"A 4th to Remember"

By Al Booten

      In 1974 the mayor of our little town of 2,200 was part owner a Top Fuel Dragster which was driven by Earl (The Fuelin Farmer)Binns, who was also the majority owner.
       I had know Earl for years, but was still surprised to see the car on a farm trailer in the 4th of July parade. They had a P.A. system on the trailer and were announcing that the car would make a run on 1st street at Noon.
       Come Noon, a couple of guy's swept about a hundred feet of street cleaning off all the gravel and dirt and they lit the engine.
       All the crowd who had never seen a fuel car were bug eyed when it was over. Earl smoked the tires for a block and a half and then shut it off and pulled the chute. I asked Earl how fast he thought he was going, and he said
"about 120."
       And almost 30 years later you can still get people talking about that Nitro 4th of July.
Al Booton
Carlisle, Iowa

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