CLARKSVILLE, TN — After over a year-and-a-half of planning, the exhibit Start Your Engines! A Celebration of Racing in Montgomery County is open at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center. The exhibit is sponsored by Tri-Star Beverage and MPG Transport and spans several galleries within the museum.
Celebrating the history of auto racing in Montgomery County, Start Your Engines! spotlights local legends that formed the sport in our area, including Jeff Purvis, Tony Albright, Eddie Pace, the Greenfield family and numerous other veterans of dirt track and drag strip racing. The exhibit also features the history of the Clarksville Speedway and Dragstrip, while highlighting other historic tracks in the area. Many types of racing vehicles will rotate throughout the museum for the duration of the exhibit; check out the No. 9 NASCAR stock car driven by Kasey Kahne, Barry Carpenter’s 1968 drag rail, Mickey Jerles’ late model crate and many more.
“This exhibition has morphed and grown over time since its inception – like our city,” said Terri Jordan, Curator of Exhibits. “We are thrilled to bring an exhibition to the public featuring an iconic and historic location in Clarksville – the Clarksville Speedway and Fairgrounds – and the stories, artifacts and memories of its family, its patrons, the pit crews and drivers.”
Additionally, a three-part documentary series was produced by Goodwin Productions for CDE Lightband’s Clarksville Community Network, complete with interviews from local drivers, track owners and racing influencers. A commemorative magazine with more in-depth features accompanies the exhibit and is available for purchase at Seasons: The Museum Store.
“This is one of the largest exhibits produced by the museum in 15 years,” explained Executive Director Frank Lott. “Hundreds of hours of video interviews, site visits with race car owners and drivers, filming races at the drag strip and dirt oval track, researching and writing story drafts and scrolling through dozens of scrapbooks were all required to make this exhibit happen.”
Start Your Engines! A Celebration of Racing in Montgomery County is on view at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center through Dec. 31.
For more, go to the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center website.