(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – We really have enjoyed the land speed racing at Wilmington Air Park over the last few years. With the site in question past the June event we’re hoping the Ohio Mile will remain, though with Amazon’s plans that might not be possible. We didn’t arrive until late Friday night so we had already missed plenty of action. When we got to the track Saturday morning it was chilly and the sky was threatening to dampen our day. We did manage to shoot some good stuff in staging and caught a couple quick runs before an incident on course halted the event. Eventually the rain moved in and the racing day ended.
A lot of racers packed it up and headed home thinking Sunday was going to be much the same. Not so. Though it was a bit gloomy early on the clouds started breaking up and temperatures managed to climb into the 70s. It turned out to be a pretty good day for speed. My sons and I put together four galleries of photos from the event. We have over 2,100 pictures and videos from this event. We’ve tried to include the best shots of everything and even managed to put top speeds of many on the photos.
In here….
Retro-cool ’70 Mustang that showed up late Sunday asking about the requirements to run the next event.
Jaguar that drove over 400 miles to the event, ran over 190, and drove back home.
David Meyer’s Belvedere built by Rad Rods being thrashed to the tune of 195mph and being driven on the road. It was featured in HotRod, but those pictures do not do it justice. The car is an extreme exercise in subtle force. What a beastly car that appears to be as docile as anything on the road.
We did finally get a photo of Ronald Keselowski’s car that gives some impression of its 233mph speed. Normally our photos of this freakishly-fast machine look as if it’s standing still. Of course there’s that one pass where the chute didn’t come out and let me tell you…..that thing has some serious brakes. Almost had to get my heart restarted after that. No word on if his race suit needed dry-cleaning.
Enjoy.
