Rantalas rev up for Ignite the Nites

Gary and Grace Rantala have been involved in Ignite the Nites since 1995, and both have seen and helped the event transform from a four-car show at First Montana Bank to a Libby staple event that attracts thousands of visitors.

Although the Rantalas joined the Igniters Car Club in 1995, they’d been around since 1981 when four cars from Kalispell were set up in the First Montana Bank parking lot as part of the “Timber Run.” The event was so small, Gary Rantala said, that Libby locals didn’t even entirely know what it was: Some people showed up with tennis shoes expecting the “run” to be more about footwork than car work.

That little “Timber Run” turned into the Ignite the Nites event it is known as now; one surveyor, Igniters member Darren Short said, estimated the 2013 turn-out to be between 3,800 and 5,000 last year.

Gary’s first car was a 1946 black Plymouth coupe that he bought in 1969 when he was 14. The smoke and the burning rubber are what keeps Gary’s interest running.

“The point is to not see anything when you’re in the car because it’s full of smoke,” Gary Rantala said. “It’s crazy how you really can’t see anything. And when the smoke gets to the crowd, it’s so funny. People walk around and they can’t see right in front of them.”

But Grace Rantala isn’t on the sidelines, even though she drives the same cars as her husband. She was the first female member, and even became the club’s first female president in 1999 and held the position for seven years.  

The tag team has found love for their cars and they’ve burned the rubber to show for it.

In 1993, Gary and Grace Rantala started drag racing in Spokane. Grace Rantala showed muscle that shocked the male-dominated sport she came into, and she raced to drag success.

“I kept beating all these guys who would get mad,” Grace Rantala said. “I liked being a woman and doing this sport when I came into it. It’s a very male-dominated world. It’s cool to be a woman.”

They said one of the best things about Ignite the Nites and the Igniters Car Club in particular is how the members support those who have passed away.

Before Ron Remp, the namesake of the Ron Remp Memorial Burnout Contest, died on June 29, 2007, the Igniters Car Club did something special for him. Half a year earlier in November, the car club took his car, a 1956 two-tone green Chevy, and fixed it over a few weeks. Right before Thanksgiving, the club returned it to Remp.

“It was great to be able to do that for him right before he passed,” Gary Rantala said. “There really was nothing like it.”

Another former member, George Elletson, was honored by the club. The club had also taken his car, a 1936 Ford that had been made into a pickup during the early 1900’s.

Elletson was 81 when he got the car, Gary Rantala said, and although he was too frail to drive, he sat in the passenger seat as his granddaughter drove it around. He later passed away on Jan. 18 in 2006.

“It’s really great to be a part of this event,” Grace Rantala said. “The way we care about each other is really special and there’s probably no other club like it.”