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Photo by Karen Hough
Lined up at the start arch for the 28-mile road race.
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Photo by Karen Hough
On display in downtown Arnold
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Photo by Karen Hough
John Sandahl's Corvette
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Photo by Karen Hough
'Bad Penny'
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John Sandahl sped along a narrow blacktop road Friday at nearly 197 miles-an-hour in his Corvette, and it was completely legal. Sandahl was running the Sandhills Open Road Challenge near Callaway -- the only race of its kind in Nebraska and one of few in the United States that offers a chance to race down a highway. Sandahl is from Wakefield. He was one of 120 racers from all over the world who came to the strip south of Callaway to run the shootout – a straightaway one-mile race on a flat asphalt road. The three-days of open road challenges began Thursday and ended Saturday. Besides two high-speed shootouts, it included two longer road races. One road race covered 15 miles each way from Halsey to Purdum and another went 28 miles from Arnold to Nebraska Highway 2, a route that includes two sharp, right-angle turns. Sandahl sped along in a one-mile shootout. There was also a half-mile shootout, plus a car parade and a car show, a burn-out and a barbeque for everyone. This year’s cars included Panteras, Ferraris, Cobras, Bentleys and a 1954 Cadillac, to name a few. They come from across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The 120 slots were filled quickly with one and two-person teams -- drivers and navigators -- including cars from Arnold, Stapleton, South Africa and New Zealand. “Ah, the smell of gasoline and car wax…” said a gear-head and car enthusiast. “How does a community that is so small do something this big?” The answer is an army of volunteers. Shane Cool and Becky Dailey of Arnold spearhead the effort, and 13 volunteer fire departments come to help, converging on 28 miles of road north of Arnold for the main event. Two planes fly overhead and 37 flaggers with radios take up stations, monitoring every section of the road/raceway. A base at the half-way point buzzes with activity. For the weekend, local garages close to regular customers and offer tech support to the drivers. People in the community open their homes, where about half of the competitors stay for the weekend because motels are full. This year there was a complication -- the McPherson County volunteer fire department left Friday midway through the second half of the road race, called to a fire near Tryon. The unlimited speed race was cancelled due to concerns that another fire might break out, either near the race or farther away, calling volunteers away from the festival. Each year, proceeds benefit the fire departments in a substantial way. Last winter, a team bought a lifetime position in the race for $9,000 at the annual SORC banquet in Lincoln. Teams typically pay from $425 to $1,100 a year to enter the challenge, depending on the divisions they enter. A limited number of slots are available, so the lifetime membership will allow the entrant to get in each year, but it does not include the annual entry fee. Since 2001, the Sandhills Open Road Challenge has donated more than $350,000 to surrounding fire departments and the Arnold community center. This year the proceeds will help buy new playground equipment at the Arnold city park. SORC is Arnold’s answer the challenge faced by many small Nebraska towns – how to finance ever-growing needs while maintaining their small town character. Steven Rupp, the technical writer for Camaro Performers magazine, raced in one of 15 slots purchased by the Optima Batteries company. This was Rupp’s second year at the event. Rupp’s car “Bad Penny,” has been photographed four times for national magazine covers. “I've been building it forever,” Rupp said of his car. When asked what he thought of SORC, he said, “This is a piece of America you don't see in the city. This is what America should be.”
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