This Big Time Racin' Looks Fun

You have often seen me mention on these pages my good friend and former Richmond schoolmate, Frank Buhrman. Frank is the one you should blame for tutoring me and teaching me most of what I know about auto racing, beginning in 1964.

For many years now, Frank has resided near Gettysburg in the small locality of Carroll Valley, Pennsylvania - within easy driving distance of some of the east coast's most famed and revered dirt race tracks... i.e. Williams Grove, Hagerstown, the late Silver Spring among many.

As he noted in the e-mail below to me, he took in a different kind of show this past Saturday in Arcadia, Maryland... about an hour's drive southeast of his Pennsylvania residence.

This involves dirt and vehicles, so it seems a perfect fit here.

Some folks went to Bristol last Saturday and some to the demo races at Arcadia. I bet I know which group had the most fun.

Following is Frank's note to me and some photos he snapped with his phone. Enjoy.

Attached are some shots I took with the phone last Saturday at the
Arcadia (Md.) Volunteer Fire Company Carnival Grounds and Demo Derby
Track, where around 30-35 junk vehicles in three different classes ran
what are referred to by this promoter as "demo races." The track,
essentially the demo pit with a small extra section punched out on one
corner to add a "hair-pin turn," is probably about 1/10 mile, with
dirt mounds on each corner to keep guys from cutting - although as one
photo shows, they will try to climb them. I really had fun and for $12
would go again, although I wish it wasn't an hour away. Last year a
rival promoter had these races in Littlestown, Pa. (calling them "full
contact races"), a lot closer to us, but apparently they couldn't come
to terms with that fire company to return. I don't think the next
Jimmy Johnson will get his start here, but it's decent entertainment.

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Now..that looks like fun!

Got the additional note below from Frank about the events in the photos:

A couple of things I forgot to mention:

In the roll-over shot, the guy waving the red flag in the foreground
was also the track announcer, courtesy of a wireless headset, and he
was good. I think the crowd shot also showed the tent in the
foreground, which was the scoring stand - these guys actually had
transponders for all the cars, so a couple of laptops replaced that
small stand full of dedicated scorers (like us) from the old days.

There were three roll-overs Saturday, and one of them did in fact
restart and continue racing. One restarted but then drove back into
the pits, and the guy in my photo couldn't get his car to start again,
although he might have come back to race later.

What you can't see, at least not without looking really, really
carefully, is that these cars were "passenger-optional." Somewhere
between a third and half of them had a passenger seat. I saw one with
passenger roll at Littlestown last year - that was the car driven by a
young lady just turning 16; the car had a special birthday paint job
and sported mylar balloons as part of its aero package (maybe they
made it lighter).

It's gonna be weird getting back to "normal" racing.

is that a northern version of a demolition derby? they kinda do some things a little different at times ya know

you might be on to something there, Johnny!

I noticed that too, Johnny.