OTHELLO — Slow drags and cool cars will fill Othello this weekend at the All-Cities Classic Car Show Friday night and Saturday. The slow drags are scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Friday on Main Street. Registration for the car show is from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Kiwanis Park.
The show also features the “Spud Run” Saturday afternoon. It will be the club’s 27th car show-slow drags-poker run, although not quite the 27th annual. Like many other things, the car show was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The slow drags are going old school for 2023, all the way back to the 1950s and 1960s.
“We are encouraging everyone to dress in fifties (and) sixties attire as we will have a visit from the Pink Ladies of (Othello) City Hall and maybe some street dancing,” according to a post on the club’s social media.
Jack Purdy, one of the organizers, said in an earlier interview that the slow drags use principles of physics to make a reverse car race – the idea is to go slow, not fast. It’s all about momentum and inertia.
“You give it a little bit of gas,” Purdy said. “And then you coast to the line and stop.”
The car that gets closest to the finish line without crossing it wins, he said. Getting the right amount of acceleration takes some practice, and contestants get a practice run as well as multiple attempts, Purdy said.
Advance registration for the car show will be open at the slow drags, but drivers who don’t make it Friday night can sign up in the park Saturday morning.
Traditionally the car show has welcomed anything with wheels, whether it’s running or not, whether it has an engine or not. Over the years drivers have brought big vehicles like buses and little vehicles like scooters; owners have entered their trucks – check out that work truck paneled in wood – their bicycles and vans.
Traditionally the show also draws cars new and old, gleaming 1930s roadsters and 1950s sedans, 1960s muscle cars, 1970s and 1980s luxury cars, new sports cars and 2000s family cars.
The Spud Run is from 2 to 4 p.m. Participants visit checkpoints in and around Othello, drawing a playing card at each one. Participants with the best poker hands win cash prizes.
Cheryl Schweizer may be reached via email at cschweizer@columbiabasinherald.com.
