On September 11 2001, a true tragedy took place. The single most deadly act of terror took place in New York City, as two planes were flown into the Twin Towers at the World Trade Centre. That same morning, in Washington DC, a plane was also flown into the Pentagon. And in Pennsylvania, thanks to the brave and valiant actions of the passengers, yet another plane was merely flown into the ground, instead of an unknown target. That these acts of destruction took place is undeniable, and we remember with pride and regret the heroes who selflessly faced unbelievable danger as they tried to save as many lives as they were able. These firefighters, police officers, and paramedics were just doing what they do. As a former paramedic, I understand this... and I offer to all members of the Emergency Services who responded to that disaster, and to all members who serve today, everywhere, a heartfelt "Thank You." Your service is noticed, and truly appreciated. And we pray that nobody should ever have to respond to a terrorist incident of that magnitude again.
On September 11 2011, ten years later, in the small community of Terrace BC, it was an appropriate day for the Terrace Speedway to hold it's final event for the 2011 automotive racing season... it was our annual Hit To Pass and Demolition Derby. Before I go any farther, I want to thank all of the volunteers for their many many hours of effort, and all of the sponsors for providing the funding for maintaining the Speedway. I also want to thank the Thornhill Volunteer Fire Department for coming out to help also. On this day, their firefighting services were actually required.
The day was started a little bit behind schedule, unfortunately. But it DID start with a bang, as the owner of a car that was experiencing mechanical difficulties decided to get some use out of it for the day. They rolled it. When you watch the video, you'll see the car is being pushed by the pickup towards a ramp. This single ramp is used primarily for this purpose, and as you can see, it does the job quite admirably. This video is actually of the SECOND roll of this car, and is driven by the same driver in each case. Oh yes... I'll explain why you see glass in this car in just a moment... Thanks to the seatbelt, helmet, and a deactivated airbag, the driver was unhurt in both cases.
Why is there glass in that car? Well... on this raceday they ran three classes of cars: Outlaw (which is the largest cars,) Banger (which is the smaller cars,) and Zero Effort. Okay... I can hear you all right now... I'll explain some more: Outlaw and Banger cars are purpose built for the HTP and Demo, and have been stripped down and prepped similarly to a convention stock car by dedicated racers. Zero Effort cars were made available thanks to Pronto Towing, for $100 to people who simply wanted to have something to run for this day. These cars WERE street legal (aside from insurance,) on raceday, and the only modification was the removal of the airbags. They were run with glass, lights, and upholstery still intact. And it made for a great show. The next thing we were treated to was driver introductions, , and then there was the Smokeshow Competition. You can see the winner of that above
The first actual races were obstacle courses run by each class. Machinery tires were strategically placed in the corners with arrow painted on them to indicate the route that the cars HAD to take in order to complete a lap. The obstacles in many cases served to slow things down, and helped to keep things interesting. That was followed up by an Outlaw Hit to Pass, and then a mixed Banger and Zero Effort Hit to Pass. For the Hit to Pass, they changed the rule: "In order for a lap to count, you MUST contact another car. In order to pass another car, you must hit it." And the rule about the obstacles was removed, as were the obstacles themselves. When the pack of cars started to open up too much, lead drivers would slow down in order for the others to catch up so that they could hit another car, or BE hit, in order for the lap to count. I have to give my compliments to all of the drivers involved in the day's racing... they all put on a GREAT show, and everybody stayed safe. If anybody thinks that driving in these races is just a simple thing... take a look at this little slideshow demonstrating a technique called a Pit Maneuver... this is basically the same technique used by police to bring vehicles to a stop during a chase. You've got to be thinking and aware of what's going on, in order to know when and how to do this:
Now... while they were removing the obstacles (tires,) they needed something to fill some time. They did this by holding a balloon toss. One of the firefighters graciously agreed to let his helmet be used as the target as most of the children came out with a water balloon (unfortunately, they ran out... like I said, it was an AWESOME turnout!) and took turns throwing at it. In the picture to the left, you can see the balloon rolling out to the side as it didn't break... although the thrower did win a fantastic prize... a Family Season's Pass to next year's racing at Terrace Speedway. 
The children had a grand time, and so did our firefighters. Truth be told, I think our firefighter who "volunteered" his helmet was hoping one would break in it so he could cool off a little bit... because after a goodly number of missed throws, he took the helmet and held it up, making himself a target also... and when that didn't pan out, he and his partner engaged in a water balloon fight, much to the delight of everybody.
While I'm on the topic of firefighters... Remember I mentioned that their services were required? Yeah... during the Banger/ Zero Effort Hit to Pass, one of the cars very nearly rolled over, and was disabled. There was nothing that I could call unusual about the hit, at least from my vantage point... until I looked back and saw the smoke rising from the hood. And then noticed flames under it.... Pit crew members had the fire mostly under control by the time the firefighters got there, but they made sure it was well and truly out by prying the hood open and liberally discharging a fire extinguisher into the engine compartment. The driver was at no point in danger of burning... he was easily able to unbuckle his seatbelt, open the door, and calmly walk away from the smoking car, because it was a Zero Effort car.
I need to make mention that this race was intended to go on until the cars were unable to run... clearly this was the end for THIS car... who had gone in to the pits to have a new tire put on at least once. Another car had it's left front wheel (or lead wheel,) deflated within the first two laps... and he kept racing several laps even after it was run down to the rim. What a trooper!! In the end, it was determined that this was the only car to actually make every single lap with an impact on another car. Who'da thunk it? Oh yeah... the last car running in this race? Was the one that almost caused the burned car to roll.
After we had an intermission, it was time for the Demolition Derby... and that part of things went quite quickly. The Zero Efforts were reduced to two cars able to go at it... Two hits later, they were done. The Outlaws held their Derby heat... and that was a little bit of a spectacle, resulting in a few dead cars, after many, many hits and lots of smoker from the tires. The Banger Derby heat wasn't quite so spectacular, although it was also quite entertaining. It left a single car able to run... more on that in a moment.
In order to buy some repair time for the Outlaw cars, and also to give people something else to enjoy, a Garden Tractor Race was held. Dennis and Fern Beaudette, of Beaudette Contracting, (yes, they sponsor the races,) brought their tractors out and raced them. Dennis normally races stock car, and he took the older Husqvarna tractor, while his wife, Fern, took the newer Cub Cadet tractor. This was a case of power winning out over experience, as Fern easily outran Dennis, even doing a donut in front of him. This was also a crowd-pleaser, and had the added benefit of being just plain cute.
And then... it was time for the final event of the day: the Outlaw Derby Final... with only two cars left, it was destined to be quick... So we thought. There was a lot of screeching, crunching, and smoke as the two cars jockeyed back and forth and slammed into each other again and again, until finally it was conceded that the green car was simply unable to do anything at all... it sat on the track like a lump on a log.
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