Get your motor running

The First State Bank Car Show and the opening races at the PCMS Hi-Line Drag Strip go together like peas and carrots...that is, if peas were some of the coolest cars this side of the Mississippi and carrots could fly down the road at over 100 miles per hour.

The 11th Annual First State Bank Car Show in Malta is predicted to bring in nearly 100 entries, according to Terry Skones of FSB, including motorcycles and tractors.

"The majority are cars though and we sometimes get people who come all the way from Canada," she said. "We get people from all across the Hi-Line and Montana."

Registration for the The FSB Car Show starts at 9 a.m. Saturday with the main show at 11 a.m. running until 2 p.m. with the award show as the finale. Following the car show, and a stunt show will be held following the festivities.

The awards to be given out are People Choice Award – as voted on by the public – the Judged Top Six – judged by car enthusiasts who really know their business – and the Darryl Seeley Memorial Award for the best truck in the show.

"Darryl was a loan officer here at the bank who passed away from cancer," said Skones. "So we have a special award that we do just for pickups."

Skones said that Darryl's widow, Patty, helps determine which truck will receive the award, picking the truck which she feels Darryl would have liked the best.

Another award given away at the FSB Car Show is the longest distance award given to the entrant who traveled the furthest to get from their home to Malta in order to be in the show.

"We have had one guy from Alaska and one guy from California who have won in the past," Skones said. "Last year we had a guy from around Polson, but I think the winner came from Edmonton (Canada)."

There will also be door prizes – purchased from local merchants -- and cash giveaways to lucky participants in the show.

Local vendors will be out and about all day, including the Malta Kiwanis who will be grilling hamburgers. The first event of the weekend is the Poker Run which starts at 7 p.m. on Friday. Registration for the event is in the First State Bank parking lot.

PCMS Races

As Saturday is mostly dedicated to looking at the cars, Sunday is dedicated to watching the cars with your head on a swivel as they tear-down the Hi-Line Drag Strip with the opening of race season for Phillips County Motor Sports.

"After the car show we hold the Test and Tune," said PCMS President Greg Kirkwood. "We invite anyone who brought cars to the car show to come out and race them. There are people who have hotrods that don't always have a chance to race them, so this is their chance."

The races at the Hi-Line Drag Strip of Phillips County Motor Sports started in 2007 and is one of only a handful of tracks of its kind in Montana.

"John Carnahan is the track manager (as well as PCMS' VP and Director) and he has got that track so that the cars really stick," said Kirkwood. "There is a lot of grip and it lets the cars really go. There has been more than one time that a guy launches and the wheels are trying to go and cars have dropped transmissions and drive shafts."

Kirkwood said that he remembers one attempted run down the strip in which the car launched, stuck, popped a wheelie and crashed to the ground, smashing the vehicle's oil pan.

"His reply was 'wow, I gotta' get this thing fixed so I can do that again," remembers Kirkwood. "But that is one reason why people really like our track is because they can really fast go and get good times."

Another reason that Kirkwood feels that people enjoy coming to Malta to run their vehicles on the Hi-Line Drag Strip is the friendliness of the track. He said that the staff of the PCMS does everything in their power to make their time in town as enjoyable as possible. He said that there have been countless occasions in which he has called one of the local car parts dealers and they have opened on Sunday to assist in repairing damaged vehicles.

The different classes of races for PCMS during the season are Pro (with timing boxes), Super Pro (no electronic boxes), Sportsman and two different junior classes, Lightning (eight years old and younger) and Thunder – 12-year-old to driver's license age. The PCMS Hi-Line Drag Strip is an IHRA Member Track.

Kirkwood said that people can expect to see a lot of fast cars, good food and fun people.

"It is a lot of fun and I hope everyone who comes out enjoys themselves watching a wonderful sport," he said.

The Hi-Line Drag Strip is located on Highway 191, south of Malta near the National Guard at 132 Power Lane. Time trials at the Hi-Line Drag Strip start at 9 a.m. on Saturday and run until noon. Racing starts at 1 p.m.