Regardless of anyone's opinion about shutting down a Duluth city street so souped-up cars can be revved to their red lines and their gas pedals pounded for high-speed entertainment, just such a proposal was given a green flag by the City Council.
And is scheduled to take place today. Rain or shine. Along Garfield Avenue, in an industrial area of Duluth's Lincoln Park/West End neighborhood. The street will be closed to traffic for time trials and a car show that organizers hope will become an annual event.
If it's going to accomplish such longevity, it'll need to prove itself, starting today with no accidents and no incidents.
"Safety remains our number-one priority," Duluth promoter Ryan Kern told the News Tribune editorial page staff last week. "It's not a drag race. It's one guy at a time in one car at a time."
Kern's sincere reassurance provided a modicum of comfort to the skeptical, including the News Tribune ("Our View: Put up caution flag on Garfield Ave. road race," Aug. 27). Kern said he and fellow organizers have been working weeks to meet city safety requirements and to emulate safety features commonly found at drag strips or at similar road-race events.
ADVERTISEMENT
First among those are belly-high, 5,000-pound concrete barriers, the sorts sometimes found along highway construction projects. An estimated 1,400 linear feet of the mammoth barriers will be lined up this morning to frame an eighth of a mile of Garfield Avenue. The barriers will protect power poles and buildings should the driver of a car traveling up to 80 mph along the 600-foot strip unexpectedly lose control.
Protecting spectators isn't expected to be as large a concern. They'll be kept behind the starting line, Kern said, and without bleachers or other seating will be discouraged from even watching the time trials. "You're coming down for a car show," he said. "The time trials: Forget they're there."
Businesses along Garfield Avenue will be closed. Many of them would have been anyway since it's Sunday, but should a business owner or employee need to gain access to their workplace, arrangements have been made for them to contact the event organizers, Kern said. The businesses all have been consulted.
"I don't think we have a problem because everyone's a NASCAR fan here," said an employee at Ziegler Cats, one of the closest businesses to the event.
To make sure employees, spectators or others don't wander near the time-trials, Duluth police officers and police reserves will patrol both sides of Garfield Avenue. The Duluth Fire Department and medical personnel also will be on hand. Just in case.
Also, in the name of additional safety, only qualified drivers will be allowed to race against the clock. Trained mechanics will check their vehicles.
Event organizers agreed to reimburse the city for any and all of its expenses as part of the $13,000 to $15,000 they'll spend today to put on the event. "In year one we'd like to break even if we can," said Kern, who also promotes the popular Duluth Air Show. "If we can make a little bit that'd be great, too, but we're trying to keep it small enough this year so we can micromanage it. Then we can look at doing something bigger and tweak it for future years."
Organizers have to get through their inaugural year first. No accidents. No incidents. Just a checkered flag of success at the end of the day.
