Race Car

"The Great Race," America's premier old car rally, is coming to Chambersburg for lunch today, bringing a variety of antique automobiles to  Memorial Square. Live music and other festivities in the square will welcome the trucks, Hot Rods and other classics as they begin arriving in the heart of Franklin County shortly after noon. Cars will arrive each minute for an hour and a half and will remain parked around the square to allow spectators to visit with the participants and to look at the automobiles, according to a news release.

HAGERSTOWN -- Motor sports typically bring to mind powerful vehicles with furiously roaring engines leaving trails of sullied exhaust fumes swirling in the air. The Electric Vehicle Association of Washington, D.C., keeps the powerful vehicles motif, but leaves the roaring engines and exhaust fumes in the dust. The group hosted the ninth annual Power of D.C. E.V. Racing Event Saturday in the Valley Mall parking lot. About 10 drivers maneuvered their electric vehicles -- known as EVs -- around an Auto Cross course.

A Talladega Nights event will be held Sunday, Aug. 6, from noon to 4 p.m. at Regal Valley Mall Stadium 16 theater lobby in Hagerstown. There will be race car games, coloring, trivia, prizes and more. For information, call 301-582-9139.

FedEx Kinko's grand opening Tuesday offered a FedEx show race car, merchandise and information from the American Red Cross. The store is in The Shoppes at Hagerstown shopping center.

MOUNT LENA -- On one side of the country road, three dozen veterans and other patriots gathered Monday morning at Mount Lena United Methodist Church for a reverent outdoor Memorial Day service at the small, stone country church. Directly across the road was a bumper crop of motorcyclists and race-car drivers enjoying a three-day holiday weekend at Mason Dixon Dragway. But a strange thing happened as the ceremony began with patriotic songs, the pledge of allegiance to the U.S. flag, playing of taps and the laying of wreaths at the memorial erected four years ago at the church.

Washington County residents can recycle old tires for free this month thanks to a state-funded scrap tire program. Scrap tire drop-off day - sponsored by the county Solid Waste Department - will be Saturday, Sept. 24, from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m., at Forty West Landfill on U.S. 40, one mile west of the Md. 63 intersection. Recycling Coordinator Harvey Hoch said that only Washington County citizens will be allowed to take part in the event, and that only five tires per household will be accepted.

At Valley Mall in Halfway, there were cars everywhere, inside and out. The premiere of the movie "Cars" was parallelled by a car show in the parking lot. Disney/Pixar's latest 3D animation creation is "Cars," the story of one race car's journey to finding himself. In this fictional world made only of machines, hot racing rookie, Lightning McQueen, is a self-obsessed, friendless car who needs some help, even if he doesn't realize it. Lightning, voiced by Owen Wilson, is involved in an accident enroute to a race, landing him in the middle-of-nowhere town of Radiator Springs.

HCC hosts hands-on driving practice for emergencies Hagerstown Community College is bringing the New Driver Car Control Clinic, a hands-on, in-car accident avoidance and defensive driving skills clinic for teens and their parents to campus Friday, April 27. The behind-the-wheel clinic focuses on teaching parents and teens critical accident-avoidance maneuvers and defensive-driving skills. The exercises are performed in a series of cone patterns on both wet and dry pavement.

The Washington County District Pinewood Derby was held March 7 at Northern Middle School. The top winners were: First place - Corey Sasse, Pack 27; second place - Jacob Rowe, Pack 20; third place - Everest Shives, Pack 66; fourth place - Adam Mathias, Pack 26; fifth place - Dillon Denig, Pack 20; sixth place - Justin Siebeneichen, Pack 26; seventh place - Garrett Landman, Pack 17; eighth place - Jacob Pence, Pack 23; ninth place - Andrew Owens,...

Wal-Mart's Supercenter at 17850 Garland Groh Blvd. will open today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 8 a.m. Jeff Gordon's race car will be at the site, and the Energizer Bunny, Pillsbury Dough Boy and Keebler Elf will be in attendance. A barbershop quartet will sing. "We're thrilled to death it's ready to open," said Lisa Coleman, Hagerstown's Wal-Mart community involvement coordinator. "The store's really come together. We expect thousands of people to be here, waiting at the door.