The Sporty Car Guys get a Lesson in Real Horsepower

The San Francisco Bay area is rich in drag racing history. Race tracks like Fremont and Half Moon Bay became legendary during the heyday of drag racing. Just a little farther south, the scene was completely different. In the hills outside of Monterey sports cars were making history of their own, on the road course of Laguna Seca. 

In comparison, these two forms of racing are worlds apart, but the effort to preserve their respective vintage racing machines and make them accessible to fans is one that is alive and well.

Enter Steve Gibbs (Nitro Revival) and Melvin Record (SVP of marketing for Weather Tech Laguna Seca Raceway), men of different racing backgrounds with one common goal. This year, May 18-20, these two polar opposites of the racing world joined forces for one grand weekend at Weather Tech Laguna Seca Raceway (WTLSR), and The Spring Classic featuring Nitro Revival came to be, celebrating its second annual incarnation.

The weekend kicked-off Friday night on Cannery Row. The Clement Monterey Hotel hosted a star-studded question-and-answer session hosted by Mike Dunn, which was followed by an autograph session sponsored by the Jim McLennan Foundation (founder of Champion Speed Shop).

Saturday, the feature day for Nitro Revival, opened with Ace’s Hot Rod Hangout, a car show hosted by The Ace himself, Ed McCulloch. The Nitro Revival welcome tent was alive with a huge autograph session that saw nearly 30 drag racing personalities signing for the fans. In the pits, the nitro cars had the liberty to fire-up at will throughout the day.

Around midday, the Speed Sport Special was pushed off on pit lane, ushering in Laguna Seca’s nitro era. The timeline allowed for 12 cars to push-start, which culminated in a cackle session at the end of pit road.

If anyone on the property was wondering what this nitro stuff was about, they had their questions answered around 5:30 when the Line of Fire closed the event. The cars fired-up in succession, down one side of the paddock and back up the other side, until they were all lit.

Like moths to a flame, the crowd flocked to the cars to feel the roar of the engines and get a whiff of the nitro cloud that hung over the pits like early morning Monterey fog. This was Nitro Revival.

Away from all of the action, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits had the opportunity to pose for photos with Sonny Messner’s Swamp Rat 3 at the top of WTLSR’s corkscrew, marking the first time a dragster had ever been on the track. Sonny was in the seat to hold the brake during the photos, but when the photo session was over, things got very interesting. Instead of trying to push the car back up the hill, they let Sonny coast away down the corkscrew. The icing on the cake came when Sonny got the car to start. He drove it the rest of the way back into the pit area—unbelievable.

Nitro Revival will return to WTLSR next year as part of Spring Classic 3. Keep an eye on their website, Nitrorevival.com, for details. The accompanying photos paint a rich picture of this year’s Nitro Revival.

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