The Ken Carter Daredevil Show At Mission Raceway

I went to see the last race at the old Mission Raceway before it was torn down and rebuilt.

I took my dad to the races that day ... The Ken Carter Jet Car Jump show came last....the deal was supposed to be Ken Darter himself doing a test jump in the jet powered Lincoln car. This all sounded very exciting and phenomenally foolish. (no one on the planet had ever jumped a howling jet car over a pile of derelict cars before)

It took ages to set up....the rocket car was displayed for all to see and we noticed that as things progressed...it wasn't getting unloaded as the jump time grew near.

Some technical difficulties were announced...stand-by for further updates. Lots of pacing and arm gesturing out on the track...a little bit of dirt kicking for extra good measure ( always the sign of a serious situation)

It was announced that it was too risky to jump the jet Lincoln in the event that it sustained damage in this attempt. Excellent idea I thought... because I didn't feel like having a jet car land in my lap that day.

Very solemn announcements were made and it was then decided to jump the "street" Lincoln instead.

More time ticked by.

Then....

Nope ...not gonna do that one either...too risky...might bend something.(you think?)

The Ken Carter Circus at Mission BC

So now...let's go and look for an old clunker to make the jump with instead...the crowds interest is waning...but we are Canadian so a riot didn't breakout..(the good old days)

So someone digs up an old Chevy Mailbu or Chevelle...whatever ..some piece of crap that was only running on half of its cylinders....and is pouring oil smoke out of the exhaust.

Not impressive

It gets better...it's announced that now it's too dangerous to have our hero do the jump himself and so a stand in was picked to do it for him...some guy in a dirty white T-shirt.

Awesome. not

I briefly had some concern that this rusty white "cruise" missile might do the unthinkable and get airborne..and then shoot uncontrolled into the stands where my dad and I were sitting. I pondered a move to the rear for the sake of safety. How would my dad explain to his boss that he was hit by a car that fell out of the sky?

We stayed put having done a quick calculation that the danger factor was down around the zero percent mark. The white rust bucket groaned up and down the track a few times...the oil smoke helped with the mosquitoes quite a bit. 

It's time...

there was no hush...just a lot of grumbling...something to the effect of "rip off'...or similar tones

The great white hope gets big air

Surprisingly..the Great White Hope actually got airborne for a bit...it looks more dramatic in the photo than it really was...it quickly fell to the waiting cars below. At this point I don't even think that the crowd was even concerned for the driver...they were more pissed at the hour that they just wasted and can't ever get back.

Same for me and Pop...we headed for the gate at full stride....tired and thirsty...

The great Ken Carter Jet Car Circus (patent pending) was there that day in Mission BC. in all it's glory for all to see

 and bellyflops into the history books