ECTA Arkansas Mile is this weekend at Blytheville, Arkansas at the old bomber base. Come watch Bonneville-like racing. Bring your hot rod to learn the rules and enter the June race.
There are motor homes parked outside the gate. I don’t think there are any hook ups. Friday racing was not conducted due to high winds. There are 94 entries; the event has capacity for 150. Come join us. Gates open at 0700, Rookie briefing is at 0730, racing commenced at 0800, weather permitting.
Great day today at ECTA. We are driving my LS-swapped S10 pickup. Whit, my co-driver made his 125mph licensing pass at 121.7mph, short shifting at about 4500rpm since it is my truck. I ran the truck up to 134mph, then braked to 114mph going through the traps. We only got those two passes due to weather, but we hope to get another pass each tomorrow at 135-ish. I did learn that a NV3500 5 spd does not shift at 6000rpm. Lots of brilliant fabricators here-the cars and ingenuity are simply amazing.
I wrote to the Blytheville chamber of commerce two months ago to ask if they knew where I could park my motorhome for the trials. Even gave them my email. No response. Guess us hoodlums are not welcome !
No TROG-like cars are present or racing. There’s still a rule book modeled after the SCTA. There is a beautiful 32Ford bodied F/Gas Roadster car powered by a Mercedes DOC 6-cylinder. A couple t-bodied extended And an early F-bodied Mustang with a turbo charged flathead. And a chopped Hudson coupe with a Hudson straight 6. And a 53 Studabaker with a 500 Caddy motor. One of the officials has a sweet 36 Ford chopped flamed 2-dr sedan. And another person has a 37 Chevy sedan street rod. This is the first event for the new organizers. I think if you wanted to come and bring a self-contained RV and park it outside the gate at night, you’d be fine. Just empty the sumps when you get home. No rain today, but wind delays. My crew chief ran 133mph in my truck this morning with the truck flat-footing it thru the timers with the mirrors folded in. We’ve taken off the tailgate and pulled the drivers floor mat out in case the gas pedal isn’t going to the floor. Just waiting on the wind before calling it a day.
A friend of mine looked it up on our way to a local Experimental Aircraft Association chapter meeting today. If the info he found is correct, the total runway length is something like 11,600' long, just a bit over 2 miles. It also sounded like it's still an active airport but was closed to aviation for the duration of the event. Is that correct? A Google satellite view of the airport looked like "X"s painted on the runway so I figured the airport was officially closed.....maybe just not an up-to-date photo? Lynn
1-mile with 1-mile of shutdown room. Very smooth. Watch-hell(!)-enter and set a record! Rule book is on line at ecta-lsr.net or .com ECTA landspeed is hot rodding in its purest form. Almost every car is hand built at home and driven by the owner/builder. So much quality work, you could spend weeks studying each of these cars. And the participants are SO nice and cheer each other on. You won’t find a nicer bunch of folks anywhere. My crew chief is now a landspeed track record holder in the C/MMP class at 133mph. He’s probably the only hot rod fab shop owner in north Alabama that can claim an current landspeed record on his resume’. The record won’t stand for long, but the certificate on his wall will last for ever. So will the smile on my face.
congrats on your runs - need pics and details of race track, even if you can not post pics of OT race cars/trucks
According to the local ReMax office, the property is for sale.... Runway and taxi ways are X ed out and pictures shoe what looked like abandoned vehicles in several places along centerlines of paved areas.
I looked for the listing on the airport but couldn't find anything. But, if you found a listing out of curiosity what's an 11,600' runway length airport going for these days? Might be a good time to clean the change out from under the cushions on the couch? Lynn
If you have the funds to buy 2-miles of concrete, I’d sure appreciate it if you chipped in and bought it! Some of the taxi ways are really rough, but the runway racing surface is great and so is the return track. Now, if you could just control the wind and rain, we’d be in business. Seriously, come out and run if you can find a class to run in. And if not, prowl the pits looking at the workmanship and innovation. And watch a while from the starting lines and then the finish line. Cars going 200mph look like they are standing still from a distance, but they sound amazing. Bring binoculars and all your friends. We need more southerners racing since the track moved from Ohio to Arkansas. Most of the current fiend is from Canada and the mid-west.
Found this on Hot Rods website http://www.hotrod.com/articles/here-are-your-200-mph-ectahot-rod-top-speed-challenge-winners/
Been to Bonnie, Maxton, Wilmington, and Loring. I am a LSR Junkie. Gonna head up to Maine for the Harvest event for sure. If possible will head to AR. in June. Thanks for the updates !
I forgot to mention that my co-driver got to make his first run with a Hot Rod Magazine GoPro on board!
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