The Yellowstone Drag Strip in Acton, Montana features a 1/4 mile NHRA sanctioned tract with eight 300 ft staging lanes and 100 ft burnout area. The state of the art compulink timing equipment and Daktronic LED scoreboards makes it a favorite of drivers. Its location just three miles west of Acton and 20 minutes from Billings makes it centrally located for fans from all around. Track events start in April and the excitement doesn’t stop until October. Yellowstone Drag hosts IDRA, Street Legals, NHRDA, NHRA, Wheel Stander, 2 Wheel Madness, Funny Cars, Pro Mods, and much more. They also host a variety of special events throughout the season. Spectator fees start at $20.00 for adults with discounts for seniors and children. Driver entry fees vary by class division from $10.00 for Jr. Dragster to $55.00 for Super Pro.

The Dude Ranch Lodge located in the park gives special NHRA discounts. The Mission Valley Speedway located in Pablo has been offering racing excitement since for almost 30 years. The track got a facelift in 1997 with a new 3/8 mile track making it the fastest and longest in the northwest. Speeds in excess of 100 mph have been reached on the strip and Super stocks have clocked in the 80′s. The MVS holds weekly races of Stock cars, Super stocks, Noon’s Formula Indy’s, MGD Light Hobby, Budweiser Compacts, Bombers, and dual controlled Krusers. The track also sponsors several special events such as the NSRA 360 Winged Sprints, Northwest Bump and Pass, Flathead Legends and Canadian Old Timers. Admission to general events starts at $8.00 per adult ticket.

Another favorite track in Montana is the Raceway Park in Kalispell. The track is ¼ asphalt features Limited Sportsman, Super Late Models, Hobby Stocks, Bombers, Compact, Cruisers, Flathead Legends, Bandoleros, Thunder Roadsters and Hornets. The Raceway host Canadian Super Truck Racing Series, ARCA West Late Model, NEWALTA Late Model Challenge, Northwest Modifieds, and NW Legends. One of the major events of the season is the Coors Light Montana 200 in July. The three day event is the biggest sporting event in Montana. The season is packed with racing fun the entire family can enjoy with special events throughout the year.

If you spend time in the woods of Montana, you are undoubtedly familiar with the rhythmic rat-tat-tat of the woodpecker as it chisels its beak into the bark of a tree. Their familiar drum rolls are heard most often in the spring but are common all year long. This drumming cadence is unique to the woodpecker and a welcome sound in the forest canopy. Both sexes of woodpeckers drum throughout the year, however; they are even more rambunctious and noisy during the breeding season. Drumming or hammering serves to advertise their territory and to attract a mate.

Much of the signaling, foraging and breeding activities of woodpeckers involves the woodpecker’s bill. Woodpeckers have extremely strong bills for drumming and drilling on trees and long sticky tongues to extract food. Although used repeatedly over its lifetime, the woodpecker’s beak never needs sharpening. It can cut into a tree like a steel chisel and never dull. To prevent brain damage, nature had provided a number of adaptations to protect the woodpecker’s brain. The bird’s brain is rather small and is positioned to minimize contact between the brain and the skull. The woodpecker’s eyes are also unusual in that a millisecond before contact with the tree, a thick nictitan membrane closes over the bird’s eye to protect it from flying debris. The slit-like nostrils are also protected by special feathers to cover them from wood dust.

Woodpeckers exhibit a diverse variety of vocal sounds including a strange rattle-like sound that is often vocalized during antagonistic encounters with other birds that encroach on their territory. Woodpeckers also emit a high pitched squeal that sounds like an injured animal. This sound is an unsettling warning to predators and has been known to “run cold chills down the back” of many a hiker. Woodpeckers are monogamous and both sexes share incubation duties and care for the young. They will usually have between 3 and 6 hatchlings and normally mate once a year.

Woodpeckers are quite beneficial as they eat huge quantities of insects. They are especially appreciated for the role they play in controlling the current infestation of Mountain Pine Beetle that plagues the Northwest. When the beetle burrows into the bark and lays its eggs, the larvae feast on the substance of the tree for a year before reaching adulthood. About the size of a grain of rice, millions of these grubs are devoured by woodpeckers. With its barbed, long sticky tongue, a single woodpecker can consume as many as 14,000 grubs in a single season. A woodpecker’s diet also includes seeds, berries, fruit and tree sap. Huckleberries are a favored treat.