Photo: Cars line up for fun runs down the legendary Thunder Valley dragway in Bristol, Tennessee, on the last day of Power Tour. Bristol Motor Speedway, adjacent to the strip, is in the background.
Whew! What a haul. Hot Rod’s 15th annual Power Tour officially came to a close June 13 with the “long hauler” ceremony at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
We spent all day June 13 and part of June 14 making the 17-hour drive back to Minneapolis. Round trip for us was roughly 2,500 miles.
The last couple legs of the tour – to Somerset, Kentucky, and Bristol – were by far the best for scenery. Lots of huge, rolling hills and winding roads. It rained both days, but the skies always cleared up by the time we reached the show venue.
Somerset was nice, but Bristol was incredible. As if being at the speedway and Thunder Valley wasn’t cool enough, the staff opened up the dragway for unlimited fun runs and for $25, you could take five laps around the half-mile oval.
We lacked the cash to get the Monte on the speedway, sadly, but I did make two passes on the strip. They were my first passes ever, so I was pretty psyched to have that experience at Thunder Valley of all places.
With a couple hundred pounds of junk crammed in the trunk, I ran a not-so-fast best of 16.048 at 85 mph. It was a full second faster than my first pass and I’m sure I could have dipped into the 15s if I ran again, but I opted to be easy on the car since we had a long drive home.
All in all, my time didn’t matter that much – I raced at Bristol!
A big group of long haulers attended the closing ceremony the day after our arrival in Bristol. There appeared to be as many or more than the 1,200 who completed the tour last year.
A couple GM crate engines and a 2010 Camaro were given away in a drawing (we were not winners). The Camaro drawing was open to anyone who wanted to fill out an online entry form and the winner did not have to be present. Hot Rod staff said they received thousands of ballots, but miraculously the car went to a long hauler who was actually at the final ceremony.
No word yet on where Power Tour will go next year, but it will probably start in Bristol, since it has a history of beginning at the previous year’s last stop. Hot Rod staff said June 12 will be the start date – mark your calendar.
Be sure to check out the multimedia section for videos from Power Tour.
June 14th, 2009 | Articles, Event Articles
Nice, glad to see you get down the strip! The 5 laps would hav been cooler for me though!!
Comment by Tony C — June 18, 2009 @ 8:53 pm