North Star Speedway roars to life

MAT-SU -- Last weekend North Star Speedway hosted the Alaska Sprint Tour "Outlaw Invasion 2," an annual event featuring 360 and 410 sprint cars that usually run on dirt tracks around the state. The event was well attended with a crowd of nearly 1,300 in the grandstand, and also came with its share of excitement.

Early in the night Cameron McGahan tangled with Bob Erdman as he tried to pass Erdman's No. 37 car on the outside coming out of turn four, after Erdman came out of the infield from temporarily losing control on turn three. McGahan clipped the rear of Erdman's car and it sent him screeching toward the retaining wall. The impact sent him across the track on its back wheels into oncoming traffic before rolling onto its top in the infield.

"I just passed him and he passed me when I was coming out of the infield," Erdman said later as he worked on his car. "He got a little closer than I'd like."

After the car was removed from the track and medics checked McGahan over, the 17-year-old driver said he knew he was going over as soon as he hit the wall. A Twin City Raceway points leader in his second season, McGahan said it was his first major wreck.

Set up for dirt rather than the quarter-mile asphalt track, the sprints squealed around the track in a cloud of blue smoke, wheels popping off the track as they came out of each turn. The usual cloud of dirt that makes watching these cars difficult at their local tracks was absent from Saturday's event.

Another mishap occurred later in the evening that sent spectators from the pit area running. In the main feature, with one lap to go, Doug Fisher hit the wall coming down the front stretch, sending him smashing into a tire retaining wall after blowing a right rear tire. Seeing the car heading toward them spectators in the area ran down the hill toward the pit as Fisher plowed into the tires. Tires came bouncing up as the 360 sprint car careened into them, but the tires did their job, effectively stopping the sprint car with a sudden jolt. No one was injured in the incident.

In addition to the sprint event and the competition of North Star's regular racing action, the crowd also got its share of laughs Saturday when the MAC trucks took to the track during intermission for the "MAC ON THE TRAC Tool Truck Relay."

The event featured three drivers in MAC tool trucks, three shopping carts and giant over-sized cardboard tools. Each of the drivers had a set of "tools" to be dropped off in their designated cart positioned along the track. On each lap a tool was dropped into the cart -- the first one to fill their cart would be the winner. Strategy played a big role in the "race," however, as drivers sabotaged each other's carts, dropped their competitor's tools on the ground, moved their carts to the infield, or, in one case, took a competitor's tool with him.