The Last Fox Hunt

5/5/05

Jeff Burk Photo

et out your shovels and throw a clod of dirt on the coffin. As of 2005, now, this very minute, Firebird Raceway will never again hold its annual Fox Hunt, an event they had been holding since 1977.

For those uninitiated in the drag parlance, the Fox Hunt was the invention of announcer/huckster, Steve Evans, who came up with the idea of calling a “ladies night” at the drags a Fox Hunt. The idea of course, behind any ladies night being that if the ladies got in for free, there would be more ladies there.. and wherever the ladies are, there are sure to be a lot of full-price-payin’ gentlemen.

Now, of course, the image that a “Fox Hunt” conjures up is the true genius of Steve Evans. However, no Fox Hunt I ever attended lived up to the pictures of wild debauchery I imagined. For me, and probably for most women, the point of the Fox Hunt was not that we would be fodder for hootin’ and hollerin’ males. The point was…well, the point was that we got in free. If you’ve ever been to a Fox Hunt, you know that it’s just like a regular race but with maybe a few more moms, grandmas and pimply-faced teenaged girls. I’ve never been to one where I’ve been treated any differently than at a regular race. It usually just meant that I felt a sense of smug entitlement in being a woman and that’s a nice feeling to have once in a while.

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Just like if you’re a teacher, you get a discount at the bookstore or if you’re in the military, you get a discount at the movies or if you’re a cop, you get free donuts or if you’re a celebrity you get free everything everywhere. There is nothing wrong with this privilege once in a while, it’s nice to feel wanted and appreciated. And for me, the Fox Hunt was nothing more than that.

There aren’t too many things in this world where women get an even break. This wasn’t “only single women between the ages of 18 and 25 and who have a BMI of 20 and are a member of Swimsuit Models Union - Local 36-24-36” get in free. This was all women get in free. No matter what your size, no matter what your age, no matter what your sexual orientation, no matter if you are married, dating or single, no matter how many teeth you had or how bad your feet smelled. In fact, I’ll bet that more than once a drag queen got in free and all I have to say to that is, “Right on, sister!”

This was an amazing marketing concept and probably one that Steve Evans et. al. did not at the time realize was as amazing as it was – with a Fox Hunt, not only could you get more paying men to come to the races, but truthfully, I’ll bet there were more than a few women who came because it was free and then came back again on a day they had to pay because they got bit by the drag racing bug. The Fox Hunt was the pusher man giving the first taste free and a mini “drag racing affirmative action” rolled into one. In my book, drugs can be fun and although affirmative action may not be perfect, it does begin to redress the injustices meted out in this world. So, what I ask you is not to love about all of this?

Apparently, there is something not to love. And because of that, we women have once more been ripped off. And who do you think did it? Was it Jerry Falwell decrying the immorality of women, beer and racing fuel in the same location? No, though heaven knows I wish I could pin this on him. Well, how about the Taliban? I mean, after all, the women would be at the races without wearing burkas. No, apparently, it was more insidious than that. One of our own, a woman, sold us out. Linda L. Goodman, a Senior Civil Rights Investigator from the Idaho Human Rights Commission contacted Firebird because she got a complaint that the law was being broken.