River Days drag boat venue a big hit with racing series

Drivers from 12 states - some as far away as Alabama, Mississippi and South Carolina - raced in the KDBA Series event even though it had been added too late to the series’ schedule to count toward their points race. Austin said he hasn’t heard any complaints from anyone.

“It was really easy for us to set up here, compared to a lot of the places that we go. The banks are low, the water is shallow. It makes all the stuff we put in the water easy to work with,” he said.

A string of neon orange and green buoys are aligned down the middle of the river to form two lanes for racing. Timing sensors are placed precisely at the start and finish lines, and Austin was broadcasting to the crowd from a small blue tent just behind the Riverside Athletic Club along the west river bank.

Austin smiles as Burnside, Ky. racer Charlie Duncan skitters his drag boat down the river for a 7.010-second, 165.19 mph pass over the quarter-mile distance. That’s fast on land or water.

“This is a bigger crowd than what we usually see, and the crowd really seems to enjoy it. I know the drivers like the place. This is a bigger town than what we usually race in front of, too. We’d love to come back if Hamilton will have us,” Austin said.

Area businesses like the Athletic Club, Columbia Lanes and the Eagles Lodge allowed the drivers to tune their boats in their parking lots. Columbia Lanes was a sea of high-performance machinery. Some of the upper division engines alone were priced in the $40,000 range.

Across the river, festival Chairman Tony Traub was directing volunteers and answering phone calls and radios. He said the threat of bad weather never happened, and that attendance for this year’s event was solid.

“I don’t have an exact number to give you, but I’d say ‘thousands’ of people have been here, and it’s still mid-afternoon on Sunday,” he said, between yet more phone calls. “Thanks goes to the Hampton Inn and the rest of our area sponsors. This was a success because the businesses in Hamilton banded together and made it happen.”