ABOVE: Cameron Kabe does practice laps behind the wheel of the race car he rented for the final race of Fairmont Raceway’s season. The program will be back next year, with two more cars added for renting out each race.

FAIRMONT – After positive results toward the end of the year, Fairmont Raceway is looking to grow its program to rent and race a car.

The program is through their new 4.6 liter class, dubbed the Crown Vic class, based on the Ford Crown Victoria car commonly used. Raceway Co-Owner Zach Gerhardt said any cars produced by Ford with a 4.6-liter engine and rear-wheel drive can be entered to race in this class.

“The 4.6-liter class was started down south and is slowly making its way north,” he said. Our friends in Fort Dodge added this class two years ago, and we added it this year. We’ve been trying to come up with some unique ways getting people into race cars, letting them get out and experience it.”

Originally, the idea was to have it as a raffle, where tickets could be bought and the winner would get to race the car for the night. But Gerhardt said he was looking to keep the hype sustained longer, and the rent-a-racecar program was the solution.

“One night after the races, I joked that I should build a rental car,” he said. “The idea bounced around between four or five of my current drivers, and they were all pretty excited about the idea. They felt the pricing was right, that it was pretty good value to rent a race car for 300 bucks for the night.”

There was also a $1,000 damage deposit, only used to cover any damage from potential wrecks. Throughout the races they’ve had in this class, Gerhardt said they had not seen any cars take that amount of damage.

The offer will be available for any adult 18 and older. With parents’ permission and waivers signed, a youth 13 and older can also rent the car.

While they had hoped to institute the program earlier, the car was available for the last race of the season with help from local volunteers Matt Johnson, Scott Adams and Jonathan Hines. Fairmont resident Cameron Kabe was the driver, who was grateful for the unique opportunity.

“I’ve been dabbling back and forth, looking at buying a race car,” he said. “I always put my family first. I don’t want to get too deep into something and end up spending every weekend away from my wife and kids.”

With this program, however, he was able to do a little racing without a full commitment. Once behind the wheel, he said it was a big learning experience dealing with vibration of the track, tear-off visors and visibility from the helmet.

Once he got plenty of practice laps in, he said he was able to adjust well, and it was a blast. He placed fifth in his qualifying heat race and sixth in the feature finale race.

With his wife and five kids being able to experience the whole thing from the pits, Kabe said it had a perhaps surprising effect.

“My wife is pretty much sold that we’re getting a race car, which is the opposite of what most people would say,” he said. The wife would be like, ‘Yeah, it was fun, but no more.’ She was all in it. She just absolutely loved it. My one daughter wants to get involved and race somehow too, so we’ll see where it all leads.”

In hearing from drivers, spectators and potential renters, Gerhardt said it’s all looking swell for the new class of racing and rentable cars.

“I came into the 4.6-liter class pretty optimistic,” he said. “I had a lot of people right off the bat telling me they wanted to build cars and they wanted to get involved. I pursued that wholeheartedly. I’m very happy with where we stand at the end of the first season with what we had for a car count, and the cars that we had in and out for the year.”

Car counts were between five and 11 at the races this year, and Gerhardt is hoping to see between 1 to 18 cars in the class next year.

Looking into next year, Gerhardt said they are looking to add two more cars for three rentable cars per race. They are also open to making a rental car available for purchase outright.

For more information about the class, visit fmtraceway.com.