Drag Race fundraiser

[Steve R.]

Have a grudge? want to stop bench racing? Don't want to go to the track?

 

I was reading thru the metro/state section of yesterdays dispatch, and there is an article that talks about raising funds for an airport, in the form of dragging down the runway.

 

Where: Vinton County airport

When: June 28th

Cost: $10 per car/race

$5 for final race

 

Im sure if there isnt a huge crowd you'll run several times.

 

Link and Article:

 

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/06/17/MIKE17.ART_ART_06-17-09_B1_2EE71U2.html

 

NEW PLYMOUTH, Ohio -- If pilot Nick Rupert was unsettled by the black cat crisscrossing the sidewalk leading from the control tower to Vinton County Airport's lone runway, he didn't betray it.

 

The feline is just another homeless waif fed daily by airport volunteer and pilot Tom Wilkinson, who won his license to fly the same year Harry Truman won the White House.

 

"Tom sleeps in Nelsonville," Rupert said, "but he lives at the airport. He arrives every morning and cooks three eggs and bacon. He eats the eggs and feeds the bacon to the dogs next door. Then he climbs in his plane and flies somewhere for a cup of coffee."

 

Wilkinson will be directing traffic on June 28, when the airport opens its runway to grudge matches for gearheads whose $10 fees to drag race will help keep the grass mowed and the runway lights on in New Plymouth.

 

"You can go out on the highway and do it completely illegal," said Rupert, "or you can do it down here in a controlled setting."

 

In the teen novels of my baby-boomer boyhood, hot-rodders and their heartthrobs commonly used airstrips -- sometimes even legally -- to settle deuce-coupe disputes over bragging rights.

 

Rupert merely wants to settle the utility bill.

 

"Our electric bill is $189 a month," he said. The mowing of the portion of 106 acres that are not runway costs "a fortune," he added.

 

The last time the airport volunteers allowed drag racing to raise money, the cars in the first heat alone ponied up $800. Those racers who make it to the afternoon finals following the heat will pay only $5 for their final race.

 

The east-west runway at the county airport is, rather curiously, four stories higher at its western terminus than it is at its east end. The roller coaster rises where the sun sets.

 

But, Rupert said of himself and his Vinton County flying buddies, "We're all redneck pilots. We're used to landing on the sides of mountains."

 

The airstrip, a few miles north of McArthur, was the brainchild of a man whose name is yet invoked in reverent whispers in Vinton County.

 

"James A. Rhodes," Rupert said, "a good Republican if ever there was one, decided that every county in Ohio should have a paved runway."

 

The governor never hinted that benefactors of his poured concrete would be on their own to maintain the airstrips ad infinitum once the groundhogs were delivering Jim Rhodes' mail.

 

But Vinton County does proud by the gift.

 

Locals are even holding a mini tractor pull pitting souped-up riding mowers against weight sledges.

 

"They have a kids' class and an old farts' class," Rupert said, noting of the competing vehicles, "You ain't mowin' the lawn with these bad boys."

 

If you are a motor-head who loves to race and willing to yield to incoming planes, call 740-357-0268 for more details on the noon flag drop to keep flying alive. Otherwise, timid drivers might want to consider staying the hell out of Dodge on the 28th.

 

Retired columnist

 

Mike Harden writes Wednesday and Sunday Metro columns.

 

cosmosmariner46@

 

yahoo.com

[Ramsey]

That sounds great.

[Transamatt99]

Sounds just like the flashlight drags they used to have over in pittsburg....Except the FAA shut it down. Bastards.

[GSXRAntwon]

Im down

[Farkas]

that sounds fun