Ratoberfest Becomes Everything They Dreamed, Even Through Tragedy

Winter – this is a time when the show season starts winding down, some guys wrap their cars up good and tight till spring and others jump in them to cruise down twisting and turning country roads to watch the changing of the colors. For about four hundred of those car owners, it was time to burn up the asphalt and head to Beacon Dragway in Paducah, Kentucky for the 4th annual Ratoberfest.

For those who have never heard of Ratoberfest it became reality thanks to longtime friends Dale Elrod, Mark Lawrence and Keith Murt, who wanted to find a weekend to hang out with a few of their drag race and hot rod friends over at Keith’s family farm. The three wanted to have something that was open to anyone who just wanted to have a good time with hot rods and race cars. Several hundred people showed up that year for this ‘free’ party. There was live music, free food, burnouts and a good bunch of fellowship between the owners of all makes, models and styles.

When planning for the second Ratoberfest was in full swing in 2011, tragedy hit hard within the group when Dale Elrod passed away. Coming as a surprise to many who knew him, no one was sure how to move forward. His wife Wendy told us, “He always wanted a show here in Paducah that was open to all models. If you are proud of your machine, that’s what he wanted to celebrate”. Anyone who knew him understood this ‘hobby’ was his passion and he would always in his humorous way let you know how much he loved it and everyone who was a part of it.

 “If you asked what he did; he was a plumber, business man, he was a motor man. His passion was work, racing and hot rods”, Wendy added. Through all these things everyone who was involved in making Ratoberfest happen knew that they had no other choice but to move forward. So they went to work to plan a very cool hot rod gathering all in the memory of one of their closest friends, father and husband. Now in its fourth year, Ratoberfest is still being held in memory of Dale Elrod and is bigger and better than ever.

Moving the event to Beacon Dragway this year was an awesome idea. Here they could have the open car show, music, burnout contest and swap meet. The one element that was added this year that flows deep in the veins of every hot rodder had to be the old school flag drags. If you have ever owned a streetable hot rod you know there has been at least one time that you’ve been sitting at a light, blood starts flowing, and your right foot gets twitchy. Then you look around to make sure it’s safe and when that light turns green the peddle is mashed and your adrenaline starts pumping from the sound of your car and the horsepower pushing you back in your seat.

While that might get you a pretty hefty ticket, at Ratoberfest anyone with any kind of vehicle had the opportunity to have that feeling on the strip. Anyone who has ever seen flag drags knows that there has to be a beautiful girl in front flagging the cars. This daunting task went to the lovely Rachel Meyer from Nashville, Tennessee. Rachel may be a little new to the hot rod world, but she is no rooky to the automotive industry. Some of you may recognize her – she runs around the country working auto shows as a product specialist educating us on what’s new in the industry.

“This was my first experience being between two real fast and loud cars. It was nerve racking at first, but it was such a good time and everyone was having fun”, Rachel mentioned. There were even a few exclusive drag cars that decided to run down the track just for fun. One of the highlights of the drags was when KC Jones burnt the track up with an exhibition run in his jet dragster named “Cannonball Express”. Most of the day people were lining up with their cars two by two just to have a chance to push their cars to the limit and let that adrenalin flow.

From the very beginning one event that the people of Ratoberfest have always loved is the burnout contest. Here at the track the lines behind the water box filled with people whose only goal was to burn their tires to the rim. Car after car rolled up and filled the air with the sweet smell of burnt rubber. All the while clouds of smoke rolled up letting those driving past on the interstate know they were missing a great time.

Now don’t think that because Ratoberfest was stuck over in the west side of Kentucky that the hot rods where just a bunch of backwoods junkers built by good old shade-tree mechanics (although there were a lot of those cool rides here as well). The lot next to the strip was full of finely crafted and highly customized machines. The quality and diversity of the cars we found here kept every taste and opinion satisfied.

One of the people who has been coming to this event from day one is Brad Starks. Brad is the owner of Brad Starks Rod & Custom, located in Paducah. He brought three of his cars and four motorcycles with him this year. Brad told us he loves coming out here and hanging out with all these great people. When we asked what kind of feedback he gets he told us, “I get great feedback about my work. It makes me feel good about what I do and helps motivate me when I get back in the shop on Monday”.

We were able to catch up with the track owner and dear friend of Dale Elrod – Keith Murt. Keith bought the track to have a place in Paducah for local racers to come out and have a great time as well as do some testing with his own vehicles. Some of you who follow drag racing may recognize his name by the top fuel car he races. We were told that Keith is one of the greatest guys you could meet and has a big heart for people. This was very evident when he told us, “Before my buddy died we had big dreams of a bunch of racers and hot rodders getting together and this is what it turned out to be”.

For the first couple years this was a free event, however this year they decided to ask a nominal entry fee of $10.00 to get in. This was done because they have always raised money for local charities, but the group decided to up the giving this year. One of the charities that has always been on top of their list is Paducah Child Watch. However, they added one more this year and that was for the family of McCracken County Sheriff’s Deputy, Chad Shaw, who lost his life to a heart attack while on duty.

It seems that a whole lot of people didn’t care about whether there was an entry fee or not. The estimate for 2013 Ratoberfest’s attendance, with all the people who brought their cars and the spectators who came out to show their support combined, was in the thousands. This is just another reminder that even though some may like the rusted out rat rods while others love the highly polished trophy winner street rods, it is sometimes bigger than all of us. This so called hobby we all participate in has in one way or another joined us together as a large family.

Ratoberfest is a great example of how even through tragedy we all pull together to help each other and push through to celebrate what brings us all together. Wendy told us, “It’s an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride to know that he, Dale Elrod, is up above watching over us and this show to see what it has become”.

Check out Rod Authority’s exclusive gallery of Ratoberfest below: