Belt Sander Racing Fun at the AWFS Fair in Las Vegas

by Blair Downing

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Association of Woodworking & Furnishings Suppliers (AWFS) fair in Las Vegas. It was a great show with lots of new products that you'll be seeing soon at Highland Woodworking.

The highlight of the weekend was the belt sander races on Friday afternoon. People have been racing belt sanders for many years ( you can find dozens of belt sander racing videos on YouTube .) The oldest racing organization is the New England Belt Sander Racing Association (NEBSRA.) Now, Accuride is sponsoring the Belt Sander Racing Association (BSRA.) There was an enormous crowd on hand for the racing. So many people, in fact, that one of the exhibitors rescheduled their press conference because everyone was at the belt sander races.

I took some video at the races, but it turns out I'm not a very good cameraman and I was a bit too far away, but I found the following video on YouTube that is much better quality than my video and covers the most amazing run of the afternoon from a great perspective.

Here's my video.