HELLCAT-POWERED CHARGER TAKES FIRST PLACE IN NATIONAL GOPHER BLOWING CONTEST

A slightly modified 2015 Dodge Charger took top honors in the Grand National Gopher Blowing Contest in Shipsewana yesterday after exhaust pressure from its 707-horsepower Hellcat engine blasted a record 37 gophers from their holes. .

 

A spectator watches from a distance as Cooter Bytheway’s Hellcat- engined Charger sets a new gopher-blowing record

“All we did was plug up one of the exhaust pipes so there’d be more pressure on the other side,” said Cooter Bytheway, the Charger’s proud owner.  “Otherwise, she was bone stock. I just fired her up and blam! the gophers come a shootin’ out of their holes!”

Cooter Bytheway celebrates after his car blew a record 37 gophers out of their tunnels   As Bytheway celebrated his victory, volunteer Ginger Frangipani walked the field collecting the agitated rodents with an 18-gallon Shop-Vac. “I talk to them to calm them down and then put them back in their holes,” she said.