Smokin' success
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD The majesty of the Pinehurst Days burnouts all summed up in one picture. Attendees went nuts as tire and diesel smoke filled the air.
Photo by JOSH MCDONALD Shoppers hit a row of vendors at Pinehurst Days on Saturday afternoon.
Courtesy photo Will Yergler shows off his newly won driver at the Pinehurst Days Golf Scramble.
Photo by JENNY DUCE Parade Grand Marshals Shirley and Ted McClain crusie through town with the help of Del Swan at the wheel.
By JOSH MCDONALD,
Staff Reporter and
CHANSE WATSON,
Managing Editor
PINEHURST — Despite an air of uncertainty, the new look of “Pinehurst Days: The Next Generation” was a massive success.
Mixing new ideas with nostalgic older ones boosted the popularity of the event last weekend as organizers replaced traditional main attraction of the car show with the return of the burnouts.
But that wasn’t the only place where Pinehurst Days found success.
“Pinehurst Days went really well,” said Bruce Rumpel, event organizer and P/K Lions Club member. “All in all, it ran smoothly, which is awesome because we basically started from scratch. It was well attended throughout.”
Organizers kicked off the festival on Friday with a dinner at the P/K Lions building and the inaugural Battle of the Bands. Roughly 300 people came out to watch regional musicians rock out in hopes of being the best performers.
“Gosh, we had a lot of people at the dinner on Friday night,” Rumpel said. “That was followed up by the Battle of the Bands and that place was packed out.”
Battle winners were chosen by two judges that based their score on three categories including performance, crowd interactions and professionalism. Bonus points were also awarded to bands who received encores.
Saturday was full of a little bit of everything — breakfast, a parade, street and kids fairs with vendors, a barbecue cook off, a golf tournament, family movies, and of course the burnouts.
This year’s parade featured a myriad of unique floats and vehicles for folks of all ages to see. Judges also graded the various parade entries for chances to take the top prize in several different categories.
Grand Marshals for the parade were Ted and Shirley McClain, both of whom are huge supporters of Pinehurst Days going back many years.
“For 48 years, they have resided in Pinehurst, Idaho,” said Jenny Duce, organizer and P/K Lions Club member. “They have always been very community oriented and supported whatever the community needed.”
The golf tournament at Pinehurst Golf Course was held to benefit the Silver Valley Fuller Center for Housing. The format of the tournament was a “scramble,” which is a format where each player hits a tee shot on each hole, but everyone plays from the spot of the best shot, subject to certain criteria.
“It is a fun casual format allowing less skilled players to play alongside more experienced players, without feeling like a handicap,” said organizer Ellie Arguimbau.
Real Life Ministries kids fair had no shortage of activities for kids and even featured a dunk tank — filled by crews with Shoshone County Fire District No. 2.
As the sun began to set on Saturday evening, things began to really heat up as folks packed together on Silver Valley Road to watch the return of the burnouts.
From hot roads to lifted trucks, the more than 500-person strong crowd cheered at the top of their lungs as tires squealed and melted.
The event ran over two hours and saw several prize winners based on various factors during the show.
“We were amazed at the turnout. We gave over $1,000 in cash and prizes away,” burnout organizer Nick Elam said. “We would like to thank all our participants and every one who attended for coming out. We couldn’t have done this without them and our sponsors.”
Just a few hundred yards away, Real Life Ministries hosted their family movie night, where 200 people turned out to watch “The Jungle Book.”
Pinehurst Days wrapped up with the BMX bike races Sunday morning at the bike track in the center of town.
Rumpel and the rest of the organizers were quite exhausted after the long weekend, but were definitely happy with the results.
“It was a full weekend and it was steadily busy,” Rumpel said. “We are happy that so many people turned out and had a good time. We have some things that we want to tweak a little bit, but overall this year went really well.”
The Pinehurst/Kingston Lions Club would like to thank the community for coming together to “save the day” — Pinehurst Days, that is.
“When we heard the Commancheros would not be having the car show in 2019, there was a lot of discussion (about canceling the event),” Duce said. “Literally, the community came together to make this one of the best Pinehurst Days we’ve had in a while.”
The following are winners from the various Pinehurst Days events. Not all results were reported to the New-Press before press time.
Battle of the Bands:
1st — Farmacy, 29 points
2nd — Page 2, 28 points
3rd — The Krowlers, 25 points
Golf tournament winners:
Tournament — Will Yergler, Chad Hall, Jordan Cochran and T.J. Haynes.
Yergler also won a custom made golf hammer, Haynes won the 50/50 raffle and Rod Plank won Galena Ridge and Shoshone Golf Course certificates.
Burnouts:
Best in show — James Fugate, Darin Anthis, Rodney Cochran, Josh Mendy, Jon Mendy, Josef Wilson, Micheal Hyndman Jr. and Chad Weeks.
Parade winners:
Marching group — Kellogg JROTC
Unique Entry — No. 139 Jerry Ahartz
Organization float — No. 127 Community Library Network
Other floats (businesses, etc.) — No. 342 Watts Electric
Classic vehicles — No. 343 Del Swan
Antique vehicles — No. Dennis & Amy Wright
Misc. vehicles — No. 126 Burnouts
Jeeps — No. 255 Brent Frank
Individual children — No. 118 Gannon Farmin
Children groups — No. 117 Lake City Gym
Adult groups — No. 137 Catholic Daughters of America
Parade prizes can be picked up at Pinehurst City Hall from 8 a.m. to noon or 1-4 p.m. prior to Aug. 19.