Well this last week end at the RebelRun Cars Show at Allen County Fairgrounds was great event for the members that made the trip. In spite of the weather forecast we had 23 cars show up. The weather was not even a factor in fact it was a blessing for us as it worked out. Do to the windy warm condition the water that was put on the track was drying out quickly and it started to get a little dusty when we went on to the track for practice sessions. We had the water truck starting to water things down again when a large cloud drifted over and proceeded top dump a large amount of rain on our parade. Well it was just what we needed. after the rain finally stopped we had to wait for the water to sink in. Max McLure was helpful in getting a tractor with roller and several pickup truck to run the track in. In the mean time we were all standing by ready to go. We had lined up all the midgets for one heat. the modifieds and stock cars for a heat race and the Open Wheels cars for a third heat.The Open wheel sprints and champ car went out first for the opening event. The track was a little wet but once we started it quickly improved and we were putting on a great show. The race ended up with the first three cars locked in a battle for the lead. John Lawhorn moved into the lead with his usual low pass and stayed out front even with repeated challenges from Carl Robinson and Jim McDermott. With a few laps to run Carl pulled to a stop on the front straight Bringing out the yellow. At the restart it was Lawhorn and me trying to get by each other. On the white flag lap I could not get under John for the lead so I went to the high side and tried to open up my big block Chevy coming out of 4, I thought I had a chance but just could not get enough bite and John beat me by a half a car length. Does this sound like a fun way to spend a Friday afternoon? The Modified Stock heat race was a dead heat finish with brothers Bob and Scott Shelhorn going at it. Scott was in an old modified and Bob was driving the wicked big block late model. They had been working on each other through out the race with neither one willing to give in. The veteran Larry Smith was impressive out on the dirt and a few more laps he might have got by the brothers. Gene Steele drove the race not using his brakes . More fun? Then the mighty Midgets took the track and it was a blast from the past watching these cars out there on the track. Butch Evans sure had his midget special hooked up even on such little tires.
Due to the rain shower we were running a little short on time so we put all the cars together for the feature. It makes an interesting racing program by running all the different types of cars together. Cars of different sizes and different times all on the track running hard together. You would think one of the high powered open wheel cars or the big block late model would have the advantage. Well it turned out that the little midget with the small tires was the fast way around even with the big block closing in Butch and his Midget pulled off the win.
Saturdays event was just as much fun.we had the track from 1 pm till 3 pm and we put on three heat races and three features. What was very rewarding was the comments from the fans that took the time from all the other activities around the fairgrounds, was their enjoyment seeing cars racing on an old fairground track . This was the way racing was done in the past. No super speedways or meticulously groomed racing surface just plain fun at the county fairgrounds. We were all glad to be a part of this return to past and all the member expressed the enjoyment that they felt being part of this program. We will look to next year to do this again. We want to thank Max and his people for all there support. it would not have went off this good with out the support of the people there. Thanks to Joe Hicks for a great job as flagman. John Morton for being such a good announcer. and all the people that helped push cars around. I think we have developed some interest from the hot rod crowd as we had one gentleman with a street legal sprint car took a few laps and another with a NASCAR type stock car at the car show tried out the dirt.
Next event will be at Lawrenceburg Indiana on Sept 29 . The gates open at 3 pm. If you are going let me know asap as I need to get your name and assistants name on the list for the track management.