Among the four classes racing in last weekend’s Kia Drags on Garfield Avenue were the Super Street racers, won by Daren Minion in a 1969 Road Runner. Photo credit: John Gilbert

A lot of old, vintage Chevy sedans, looking better than new, competed in Pure Stsreet class, won by Chuck Steeb of Hermantown in a 1988 Corvette. Photo credit: John Gilbert

The only way Ryan Kern could have improved on last weekend’s Kia-sponsored drag-races on Garfield Avenue was if he’d had a thousand-watt speaker system playing Bruce Springsteen singing “Racing In the Streets.”
That’s what was going on. Kernz & Co. has had a lot of great promotional ideas, which have provided an amazing number of unforgettable weekends in Duluth. Of course we have the air shows, and all the sports all-star games for regional high school athletes, and countless other big weekends.
But he had the idea of running drag races in Duluth. The highly sophisticated lights and timers of big-time drag racing is prohibitive in cost, so on these races, the city blocks off Garfield Avenue down below Railroad Street, on down to the Hwy. 53 entrance to the big bridge going to Superior.
For starters, a guy waves a flag and off they go. Who needs all the electronic stuff? As years have gone on, the races have gotten better, running on one-eighth of a mile rather than the big-time quarter-mile. Funny thing is, after you watch the cars compete for an eighth of a mile, pretty soon you forget that it’s only half as long as it should be. A lot of classic old hot rods from the 1960s, and when they line up and then back up beyond the starting line, they all pour down some bleach and spin their tires in a cloud of smoke -- allegedly to clean off the tires, but mainly because it looks so amazingly cool.

The Heavy Street class was won by Kip Rydberg of Pine City in a 1971 Duster. Photo credit: John Gilbert

The hottest performers ran in Wild Street class, which was won by Troy Bednarz of Nowthen, Mn., in a 1967 Camaro. Photo credit: John Gilbert

“It was just nuts down there on Saturday,” said Kern. “We only had about half as many spectators on Sunday, but it was still a good crowd.”
 He said the event attracted 115 competitors and they were divided into four classes. There are no pros, such as the Top Fuel or Funny Car or Pro Stocks of the NHRA circuit, but the amateurs compete every bit as hard, with cars and engines they’ve worked on themselves. No factory involvement here.
The cars used to be separated into Classes A, B and C, but the disparity in a couple classes was too great, Kern said, so a four-class delineation proved better. The cars looked mostly like they were part of a car show, highly polished and well maintained beyond their shininess.
Crowds were good, too, and they lined both sides of Garfield, several deep in some places, and the fans got into it just like they would at BIR.
The basic level of competition was the Pure Street class, which was won by Chuck Steeb of Hermantown, driving a 1988 Corvette.
Super Street was won by Daren Minion of Bigham Lake, driving a 1969 Plymouth Road Runner.
In Heavy Street, Kip Rydberg of Pine City won in his 1971 Plynouth Duster.
And in the top class, Wild Street, Troy Bednarz won in a 1967 Camaro. Bednarz is from Nowthen, a tiny village just east of Elk River if you get off Hwy. 10. 
Might be the greatest name of a small village I’ve ever heard, or maybe it’s second only to Castle Danger, which is located just two tunnels up Hwy. 61 North of Two Harbors. I’ve become a frequent visitor to Castle Danger to hit the Rustic Inn, in quest of the best barbecued ribs, the most creative halibut specials, and absolutely the best pie (and carrot cake) in this or any universe. I’m guessing they don’t have great pies in Nowthen; of course, they might not have any great drag-racers in Castle Danger, either!

Don’t  Quit On Baseball

The Twins are back home, trying to improve on their second Wild Card slot against San Diego and then Toronto. There are some amazing late-season results in the Major Leagues, and the Twins are part of it.
Going into Tuesday’s home opener, we could look at the mixed success the Twins have had -- not bad, hanging in there. But remarkably, they dropped from three or four games behind the Cleveland Indians to 13 games in arrears! That’s because the Indians simply quit losing in the last month. Going into Tuesday, they had won 19 consecutive games -- two short of the all-time Major League record of 21 straight, owned by the Chicago Cubs of 1935. The Oakland A’s of 2002 won 20 straight.

Meanwhile, don’t give up on the Milwaukee Brewers, either. They seemed to drop out of contention when the Chicago Cubs passed them up and they dropped to third. But the Brewers have come back strong, and after winning twice in Chicago, they had closed to a 2-game deficit. Stranger things have happened, but Milwaukee could still win the National League’s Central Division.