BUZZ SODEMAN / SPECIAL TO THE PVT Milt Gedo took his drag racing car to Mt. Charleston Elementary School for an elaborate show-and-tell session with the students and faculty. Advertisement

Pull up at an elementary school with a hauler nearly as long as some homes, then roll out a dragster with a chrome engine with zoom headers and you're liable to see children's eyes as large as flying saucers.

That's what the youngsters at Mt. Charleston Elementary looked like as they oohed and aahed their way around the Super Comp Yancer dragster of Pahrump's lone competitor in the National Hot Rod Association, Milt Gedo.

Gedo was invited to the school by his daughter Marina's kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Englund. Accompanying her husband, Theresa Gedo told me that during her first date with Milt, "He told me he was getting a dragster. At the time I had no idea what he was talking about."

Marina is anticipating the campaigning of a Junior dragster, "painted pink, of course."

Gedo wasn't there to showcase the dragster but to emphasize the importance of studying hard and staying in school. Gedo not only stressed the "nose to the grindstone," but also used the description of the dragster to discuss the safety aspects of the sport.

His program started at the nose of the 225-inch wheel-based dragster with the skinny bicycle-type front tires and ended at the huge (33.0 x 16.0) slicks and parachute in the rear.

In between sat the 555-cubic-inch Driskell Racing Chevy engine and the cockpit with roll bar and safety items that seldom receive the attention they deserve. Gedo talked about the five-point safety belt, now even more important with the click it or ticket campaign.

He described the operation of the arm restraint cuffs and how they, in a rollover situation, would keep his arms within the confines of the cockpit. He talked about the two-speed transmission with just high and low gears.

He talked about the acceleration of the dragster, going from 0 to 140 mph in 4.8 seconds, 0 to 170 mph in 7.8 seconds, with the quarter-mile run in 7.82 seconds. The 15-year drag racing veteran didn't once mention his string of accomplishments.

Gedo was the 2003 Division 5 Super Comp Champion (the first of three straight) and he scored two NHRA Divisional wins and a semi-final finish at a third divisional. He finished a personal best fifth in national points, a monumental task when you consider that there are over 1,500 Super Comp racers across the nation.

In 2004, Gedo snatched the Division 5 Super Shoot-Out Championships -- a race within a race, where only 16 competitors out of approximately 300 qualify based on best on-track performances. He continued his hot streak with a 2005 Division 5 Top Comp Champion and the 2006 Summit Nationals Super Comp Champion.

Gedo is also a two-time TRW Grand 900 member, a three-time Super Chevy Show Super Pro Champion and three-time Perfectly Strange Performance Award Winner (an award given for making a perfect 8.90 second pass in the first round of eliminations). He's a multi-time NHRA and E.T. Series winner. At the NHRA's Super Bowl, the Summer Nationals in Indianapolis, Ind., Gedo was the number one qualifier and garnered his second Perfectly Strange award.

Once the safety features of the car were discussed, Gedo explained the importance of his work clothe -- the full-faced helmet, the fire retardant driving suit with matching fire retardant gloves, capable of giving the driver precious seconds to exit the most feared factor in any racing event - fire.

The students then got an escorted tour of the interior of Gedo's hauler, getting a detailed description of all the amenities in the service area, as well as the living quarters -- which had one teacher remarking that it contained luxuries that she didn't have at her home.

The assembled classes were seated where Gedo addressed the real reason he was asked to appear -- the importance of staying in school and getting good grades.

What subjects would you think would be required to be a race car driver, teacher, or even an astronaut?

Most of the students, still lost in the magnitude of the whole experience, had answers that revolved around the racing. "Shop class, welding class, fabrication of the body parts and the painting (art class)," were the most common answers.

Gedo who stressed the basics - reading, writing and arithmetic.

If there is one thing that I have observed in my coverage of various motorsports, it is that this community will do almost anything when it pertains to youngsters. They have taken time off from their occupations to display their race cars at school-sponsored DARE programs and graduations.

Most recently, Done Rite Auto Racing donated a mini stock to the high school auto mechanic class because of their performance at a competition at Weber State. In some respects these are the most unselfish individuals in a sport where their participation has serious, inherent dangers associated with it.