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New flying pumpkin course record — 874 feet! — set at Valparaiso church’s annual Punkin Launch

Fahrfunflinger has come a long way.

The first year its creators used the slingshot contraption to launch pumpkins, they hit the 300-foot range.

Saturday, at Faith Evangelical Bible Church’s Eighth Annual Punkin Launch, they set a new course record for fall squash catapulting — 874 feet.

Team Fahrfunflinger, comprised of Ric and Laurie Franke-Polz, of Porter, and Jim and Kari Murray, of Chesterton, traces its beginnings to 2004, when the two couples went to Morton, Ill., to watch a pumpkin launching competition and the wives decided the husbands could build a launch of their own, Jim Murray said.

Ric Franke-Polz did most of the work, Murray said, and while they’ve used the same machine over the years, tweaks have been made. More bands will launch pumpkins farther, he said, but also cause more damage to the “pumpkin delivery system,” as it’s billed on a fact sheet.

The team also has moved on to a power wench, which replaced a manual one after it got too difficult to use with more bands, Murray said. These days, Fahrfunflinger is graced with a black and maroon flag and red flashing lights.

The team travels throughout the area for competitions, Murray said, going to events in Buchanan, Mich., Morton, Bloomington and Bluffton. In 2016, in Bloomington, the team set its own record, launching a 5-pound pumpkin 926 feet.

Ric Franke-Polz is a retired engineer with U.S. Steel’s Midwest Plant in Portage and Murray said he’s nearing retirement as a project engineer for Superior Construction.

Having two engineers on board has been an advantage.

“I think the thought process — it helps,” Murray said, adding he and Franke-Polz are able to predict what could go wrong and fix problems as they arise.

Fahrfunflinger was one of four launchers at Saturday’s event, which also included the In”Tim”idator, with a team from Kouts; Team Hot Shot from Valparaiso; and Medieval Mayhem, a trebuchet operated by the Valparaiso-area church’s pastor, Andy Wenthold.

The church started offering the event after one of its members went to the national competition, said Darel Walker, chair of the pumpkin launch committee.

“We thought it was something fun we could do for the community,” said Walker, who also gave a running commentary throughout the three launch rounds that made up the competition.

Yellow caution tape marked off the parking lot behind the launches, a necessity, Walker explained to the crowd, to protect people from backfires. Organizers said a few years ago, a backfire sent a pumpkin about 300 feet in the wrong direction and towards the church.

Walker said that the longest throw would earn the winning team a trophy. After a warning blast from an air horn, Team Fahrfunflinger had its first round.

“It’s high, it’s low. Look for the splat now. I think you just planted some pumpkins,” Walker said, after the team’s pumpkin landed with an explosive burst of pumpkin pieces flying in the air. “That looks like a long one.”

The crowd whooped and hollered while Walker said the south winds of 10 to 12 mph were reducing the launch distance.

“I’d say this is a real good chance of a new course record,” he said as two people clad in orange T-shirts measured the launch with the help of markers set in the field. Walker got the distance on a walkie-talkie. “Eight-hundred-seventy-four feet. Let’s hear it for the new course record!”

The crowd, safely cordoned off by the caution tape, stood or sat in folding chairs to watch the spectacle. Some held cellphones to capture pictures and videos of pumpkins soaring through the air.

Among the crowd was Tim Koster, of Valparaiso, who said he’s been a coworker of Murray’s for almost two years.

“He’s always told me he does this on weekends and I thought I’d check it out,” Koster said, adding he’d seen pumpkin launches on television but never witnessed one.

It was “really cool,” he said, though Murray has never told him how the launch was built.

“I’m going to ask him now,” Koster said.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.