Small Town Weekend is a nostalgic event that happens every year in the town of El Reno, Oklahoma, approximately 30 minutes west of downtown Oklahoma City. The weekend consists of numerous events for the entire family, including a car show and the only legal drag races on the street in the state. This year, the street races were postponed due to weather, but the rain-date this past weekend had a great attendance of drivers and spectators.
The city of El Reno closes one specific strip of concrete on Route 66 to allow for a morning full of legal drag races, street race style. The street is lined with concrete barriers from start to finish, allowing racers to go head to head for about 1/8th of a mile. A burnout is allowed to get the tires nice and sticky and then the racers are pulled up to the line and wait for the hands to drop.
Drivers paid $20 to race and were able to make as many passes down the street within the 3-hour window the street was closed. From classic muscle cars to imports and even a few serious drag cars, the event allows for any racer to come out and have fun on the street without the risk of getting in trouble. It was free to spectate and you could tell everyone was having a great time from start to finish watching cars make pass after pass. We hope to see more of these events pop up across the country.
This year the races were hosted by the guys over at Ultra Blue Traction Compound. Cole Helvey, Shelby Field, and their crew made sure the races were moving quickly and even supplied some of their signature traction compound for the racers. You can find their product here at http://www.ultrabluetraction.com/.
The city also had Police, Firemen, Paramedics and a Hazmat unit on the premises for the safety and security of the drivers and spectators allowing for the safest legal street races possible. Even when one of the cars wrecked into the barrier, due to his throttle hanging up, the safety crews were fast into action making sure the driver was okay and getting the wreck cleaned up to continue racing.
Check out some of the photos we captured below while attending this past weekend!
