Giving a hoot and helping hand

It’s never a good idea for adults to begin drinking before noon, hop onto tricycles and pedal around on a tight oval racetrack for a good part of the afternoon.

There are, of course, exceptions to everything. It could be for a good cause.

A group of Big Sky’s tavern employees and many of the Hillyard neighborhood tavern’s patrons proved that Saturday at the third Skytona 500 tricycle race.

The “competition,” in a loose definition of the word, was held in the parking lot of the Market Street bar where dozens of adults gathered for what has turned into an annual fund-raiser. Last year, $430 was raised for Hospice. This year’s money will go toward cancer research.

While many of the local merchants donated raffle prizes, other money was raised from the $5 entry fee to race in the modified or stock division trike races.

Nancy Hefling and four family members were quick to ante up. Hefling, a longtime manager at Big Sky’s, lost her sister to cervical cancer in April. Hefling helped organize the first race, but she kicked it into high gear this year in remembrance of her 52-year-old sister, Donna Carmen.

A poster with pictures of Carmen and two other neighborhood cancer victims, Lee Kendall and Tammie Vickrey, was displayed as a reminder that the day wasn’t just for good cheer. Kendall’s well-used trike was placed in the middle of the oval.

“This year, I was so dedicated to raising money for cancer,” said Hefling, while sipping a can of Pepsi between races.

Although Hefling’s trike was a stock model, rather than modified, she took the liberty of doing a little tweaking. Instead of sitting on a standard saddle, Hefling welded an 18-inch-wide satellite dish to the trike. She found the part in the street, fixed it up pretty and thought it would make the perfect seat.

“It held me back because it was too heavy,” said Hefling, who settled for fourth place.

John Walther, meanwhile, turned his trike into the sweetest ride west of Stateline Speedway. Walther’s bike, modeled after the Huffy Green Machine of the mid-1970s, was branded with the No. 3 in honor of late, great NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. Sticking with the NASCAR theme, Walther dressed in a jumpsuit and was accompanied by a pit crew.

And what exactly are the jobs of a tricycle pit crew, Team Walther was asked?

“I helped put air in the tires, I tightened the brakes, and I hold the beer cans,” member Dwight Bliss said.

However, the attention to detail wasn’t enough to earn Team Walther first place. Mark Statton was the top tricyclist in the modified division, and Blaine Holland won the stock division.

Skytona 500 got its start under another name. During Easter 2002, Hefling was given a gift of two ducks by patron Bob Minton. Hefling raised the ducks behind the bar and one day, the event and the name came to the barkeeps and barflies: Quackerstate 500.

It was changed to reflect the bar’s name last year. The modified division was added last year.

Hefling said although she had not tallied the money, the total will surpass last year’s.

“People have been pouring out to us,” said Minton, who helped emcee the races. “I’m just amazed at all the help.”