This mighty Mopar yanks ‘em high and reaches for the sky, demonstrating just how much bite was available on the Famoso starting line.
Fortunately, the price of gas was coming down, but so was the economy, however, that didn’t keep diehard gearheads from finding their way over Southern California’s “Grapevine” going north toward Kern County, where all roads lead to legendary Auto Club Famoso Raceway and the 17th California Hot Rod Reunion.
The newly paved pit area was filled with race cars of all shapes and sizes. Those popular Factory Experimentals were well represented, as were the wild A/Gas and AA/Gas Supercharged cars. We’ll try to cherry-pick our massive file of photos and select a broad variety, in order to really show you the flavor of this awesome, non-stop weekend. Aside from the muscle-car-era doorslammers, 20 Nostalgia Funny Cars were listed as having officially run in Sunday’s One-Shot qualifying to determine the Quick Eight. This format was reminiscent of the old Chicago-style Shootouts of the ‘70s. The majority of the Famoso crowd would have preferred to see the flip-tops run at least one round each day, but the format was predetermined and set for Sunday only.
Phil Featherston’s genuine A/FX Fairlane Thunderbolt qualified sixth and used his Bob Panella horsepower to crush all comers during eliminations.
Racers aside, a massive gathering of meticulously restored Slingshot Top Fuel Dragsters congregated at Famoso. They were literally everywhere. Fans were even surprised by Bruce Larson’s beautifully restored “TV” Tommy Ivo rear-engine dragster, made famous for going through the lights at Pomona upside down (and on fire) many years ago. Bruce tinkered with it all weekend long and really seemed to enjoy the time he spent with his fans. Of course, Ivo, the ultimate showman, was also in attendance with his trademark smile and his contagious enthusiasm. Some other drag racing heroes spotted in the massive crowds included John “Tarzan” Austin, Al Bergler, “Spider” Razon, “Waterbed” Fred Miller, Jerry “The King” Ruth, Dave Uyehara, Butch Leal, and (as the commercials used to say) many, many more.
Leah LeDuc did a great job during her first competitive ride in the Plueger & Gyger Mustang, qualifying ahead of 12 other cars. Leah nailed down the fourth spot in the Quick Eight Chicago-Style Shootout and finished third overall, running 6.06, 5.90 and 5.83. That was a great outing for her sponsors at Dickies Girl.
Following its 17-year tradition, the prestigious list of 2008 Honorees included: Grand Marshal Junior Thompson, Steve Davis, John Edmunds, Georgia Seipel, Walt Rhoades, and Butch Maas, while the Justice Brothers’ Reunion Spotlight honoree was Gas Ronda. Officially labeled a “Nostalgia” event, the California Hot Rod Reunion is best described as a must-see happening. It’s like Woodstock on Nitro and leaves you wanting more and more.
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- Phil Featherston’s genuine A/FX Fairlane Thunderbolt qualified sixth and used his Bob Panella horsepower to crush all comers during eliminations.
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- The vendor area was filled with street rods, rat rods and odd rods.
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- Gasser standout Robert “Bones” Balogh made a name for himself in the ‘60s driving “Big John” Mazmanian’s AA/Gas Willys coupe, but he still mixes it up these days driving a B/Gas Supercharged Camaro. In his spare time, Bones works for Venolia Pistons.
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- Even though they didn’t run until Sunday, organizers paraded several Nostalgia Funny Cars in front of the crowd for a sneak preview. The Bomb Squad crew is shown here tossing JEGS hats to the Auto Club Famoso Raceway fans.
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- It’s always important to tow in style at these high-profile events, as witnessed by the tasty support rig for the “Thunder Chief” AA/Fuel Dragster. The beautiful wooden sideboards double as bench seating for the crew.
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- This mighty Mopar yanks ‘em high and reaches for the sky, demonstrating just how much bite was available on the Famoso starting line.
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- Over next to the Mooneyes display, U.S. store manager, Chico Kodama, checked the mechanicals as Dean Moon Jr. took the controls of the company’s famous Dragmaster Dart. The healthy small-block Chevy sports a crank-driven supercharger and had plenty of “pop” in the tank.
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- As usual, people were lined up to buy Mr. Horsepower apparel from Clay Smith Engineering (www.claysmithcams.com).
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- How about that Glenn Gibbons and his retro, altered wheelbase ’64 Tempest? That’s certainly an A/FX machine to remember.
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- Leah LeDuc did a great job during her first competitive ride in the Plueger & Gyger Mustang, qualifying ahead of 12 other cars. Leah nailed down the fourth spot in the Quick Eight Chicago-Style Shootout and finished third overall, running 6.06, 5.90 and 5.83. That was a great outing for her sponsors at Dickies Girl.
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- Butch Leal was on hand with the Ford Thunderbolt that carried him to numerous wins.
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- Today’s AA/Gassers borrow some of their appearance from the Pro Mods, as witnessed by Chris Abbey, wheeling the hard-charging Goshgarian & Abbey ’63 Corvette split-window coupe. These guys are a threat wherever they run.
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- Pete Ward, a long-time crew member for Tom “The Mongoo$e” McEwen, took a break from the action in McEwen’s goodie booth. The Goose always jokes with him saying, “Out of the thousands of T-shirts you sold for me over the years, you probably kept the money from half of them.”
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- The Dynamat Vintage Dragsters display features (left to right) Larry Payne’s “Gang Green,” Ed Golden’s Probe III, and Al Bergler’s Gratiot Auto Supply Competition Coupe. Dynamat manufactures a full line of premium sound deadening material for muscle cars, street rods and any project car that needs a quieter ride.
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- We visited with the original “Rodfather,” San Francisco Bay area pioneer Andy Brizio, whose latest hot rod is shown here. Andy’s résumé includes being a former drag racer, former owner of Champion Speed Shop, founder of Andy’s Instant T (a mail order Model T roadster street rod shop), as well as Andy’s Tee-Shirts (a popular screen-printing business). The Rodfather’s Deuce roadster was built by his equally famous son, proprietor of Roy Brizio Street Rods in South San Francisco, California.
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- The CHRR included a large swap meet, but we homed in on some neat stuff Mike Kuhl had over in the Cacklefest pits.
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- Kris Krabill drove Gary Turner’s “Pedaler” Nostalgia Funny Car to the runner-up spot against Bucky Austin in Sunday’s action. “Big Show” Funny Car driver Cory Lee tunes the car.
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- The A/Factory Experimental cars were worth the price of admission alone, as witnessed by this hard-leaving Plymouth, which falls into the SS/D Automatic category at all other NHRA events.
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- Cherry Lane Doll Wear featured some really stylish accessories for the ladies in attendance. And yes, the booth was well staffed with a lovely group of genuine dolls!
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- How can you not like a purpose-built, straight-axle Comet A/FXer?
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- The Willys Overland Motor Company was well represented with several period-perfect coupes and pickups.
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- Multi-time Goodguys A/Gas champion Mark Mahood recently converted his all-conquering Camaro to AA/Gas trim and worked all year to gain the upper hand on the combination.
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- In the Nostalgia Funny Car Chicago-Style Shootout, Bucky Austin drove the Plueger & Austin Arrow all the way to the winner’s circle. He qualified first with a 5.805, ran 5.794 in the first round, and drove past second qualifier Kris Krabill, stopping the clocks with a 5.749 in the process. Bucky also won the 2008 NHRA Heritage Series Funny Car Championship.
Tags: california hot rod reunion, CHRR, door slammer, floppers, funny cars, NHRA, nostalgia drag racing
I love the old school drag stuff,,,,nice work !