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Revving up for drag racing in Bonnyville

The wait for Bonnyville’s drag racing debut is almost over. The Bonnyville Gear Grabbers are putting the final touches on the inaugural Bonnyville Drag Races happening at the Bonnyville Regional Airport on Saturday, Aug. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 14.
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The Bonnyville Gear Grabbers will be hosting their Airport Drag Racing event at the Bonnyville Municipal Airport on Saturday, Aug. 24.

The wait for Bonnyville’s drag racing debut is almost over.

The Bonnyville Gear Grabbers are putting the final touches on the inaugural Bonnyville Drag Races happening at the Bonnyville Regional Airport on Saturday, Aug. 24 and Saturday, Sept. 14.

“It’s been a longtime coming,” noted Cayle Scherger, Gear Grabbers president and organizer of the event. “As an organizing committee, we’re all very excited and anticipating the day where we could offer a safe and controlled racing environment for the public. We all got to get our feet wet and got a little teaser with the test and tune (on June 22), but the big day is coming up and we’re all eagerly waiting for it.”

The day kicks-off with registration from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. The gates open to the public once the time trials begin after all the drivers are signed in, and races are slated to start around 1 p.m.

Time trials will place drivers into classes based on speed. They include sportsman, pro, and superpro.

“Essentially, it figures out how fast they’re going to go in the car, and it figures out what division they’re going to be in within the three divisions of the racing day,” Scherger detailed.

Based on these results, racers will go head-to-head to see who can cross the finish line first and go as fast as the recorded time.

For those interested in participating, their vehicle must pass the tech rules during registration.

The local car club is hoping over 70 drivers ranging from beginner to seasoned pros will participate.

“It’s going to be a nice mixture of options to watch for the spectators and for all involved,” noted organizer Shon Gamache.

With the event quickly approaching, the Gear Grabbers are hard at work getting all the finer details in place.

“Ensuring there’s plenty of space for all the racers and their trailers… down to fine tuning how we’re setting equipment up with a few things we learned at the test and tune. How we’re going to funnel the public into the airport grounds while keeping private property on the airport grounds… unmarked,” Gamache explained.

Scherger and Gamache agreed it’s well worth the wait for drag racing to be successful locally.

Gamache added, “The ultimate goal is, as long as the volunteers are there to help and people keep coming in who want to organize it, then by all means we want this to stay in Bonnyville. It’s not only a great sport to offer to the local people, but it’s great for the surrounding communities, the businesses, and the sponsors. It’s just a really good thing to have Bonnyville’s name on it. These airport race events are growing all over Alberta, and it’s nice to get our (name) on that.”

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