Photo By Paul Sadler Tom McEwen’s Tirend Activity Booster, recently restored by Mike Kuhl, fires up and comes alive for a thrill-seeking crowd at the Prolong Twilight Cruise mini-Cacklefest.
Since it was initiated by Steve Gibbs and coined by Greg Sharp, Cacklefest has entered the hot rod lexicon and vintage race cars are being restored, recreated and fired up all around the globe. For example, at the recent Prolong Twilight Cruise at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, Gibbs and volunteer event coordinator John Duran assembled more than 20 nitro-burning diggers as a preview of the amazing Cacklefest planned for this year’s California Hot Rod Reunion presented by Automobile Club of Southern California. (more…)
For the most part, our industry was founded right after World War II, when all those servicemen returned home looking for excitement and a new way to make a living. For many, hot rodding was the answer. Consequently, our sport is celebrating numerous anniversaries: 50 years of Honest Charley; 60 Years of Coker Tire; 50 years of Gale Banks Engineering; 50 years of the NHRA Winternationals and 50 years since Mickey Thompson went 400 mph in the Challenger.
They say it was the biggest ever, and they came from all over the world to participate in the 18th annual California Hot Rod Reunion presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California. They came with Funny Cars — 32, I’m told. They came with 16 Top Fuel dragsters, Fuel Altereds, race cars, muscle cars, street machines, rat rods, customs and even a 9-cylinder drag bike. They came like pilgrims to the West Coast mecca of drag racing: Auto Club Famoso Raceway near Bakersfield, Calif., for one of nostalgia racing’s biggest events to race and pay homage to the sport’s heroes including, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen, “TV” Tommy Ivo, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and so many more who came to recapture the glory days of quarter-mile drags.
