PCMS set to start Event One

Phillips County Motorsports is set to kick off their ninth season this Friday, June 3 at the Hi-Line Drag Strip located just south of Malta's city limits. This weekend's three-day event will kick off a four event series that will feature over a hundred dragsters.

The first test and tune event will begin after the 14th Annual First State Bank Car Show this Saturday afternoon.

PCMS will also be featuring 10 alcohol cars during the Car Show.

"They are big, high-horse 2400 plus horsepower cars," PCMS Vice President John Carnahan said.

There will also be altered cars, funny cars and rail cars that will all compete after the Car Show at the drag strip.

The qualifying round of races will be at 6:30 p.m.

Sunday morning will mark PCMS's first points race of the year. Sunday's festivities will also include Pyscho Sports Cartel, a freestyle motocross who will put on an opening act for the event.

"My son, Shane Carnahan has got four of the world's best riders to put on a motorcycle show downtown," Carnahan said.

The riders will put on two shows downtown Saturday, but will also hit the track on Sunday.

"We at the track said hey, they are up here let's hire them to come out to the track," Carnahan said noting that the riders are exciting, especially when his son isn't doing the riding.

The main racing isn't your typical street style drag race.

"We do what we call E.T. Bracket Racing," Carnahan said.

He went on to say it's a little more complex than a simple drag.

"If you had a car and I had a car and we went out and drag raced, we would take off at the same time and whoever got to the finish line first would be the winner," he said.

But typically the racer that loses a race doesn't stay down.

Carnahan said that his opponent may have more money than he does and after a loss a number of things can be done to enhance the car, giving the opponent an unfair advantage.

"It ended up being that the guy who had more money ended up winning the races," he said. "So they had to change something, so they came up with E.T. Bracket Racing."

Racers dial in their times before they hit the starting line.

"We dial a number in on the windshield like 7.00 seconds and you dial in a time like 7.5 seconds, you will leave a half a second ahead of me and the object is for me to catch you and finish ahead of you without going faster than my time."

He went on to say that racers could be slower than their dial in times as long as their opponents also go slower but the main objective is to beat your opponent while remaining as close to your dial in as possible.

"You need to know your car," Carnahan said. "You need to know what you're doing because in the eighth-of a-mile it's even more difficult than a quarter mile because you've only got 660 feet to cover."

He reiterated that you need to know your car because there is not any time to think.

PCMS races have four different classifications of racers: SuperPro (Box), Pro (No Box), Sportsman and Junior races.

Junior dragsters have to be at least seven years of age to start racing.

"They have different age groups for different speeds that they are allowed to run," Carnahan said. "The older you get the faster you can go."

The introductory adult class is known as the Sportsman class.

"Let's say for instance you come out there, you've never raced before, you got mom and dad's car, you have a driver's license, you have a helmet and you have a seat belt," he said. "We will put you in a class with other people that basically are beginning."

Racers in the Sportsman class aren't always beginners. In many cases racers may stay in the sportsman class because they don't want to move on to the Pro class.

"The Pro Class is for guys and gals that have been racing for a long time and they decide we're going to move up, go a little bit faster," Carnahan said.

SuperPro is the track's most complex race.

"That is very experienced drivers that have an electric control box in their cars," he said. "It controls their shift points; it controls their delay when the lights come down. It does a number of things."

Those boxes are not allowed in any other class of racing at the Hi-Line Drag Strip.

The event will be kicked off with a poker run that will be done by the racers throughout the community on Friday.

Many of the PCMS racers will show off their cars in the Car Show before the racing begins.

"Probably 80 percent of them do go downtown to put their car in there because they are awfully proud of their vehicles just like the guy who has a show car," Carnahan said.

PCMS expects to have between ninety and one hundred cars per day this weekend due to the fact they averaged as many in every event last season.

PCMS is a 501-C3 organization and is tax deductible. For more information visit http://www.pcmotorsports.org or call Carnahan at 406-390-6735.