Feb 12th, 2017: Pig-N-Ford

[xoxoxoBruce]

Racing cars at the Tillamook County Fair, it’s only three laps, with stripped down Model T Fords .............. and pigs.

The cars are parked at the starting line, engines off. The drivers line up along the track’s outer fence, while the pigs are held
in the infield in a row of crates. When the starter fires his pistol, the drivers sprint across the track, snatch the squealing pigs
from their bins, crank-start their Model-Ts (holding the squirming sausage in one arm), and hop aboard before the car stalls. 
At the end of each lap, racers slide to a stop, kill their engines, run to the bins to exchange their pigs for fresh ones, and
start all over.

Drivers are an elite group, a motorcycle gang that carries pigs. The race is limited to 10 cars, and all the racers are members
of the Pig-N-Ford Association. The president (we’re not making this up) is Punk Dunsworth, 74, a club member for 55 years.
Inductees must be sponsored by an existing member and voted in by the majority. Membership, as well as ownership of the
cars, often passes down through generations.

With no helmets or seatbelts, arms and legs get broken, and wrists are subject to crank kickbacks.

At one race in the 1980s, a car endo’d along the front straight. The driver was thrown clear, but so was the starter crank.
The former came to rest safely in the dirt, but the latter made its way into the crowd, where it struck a woman in the face.
She was the wife of another driver, and everybody shrugged it off.

Rub some dirt in it lady. That's how serious about this 88 year old race by the club and the public are.

There’s videos online… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIBOuOhSBng

Link