words & photography by Ethan Vandervelden (Heathen's Garage)
Car shows are great, but sometimes, you gotta’ see them movin’.
Nestled in the heart of rural Alberta Canada, lies a little town, known across the province for putting on one of the best car shows of the summer. It's a truly epic display of street freaks, hot rods and classics.
You could easily spend a full day walking through the car show, checking out amazing custom vehicles, meeting some vendors, or talking with fellow car enthusiasts.
However, for those of us more interested in cars with motion, Three Hills Cruise Weekend has a little hidden gem.
Airstrip Drag Racing.
Mid-afternoon during the heat of the car show, a watchful eye will notice a few fat-tired cars start to burble down the street, headed east away from the show. The smell of race gas can be faintly detected as a lumpy cam is heard idling by.
A few miles away 1/8th mile test n’ tune is already underway. When you roll in, you will find a what appears to be another car show all its own. A high horsepower, high speed, car show.
This year, that’s where the flagship of Heathen’s Garage (@heathensgarage on YouTube) was headed. Enter our 1978 AMC Jeep Cherokee Chief. It’s equipped with a healthy 360cu-in AMC small block and fitted with the cheapes…ahem…finest Amazon turbocharger. To say it’s a work in progress is putting it lightly. In fact, we joined the event for the testing opportunity more than compete in the bracket race that was put on by the Hanna Cruisers Car Club.
Now bracket racing if you don’t already know is what you will find at most dragstrips that cater to a large variety of cars. The short rendition of the rules goes like this: A driver “dials- in” the time they think their car will run. The time actually taken is then added to their reaction time and whoever is closest to running their time without “breaking-out”, (going too quick) or getting a red light (leaving before the green) wins. The beauty is everyone has the same chance to win regardless of vehicle; it’s mostly a battle of driver skill and vehicle consistency.
As it turned out my old Jeep was awfully consistent. As for driver skill. . . well sometimes its better to be lucky than good. After getting two break-out wins and a bye (single pass, no competitor), the mighty AMC wasn’t done yet and ran a 10.456 on a 10.450 dial-in during the semi-finals which moved us into the next round. Conveniently, we raced my brother Steve in his Jensen Interceptor, and crossing the finish less than a fender ahead was a beautiful moment, especially for me. . . probably less so for him.
Despite losing both header gaskets and cooking the transmission on a failed 1-2 shift we ended up in the finals against a fella in a Miata who claimed it was his first-time racing. He took off when the light went green, and I stayed behind long enough to eat a sandwich before leaving the tree. Whoops.
We ended up taking home a plaque for runner-up in the sportsman class along with a cheque for a cool $300.
Won’t fix the transmission, but at least she went down with a bit of glory.
I for one would like to extend a hearty thank you to the organizers and volunteers of the event, it was well run and the extra effort they put in was appreciated by all. The open nature of “any car can race” makes for great variety and participation. If your town has an event like this, do your part to support cruise culture, show up, run-whatcha-brung, and make some memories!
words & photography by Ethan Vandervelden (Heathen's Garage)
The event was joined by Drag ‘n Drive royalty Richard Guido aka “The Canadian Chuck Norris” who is known for his 1500HP stick shift Pontiac that he puts thousands of miles on every year.
