ORANGE — The tradition that is the Orange Drag Strip Reunion will see a checkered flag later this month.

The annual gathering of drag racers and hot rod enthusiasts will enjoy its final rendition on Saturday, June 18, at 10 a.m. at the Orange Municipal Airport lawn, the same spot where it began 12 years ago.

“It’s like a huge circus event to do,” said founder John Durfee, 62. “I’ve taken it as far as I can take it.”

The event typically consists of a gathering and drag racing, though this last hurrah will not include racing. The rain date is Sunday, June 19.

“It’s just like a picnic — everybody together one more time,” Durfee said from his home in Florida. “It’s really just a gathering of friends, almost like a class reunion. Maybe someday it will be reborn.”

The first event with a race took place in 2011. It was moved Fitchburg for two years and then to Sterling, which Durfee said really became the event’s home. No reunion was held in 2020 or 2021 amid the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Durfee, a longtime jukebox restorer by profession, came up with the idea while working in Orange, a small town with rich albeit quiet drag racing history. He talked it over during lunch with friend Jay Deane, who loved the idea, and the reunion event was born and named for old Orange Drag Strip races.

According to Hemmings, a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic and exotic sports cars, the Orange Municipal Airport drag races were first held on July 18, 1954, when the Massachusetts Automotive Council got permission to use the airport for “acceleration trials.” The following year, the New England Timing Association took over and ran the drag races until the end of racing in Orange in 1970.

The races spawned one of the North Quabbin region’s most well-known businesses — Peter Gerry, founder and owner of Pete’s Tire Barn, was an avid racer and started his business in 1968 when he began buying tires wholesale to replace the ones that burned out, which happened regularly. Pete’s Tire Barn now has at least 22 locations.

Durfee, who fell in love with drag racing after watching it on “ABC’s Wide World of Sports,” said the reunion has been a labor of love, but the time has come to call it quits, saying the logistics of planning a reunion are daunting.

“It’s like throwing a party for 2,000 or 3,000 people,” he said.

Durfee’s 16-minute interview with Classic Drive TV’s YouTube channel explaining the Orange Drag Strip’s history can be found at bit.ly/3zlD4no.

Admission is $10 per person. There is no additional cost to show your car. The event is open to all pre-1974 vehicles. Gates open at 9 a.m.

More information is available at dragreunion.com.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.

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