After a three-year absence, Wings ‘N Wheels returned to the Powell Municipal Airport last summer with a fly-in, air show, car show and, in a new addition, drag racing.

Despite being put together in just a couple of months, it turned out to be a smashing success, drawing perhaps the biggest crowd in its more than two-decades of existence.

“Not very many things that we put on here in Powell sell out the food trucks. We sold out two food trucks and we wore out one food truck,” said organizer Mike Martin.

Wings ‘N Wheels organizers are hoping for a repeat this coming August, and the Powell City Council offered its full support at a Monday meeting.

“We appreciate you putting on the event,” Mayor John Wetzel told organizers Martin and Tim Kindred. “It’s really a great event for the City of Powell.”

Last year’s attendees came to the city’s airport from across Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.

“We had tons of people staying in hotels and eating food here in our restaurants, and, just, it was a great deal,” said Kindred.

He attributed the strong interest to a combination of the longtime event having been absent since 2018 and the addition of drag racing.

Martin guessed the turnout topped 2,500 people, joking that there were “probably about that many racing.”

The drag races — held on the airport’s runway for the first time — proved popular enough that drivers competed late into the night before the event and continued into the mid-afternoon on the day of.

Organizers had feared the Federal Aviation Administration might restrict the use of the runway for racing, but the only rules were to stay on the pavement and “don’t crash any airplanes,” Martin said. An FAA representative stayed onsite for the event and came away impressed with how things went, city officials and organizers said.

Given the popularity of the racing, “basically, we’re gonna run it this year as a drag race with air show intermissions,” Martin told the council. “We think that’s the best way to go right now.”

The 2023 edition of Wings ‘N Wheels is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 19.