Sound Check: dB Drag Racing World Finals celebrates 25 years

Oct. 3—The dB Drag Racing World Finals brought the noise this weekend to the Owensboro Convention Center.

The event, described as an invitational "aftermarket car audio competition," saw a number of car-stereo competitors coming from around the United States and worldwide vying for top prizes.

Wayne Harris, president and founder of the dB Drag Racing Association, was happy to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the event in Owensboro.

"This has been the best event we've ever had," he said. "The reason it's worked so (well) is, first off, we're in a state-of-the-art facility and the people that we are working with at the facility are super easy to work with."

Since the organization's founding in 1998, Harris said they have now held more than 20,000 events with hundreds-of-thousands of participants.

The event brought in competitors from different states and countries like Belgium, Germany, Greece and Russia with about 500 people coming and going throughout the two-day event.

"We actually had competitors that drove all the way from western Canada, 52 hours, to be here," Harris said.

The entirety of the event was also broadcast live in 30 to 40 countries online.

In terms of the competition, Harris said there are six different formats with each having multiple classes.

"We're pushing the envelope of every dimension of audio," Harris said.

On Sunday morning, the dB Drag Racing format took place — which Harris described as "top-fuel dragsters of car stereo" — where participants compete against one another to see who has the loudest car stereo system.

"Their vehicles are purpose-built to be as loud as they can possibly be," he said. "There's just playing tones, mostly. Just like a top-fuel dragster goes down the racetrack at 300 mph, these guys are just trying to play the absolute loudest sound pressure level they can."

And some of the vehicles, Harris said, can weigh over 20,000 pounds — with one van competing having a 4-inch thick windshield and steel-reinforced doors.

One of the competitors, Chad Bleeke of Montpelier, Indiana, got into the competitive audio world when he was in high school before jumping back into it 12 years ago after watching some YouTube videos.

Bleeke said there's a decent amount of work that goes into preparing to battle it out against other cars.

"You have to build your enclosure, but then the No. 1 thing is you have to build your car," he said. "If you don't build your car, you're not going to do well."

Bleeke feels the hard work is worth it.

"I like the challenge," he said. "Like, I didn't win (today) but I had fun and I know what I got to do next year."

There's a good chance that when Bleeke returns to the competition next year, it will be back in Owensboro if organizers haver their way.

"Everybody wants to come back here," Harris said. "I don't even want to think about next year, but it is in the works for sure.

"It's been a great show and a good time."