I've emailed the contact for the "Great Race" to determine when and where it's coming through Peoria. I'll have more details when I have an answer.
As for the bed and breakfast in Washington Rich mentioned-- it's a nice place, but I don't know about parking. The good part about that is that Washington is a small town, the bad part is that it's not a REALLY small town.
The thing about the Peoria area is that everything is within 20 minutes of everything else. If we had the opening dinner in East Peoria, it's 10 minutes from Washington, 10 from Morton, 10 from Peoria, and 15 from my place. There are multiple hotels in East Peoria, and a riverboat casino with attached hotel (for those so inclined).
So far we've got Rich and Joe for sure, and Jack as a firm maybe. If you are seriously considering attending, please give me a head's up so I can get some sort of idea on a number. We'll pick a place and see about group rates once we get a bit of a head-count. This would be good to have so we can all eat together as well.
We had a blast last year, and we just kind of faked our way through it. This year ought to be even better.