FSB Car Show headlines busy weekend in Malta

If you can’t find something interesting to do this weekend in Malta, there might not be any hope for you — from fast cars to fisticuffs, this weekend has it all.

The first event of the wildest weekend in Phillips County is the Poker Run which gets on the road at 7 p.m. on Friday night with registration at the First State Bank (and followed by a test and tune out at the drag strip.

If fitness is your thing, the Malta Parks and Rec 3rd annual Color Fun run starts the morning of June 2 (see a preview story on page 1B) featuring both a 5K and 1-mile run. If motion is your thing, but you’d rather see it fueled with gasoline, Shane Carnahan is once again bringing back the boys (and their toys) from Psycho Sports Cartel who will be jumping and flipping their motorcycles three times in two days starting with their freestyle motocross stunts downtown on Saturday (shows at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.)

"I think they are pumped," Carnahan said of this year's riders. "They love it up here...it's literally becoming like a second home.”

The third and final performance of the PSC daredevils will be held hosted at the Phillips County Motor Sports’ Hi-Line Drag Strip where the need for speed will certainly be quenched as that outfit welcomes racers to town to open the 2018 season.

Slower speeds of entertainment can be had for the children out at Kid’s Day at the Great Plains Dinosaur Museum and sales at local businesses will be going on through the day on Saturday and local vendors will be setting up shop around Veteran’s Memorial Park downtown offering food and other goods.

The reason for all the commotion about town this weekend is The First State Bank 16th Annual Car Show, the crown jewel of the festivities. Last year, the show featured nearly 80 vehicles, a little bit lower than most years (the lower attendance last year no doubt had something to do with all the construction going on in Malta last year…work that has thankfully been completed as we start this summer in Phillips County.)

Malta First State Bank's Terry Skones, one of the event's organizers, said that most things will remain the same as years past as far as the Car Show goes (because if it is not broke, why fix it) but told the PCN that one new wrinkle will be added trophies in the People's Choice categories (in which, as the name claims, spectators pick the winners.)

"We will have trophies for People’s Choice Motorcycle and Tractor along with Car this year," Skones said. "The past couple years we have only had one People’s Choice trophy for all three. Now they will get their own."

Last year's award winners included Longest drive award went to Russ Schneidmiller from Calgary, Alberta and his 1971 Plymouth. The "Judged Top 6 Award" was given out to Tony Boos (1929 Essex) and Rick Starkey (1970 Buick) of Malta, Terry and Ben Carleton (1934 Ford Pickup) Gerry and Helen Redekop (1932 Roadster) of Swift Current, Canada, Ken West (1969 Camaro) of Havre, Mont., and Sid and Pat Rice of Glasgow, Mont., with their 1941, blue Chevy Pickup.

The finale of Saturday night will be the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights hosted by KillEagle Productions at the Milk River Pavilion. The event is being thrown by Wes KillEagle Jr. and all the proceeds from the fights — titled Fight For Our Future — will be donated to families staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle, Wash., a place near and dear to KillEagle's heart.

Last year, KillEagle's infant daughter, Payton KillEagle, then just 9-months-old, was diagnosed with liver cancer and was flown to the Seattle Children's Hospital to receive care and lived at the Ronald McDonald House (Peyton celebrated her secod birthday last Sunday.).

"She had 60 percent of her liver removed at ten-months-old," KillEagle told the PCN. "She had to do six rounds of chemo and entered remission last August."

Tickets for the event are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Side tables are available for the events and have been selling fast. The weigh-in for the event will be held at The Mint Bar in Malta on Friday, June 1, at 5:30 p.m. For more information contact Wes KillEagle at 406-399-6580.