Battle at the Barn - Indoor Racing at the Iowa State Fairgrounds

♪ [Toby Kruse] Today, were at the famed Iowa State Fairgrounds at the Jacobson Building.

And it's our 18th annual event of our version of the Hicklin Powersports Battle at the Barn.

And it's an indoor circle track racing where we put Coke syrup down on the concrete floor.

We physically take, like, a Roundup sprayer.

We go out and we put down Coke syrup.

Just like if you go to a restaurant, you have a fountain soda.

The actual Coke syrup gets sprayed right on the concrete floor.

It makes a very sticky surface for the racers.

And so when they go out there, the combination of the tire prep, the Coke syrup, it makes an incredibly fast surface where there it's like a tethered car.

They're pretty much as glued to that racetrack.

This event draws thousands of spectators.

So it's literally the Daytona 500 of indoor Coke syrup racing.

Our pre entries were up this year, so I anticipate probably about 275 entries from 12 different states from around the Midwest that that all converge here to this Iowa tradition in the in the winter months.

We have a little bit of everything from go karts, four wheelers, three wheelers, lawn mowers.

We have a great relationship.

The people here at the Iowa State Fair is second to none to work with.

We've all grown in this with this event together.

The physical track itself, people ask about it.

It's 160ft end to end.

It's 100ft wide.

We put some concrete jersey barriers on the outside.

Then right inside of that we have some plastic barriers just to cushion the racers in case they crash into that.

It's almost a perfect circle.

They hardly turn the steering wheel and the speeds are pretty intense.

There's some G-forces involved.

In the lap time on there, probably about 35 to 40 mile an hour.

And you're thinking, yeah, that's pretty quick.

But if you actually get in one of those go karts and motorcycles or any of these machines at the race out here, you'd be shocked at the amount of G-forces.

It's not forgiving.

They hurt for a couple weeks afterwards.

[Kadence Davenport] I think it's different for a lot of different drivers, but for me, I get very dialed in.

I don't really hear anything else.

I'm just like very focused.

Sometimes, depending on the track and feel like you're in a rocketship, which is kind of cool, like this track specifically because it's so fast, you really sit in there.

[announcer] ... [Kadence] It's a lot of hurry and wait, but then also when we get into the features, it's it's wild.

You'll hear a lot of noise from the stands, a lot of noise from the track, a lot of noise in the pits.

There's just there's so much going on.

But it's like.

It's not like a stressful going on.

It's like a fun, like, oh my gosh, it's so cool.

♪ [Toby] It's a family environment That's what warms my heart by watching the families coming here and spending the whole weekend together.

The dads, moms, the grandparents cheering on the kids.

I love the atmosphere.

We have everything from children as young as four years old to adults.

One gentleman, just over 70, racing a motorcycle.

[Kadence] The people.

I've made a lot of friends here.

It's kind of like a family thing.

So I just spent some time with my dad and it's very energetic.

So it's a very positive place to be.

It's kind of hectic sometimes, but honestly, at the end of the day, that's the fun part when you're running around and you get out on the track and you're like, okay, like, let's go.

[Michael Moore] We're just racers.

We love to race.

And anytime we get to race and especially this close to home, we're going to be there.

My dad races and my uncle used to race.

I've got twin 16 year old boys.

They've been racing since they were four years old.

They're other grandpa raced.

We just kind of grew up doing this.

It's amazing.

I love, being here with my family and enjoying everybody we've actually.

Everybody here is our family.

It seems like because we're all friends and we all get along and, and we get to go race each other and have a good time.

[Kaden Rice] You just got to stay calm and focused and make sure you don't mess anything up.

Everybody's pretty excited to come watch.

[Toby] Just seeing those kids out there.

A group photo where they're all winners.

That warms my heart.

That is my favorite part of this event.

I just see the families here together for weekend.

Our world's got too much of the social media in it, and there's there's not enough family time and downtime away from from phones and iPads, but you don't see much of that this weekend.

It's a lot of interaction and things like that.

So I love to see that.

[Michael] If you ever have a chance to go to a Coke syrup event or, come down here to the battle of the barn, it's really exciting.

It's close, it's intense.

It's really fast.

We, we just enjoy it.

I that's what we've done all our life.

When we love to do it.