Ruidoso's world class car collector Ron McWhorter has agreed to lend one of his vintage hot rods as pace car for the June 3 High Mountain Youth Project bed race.
McWhorter said he would throw in a couple of well-worn checkered flags for race officials to wave as winners cross the finish line at Wingfield park.

The 10 a.m. bed race, the first of its kind in Ruidoso, will raise funds for the drop-in center that High Mountain is working to establish for local teenagers challenged by homelessness as they struggle to stay in school.

The presence of the flags and McWhorter's souped up 1932 roadster with its bulbous supercharged power plant are part of High Mountain's determined effort to run a professional-class race operation.

Time keeping will be strictly overseen by Debbie Brooks-Salcido, head coach of the Ruidoso High Altitude Aquatics Swim Team, and physical therapist Jessica Simpson, a veteran of many local competitive running events.

"Since this is the first local bed race but not the last, all the winning times will be de facto records," Brooks-Salcido said. "We don't want any asterisks beside them in the books."