A unique form of motorsports is being christened today on the runways of Airborne Park in Wilmington, as the East Coast Timing Association holds its inaugural Ohio Mile speed trials.

“We raced for 16 years at Maxton in North Carolina, running the Maxton Mile, but we lost the use of the facility at the airport, and we had to start looking for another venue,” explained race director Keith Turk. “We’d heard about Wilmington, and when we looked at it, we saw all kinds of potential, so we’re set to run here four times in 2012.”

The East Coast Timing Association is made up of land speed racers east of the Rockies, many of which use these meets to tune their machines for the assault on the Bonneville Salt Flats each August.

“This isn’t drag racing, there’s no head-to-head competition on track, it’s just how fast can you go from a standing start in one mile,” Turk said. “We race all kinds of cars and motorcycles, from little 36 horsepower VW Bugs to full on streamliners. We’ve got classes for everything.”

The facility at Airborne Park is ideal, since there are two runways.

“We can race on the 9,000 runway while the other operates with air traffic,” Turk said. “It’s getting harder and harder to find places to race these days, so we feel real lucky. We also owe a lot to Debbie Stamper and the Clinton County Convention and Visitors Bureau.”

The Ohio Mile will host races this weekend, today until 6 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission for spectators is $10 a day or $15 for the weekend. The other three weekends are June 2-3, July 7-8 and Sept. 29-30.

This inaugural weekend is also the Hot Rod Magazine Top Speed Challenge.

“Hot Rod came on board eight years ago, while we were at Maxton,” Turk said. “And they’re still with us this year.”

The races are standing-mile events, where cars accelerate from a standstill to the 132-foot timing trap at the end of a mile, and they are given their speeds.

The rules and classes are similar to those used by the Southern California Timing Association at Bonneville and El Mirage, though the ECTA also offers street-legal classes, and Hot Rod awards jackets to the fastest cars in the two street classes.

The speed trials are located at Airborne Park, on the southeast side of Wilmington, just off Interstate 71. The track entrance is off Airborne Road, and an address to use for your GPS is 2870 Old State Road 73.

To learn more go online to: www.ecta-lsr.com.