Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visits Brainerd International Raceway, where the cars are fast and loud. Reabe interviews drivers and attendees about the fun at BIR during an amateur “Show & Go” event.
Mainstreet Radio’s Rachel Reabe visits Brainerd International Raceway, where the cars are fast and loud. Reabe interviews drivers and attendees about the fun at BIR during an amateur “Show & Go” event.
BILL ZIMMERMAN: [SCREAMS] Oh, I'd die for racing. I absolutely love drag racing.
RACHEL REABE: Bill Zimmerman's adrenaline is still pumping. He's just completed a 17-second pass down the quarter mile drag strip in a 1974 El Camino. He says the sensation is indescribable.
BILL ZIMMERMAN: I mean, at first light comes on, the second light comes on, and it goes blink, blink, blink-- boom! There's just that instant rush that tells you to hang on and run. It's just the ultimate high. Just running as fast as you can in a car, listening to open headers, listen to performance. You can't describe it. You have to do it.
RACHEL REABE: When the weekend races are over, Zimmerman will reattach the mufflers on the El Camino, sedately return home to his life as a high school industrial arts teacher in Jackson, Minnesota. Zimmerman is at BIR for the annual Show & Go event, an opportunity for amateurs to show off their cars and then race each other down the drag strip. The event has drawn some 600 amateur drag racers from across the Midwest and 13,000 spectators. And it seems they're all talking cars.
SPEAKER 1: I have a '69 Z28 Camaro, all original. It's got the original 302. It's balanced and blueprinted.
SPEAKER 2: It's a mild custom 327, 400 horsepower. 327 cubic inch. It's got a 292 duration Cam, 650 Double Pumper.
SPEAKER 3: '29 Ford, two-door Sedan Delivery. V6 motor. It's been chopped 3 inches. Automatic transmission, power steering brakes, cruise, tilt, air.
RACHEL REABE: The handful of national racing events at Brainerd International Raceway attract the majority of the attention. But on most weekends, amateur racers are on the track. BIR drag racing director Bob Van Houten says the amateur events offer just as much excitement and fun for the drivers and spectators.
BOB VAN HOUTEN: They can enjoy them cruising down the quarter mile, seeing how fast it'll go. Or beating their buddy in the other lane, that makes it even that much more fun. I'd say the competition probably is just as serious, but the incentives are a little different. The person [INAUDIBLE] is three quarters of $1 million. What you win here is you win a trophy, you win the right to brag that you're number one for the next year.
RACHEL REABE: The amateur events like the Show & Go are geared for families. Van Houten says pedal car and BMX racing are scheduled for the younger kids, junior drag racing for the teenagers, and a women-only drag contest.
BOB VAN HOUTEN: That, to me, is the epitome of drag racing where you've got the dad who's actually up here running a car, or maybe he's working on the son's car, so the son is driving. You get the whole family involved. It's a neat deal, and you can't have any better fun. Any cleaner fun, either.
RACHEL REABE: The three-mile racetrack at Brainerd International Raceway forms the outer perimeter of the sprawling camp grounds. BIR is the only major track in the country with on-site camping. In the early '70s, track owners went to then governor Wendell Anderson to request the camping permits, citing a pressing need for overnight accommodations for the increasing number of spectators. The camping facilities have turned out to be a big draw for families.
Wanda [? Blasser ?] of Lester Prairie has set up camp on a strip of hard-packed ground, a few hundred feet from the racetrack. She's sitting in front of a small dome tent in a lawn chair. A steady stream of dragsters on their way to the track make conversation difficult, but [? Blasser ?] says her family likes being in the middle of the action.
[? WANDA BLASSER: ?] My husband is a police chief, and I'm a hairstylist, and my boys are 20 and 14 years old. And they're just out running around having fun. And they brought friends. It's a very fun event. Everybody from businessmen to motor biker, leather people, everybody. In between-- white-collar, blue-collar workers.
RACHEL REABE: [? Blasser's ?] husband is the only one in their family racing this weekend, but Wanda says she's waiting to get a car of her own to race. She expects that both her sons will also get into drag racing at some point.
[? WANDA BLASSER: ?] This is a very clean and legal way to have fun with your cars. And you don't have to go-- it's not like going on back roads and getting into trouble and getting in an accident on the roads. The first time I went on the track, it was like, whoa, this is the closest thing to flying.
RACHEL REABE: Amateur events like the Show & Go provide solid revenue for the track and help broaden the spectator base. This season, a record-setting quarter of a million people are expected to pass through the gates at Brainerd International Raceway. For Mainstreet Radio in Brainerd, I'm Rachel Reabe.
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