Anyone can be a drag racer Monday night at the Farmington Fair, which will feature an event in which anyone can race anyone else in their personal cars.

“You challenge your neighbor to race with their street car,” said Franklin County Agricultural Society Secretary Neal Yeaton.

Additional Images

Staff photo by David Leaming Hungry goats are seen in a livestock building at a prior Farmington Fair. The annual event will run Sept. 14 to Sept. 20 at the High Street fairgrounds.

Staff file photo by Michael G. Seamans People wave from the Merry-go-Round at a previous Farmington Fair. The fair runs Sunday through Saturday.

Yeaton said he has heard repeated interest from residents in racing each other on the 500-foot track in front of the grandstand.

The event is among new offerings mixed with classic events at the Farmington Fair, which begins Sunday and ends Sept. 20.

Yeaton said entries will be taken beginning around 5 p.m. and racing is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

The Franklin County Agricultural Society, which organizes the fair, previously held a demolition derby on that night; but the society said because the time often conflicted with work, participation petered out.

Yeaton said the amateur drag race should be a unique experience, and the society isn’t aware of similar events, but he doesn’t know how much participation to expect. People who want to enter will be required to fill out an entry application and sign a waiver before the event that removes the fair from responsibility for damage to the driver or his car. Participants also must provide their own helmet.

Yeaton said he wasn’t concerned about liability issues regarding the amateur racers and the possibility of serious accidents, citing the waiver.

“There’s been a lot of interest, but I haven’t seen too many people bring in applications yet,” he said.

Along with the drag race, other new events include laser tag and barrel racing.

All week, there will be a tent set up by a commercial vendor near the Maple Avenue gate, where groups can pay to play laser tag with each other. The tent, he said, includes inflatable obstacles for the players to run around and use to shield themselves during matches.

“They give you a little schooling on how the whole thing works, and you can bring in four or five of your buddies or just one person,” he said.

The tent will have time slots for which attendees can sign up to play.

“Paintball was big around here a few years ago, so I think this will draw a lot,” he said.

Barrel racing was added to this year’s lineup after Yeaton said the society received requests for the horse event from both racers and fair attendees.

He said the Maine Barrel Racing Association will be competing in the event starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, which involves timed horse racing around barrels.

“They’ve asked to come for a number of years, and then the public started asking them to come,” Yeaton said.

Kaitlin Schroeder — 861-9252

kschroeder@centralmaine.com

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