![]() This weekend, people in Brainerd are going to be watching two drivers side-by-side at 330 miles per hour in a quarter-mile who are hoping for a good outcome. "Drag racing itself - when you consider all the competition out there, it's still in pretty good shape. So you sell, because drag racing and retirement fund never have belonged in the same sentence. ![]() "At some point, if it's a family business, you're thinking about a retirement fund. Property values and thus taxes have been going up. "People see it as a bad reflection on drag racing, but this stuff has been brewing for years. "What Brainerd brings to the table is the greatest thing you can have: passionate drag racing fans," Bennett said.Īs for the tracks that are closing, Bennett said: This week, as legendary tracks - such as Englishtown in New Jersey, and Heartland in Topeka, and Bandimere outside Denver, and Wild Horse near Phoenix - are leaving, BIR still delivers a premium stop for NHRA.īobby Bennett, editor of Competition Plus, the authoritative internet magazine for drag racing, was asked about BIR's standing among locales for NHRA. The first time the NHRA national was held in '82 - 50,000 people at the track and Shirley Muldowney won Top Fuel. It was on shaky ground a few years later, and then in 1982, a deal was reached with the National Hot Rod Association to bring a national event to what is now BIR.ĭave Ferroni handled media and other duties at BIR for years and said: "Drag racing saved the track. ![]() Jerry Hansen, stockbroker and much-honored road racer, rescued the track with a purchase in 1973. The track was designed with an extra-long straightaway as the main viewing area and also to accommodate a quarter-mile drag racing strip. Road racing was the main motive for George Montgomery when he opened Donnybrooke Speedway in 1968. "We'll have 30,000 people watching when the finals are run Sunday," said Kristi Copham, the owner/operator of BIR. By the time the NHRA's Lucas Oil Nationals starts preliminary runs on Friday, the number of RVs will be in the thousands. There were already hundreds of RVs and other units settled into their spots for the week. "I snapped a lot of hooks along the way.'' "That's a long time for me," Knebel said. The current prosthesis is estimated to be in Year 8. I was in physical labor my whole working life. "None of us are active right now," said Knebel, 65. And then there was the assistance in the drag racing efforts of his sons John and Andy. Like many competitors in "bracket racing" (meaning, not the majors), Knebel did almost all the work on his car for those 27 years. "It was known to everyone as the Hook Car," he said. He raced that Cutlass with different engines for different classes from 1986 through 2012. Knebel came back a few seconds later with an old photo of his racing car - a 1970 Cutlass - with "HOOK" written on the driver's door. He smiled, said "Give me a second," then entered the recreation vehicle that he had parked in a choice spot on the massive grounds of Brainerd International Raceway. "That could be considered offensive in these times in which we live, Mr. That is why all acquaintances in Minnesota's drag racing circles - and elsewhere in the region - refer to him as "Hook" in conversation. "It's gone just below the elbow," said Knebel, looking at a well-used prosthetic device with a hook at the end. He wound up in the hospital, developed gangrene and the lower part of his arm was removed. BRAINERD – Jim Knebel broke his right arm as an 8-year-old living on a Minnesota farm near Paynesville.
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