DR. FRED BENTLEY, Mars Hill College
president, instructs athletes in rules of the
race.
VINCENT ECKERSLEY, a National En
quirer photographer hired to shoot stills for
ABC Television, questions if the race is ever
going to get underway.
Nelson Kelly, Powerlifting Team Captain , Psyches Out Competition
'Incredible' House Race
Turns Out To Be A 'Drag'
By NICHOLAS HANCOCK
CANTON - It was probably
the toughest SO yards any col
lege football player ever fac
ed, and it proved to be one of
the heaviest dead weights any
weigh Uifter ever had to move.
But, the "That's Incredible
House Race was pulled off
without a hitch Saturday
afternoon with 95 U.S.
Powerlifting Federation
members defeating 100 Mars
Hill College football players
and assorted athletes in a
grueling three minute event.
The object of the race was to
see which team coukl lift and
carry a 34,000 pound double
wide "manufactured home"
SO yards along U.S.19-23 and
cross the finish line first.
The stunt was video-taped
by ABC Television's "That's
Incredible" to be aired late in
February.
"I think it's incredible that
either team could even move
those things, and that we got
through this stunt without hav
ing an accident," said Rea
Anders, a director for the TV
program and coordinator of
the stunt.
An estimated 2,000 spec
tators lined the highway in
west Canton and endured
three hours of preparation and
rehearsal in cold weather to
witness the spectacle and
hopefully get themselves seen
on national network televi
sion.
The Video Production Com
pany of Charlotte and two
cameramen from WLOS-TV in
Asheville were hired to video
tape the event for ABC Televi
sion.
Nelson Kelly, a Candler
school teacher and YMCA
weightlifting instructor,
dreamed up the idea of the
race to promote a sanctioned
powerliftiag competition
which was held at the Canton
YMCA Saturday. The com
petition < featured an ap
pearance by Paul Wrenn, cur
rent world powerlifting cham
pion who's billed as "The
World's Strongest Man."
Wrenn captained the
weightlifters in the race.
The rules of the race stated
that each team could set its
house down as many times as
necessary during the race, but
the actual event was one of
dragging the houses along the
50 yard course.
The power lifters managed
to lift their house only twice
and had to be content with
dragging it the rest of the way.
The Mars Hill team only
managed to move theirs a lit
tle over half-way to the finish
line.
Anders said original plans
called for using two stripped
down houses weighing approx
imately 20,000 pounds, but in
itial sponsors withdrew their
offer to supply their
prefabricated homes. Mobile
Home Village in Candler came
through at the last minute and
supplied two doublewide units
which weighted around 29,000
pounds, but the support struc
tures and the iron bars provid
ed for lifting added another
5,000 pounds to the houses.
Each team member had to
carry about 340 pounds during
the ordeal.
Even though the main event
was not exactly what Anders
had envisioned, he said he was
pleased with the race.
"Nobody's ever done this
before. It was incredible that
they could move them at all,"
he said.
Anders and his fiim crew
spent Friday and Saturday in
the area taping scenes to be
used as a preliminary to the
race event which will be seen
by some 40 million "That's In
credible" viewers.
Anders said the race was
one of the larger projects
undertaken by the show and
that future Canton House
Races may be in the making.
"We'd love to have it as an an
nual event," he said.
Photos By N. Hancock and Joel Knisley
Mars Hill Atheltes Sprint Toward Houses
?ee-1 vet
More Photos
On Page 4.
.
REA ANDERS (left), "That's Incredible"
director, talks with Canton Mayor C.W. Har
din about scenes in which Hardin will fire the
starting gun at beginning of race.
CARLA YORK, North Carolina's first
woman powerlifter who's ranked fourth in
the nation, stood atop house to count cadence
for powerlifters.