday, May 23, 2021.

Photographer Julie Jaidinger contributed reporting and photographs for this article.