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“Goldstrike”
By Vic Cooke
Flying into California, glittering reflections off the landscape below
brings to mind the discovery of gold here more than one hundred and fifty
years ago, and the ensuing “gold rush” of thousands of hopeful prospectors.
Our destination today is Bakersfield, California and it’s a form of gold
fever that brings us here too....a big celebration of the “golden era” of
drag racing that is! It’s time again for the annual California Hot Rod
Reunion, but unlike the situation for the gold prospectors of old, it’s
guaranteed that we will strike it rich. The CHRR at Famoso Raceway is an
unrivaled mother lode of vintage drag racing luring thousands from all over
the country to come share its treasure .
It’s almost a shock to realize that this will be the 15th running of CHRR, a
time span nearly as long as the period in drag racing history which it
celebrates! That’s long enough to become a deep rooted tradition in its own
right, and in many ways begs a comparison to NHRA’s U.S. Nationals. Both
have come to represent the pinnacle event of the annual racing season, one
with respect to the historically oriented racing scene and the other with
respect to contemporary competition. Nothing else can quite compare. It
strikes an emotional chord just entering the grounds for either event. This
is THE place where history was written and continues to be, and your very
bones sense it! The return journey to Famoso brings a mix of elation and
anticipation like no other! It’s solid gold!
The general plan for the weekend is a familiar one. After fifteen tries, the
schedule that has evolved needs little tinkering. Things are not so
formulaic as to ever be stale however, as the NHRA Museum Staff who produce
the event are always receptive to potential improvements and willing to
accommodate the dynamics within the “nostalgia movement” itself. (An example
of this is the time now devoted to “Cacklefest” activities, which did not
even exist until more recent years). But the event itself remains a
three-day affair with some limitations involved on the number and types of
participants in order to accommodate available space and time limits. The
result is that CHRR would strike the newcomer as a decidedly “thoroughbred”
affair in comparison to other events, as entries are limited to only the top
categories of competition classes and finest quality restorations.
Although dominated by west coast entries, participants and fans from all
across the country begin arriving midweek. By the afternoon before the
official opening things are already well into gear in setting up for the
event. An early arrival gives us the opportunity to check out what’s new in
the way of first-time entries and to take advantage of the uncrowded
situation to obtain photos for our coverage. It’s always a thrill to see
favorite returning cars again and give the new entries a thorough going
over. This year was no different, with enough “new” restorations, show rods
and competition entries making a first appearance at CHRR to make it a very
busy afternoon!
Among the fine restorations of classic front-engined
Top Fuel dragsters making a debut appearance at CHRR was the
Warren-Coburn-Miller “Ridge Route Terror”
Representing the Top Fuel class we were very impressed with Don Prieto’s
effort at bringing back Frank Cannon’s “Hustler VI” dragster, Sam Chastain’s
restoration of the Utah-based “Iron Horse,” the former March-Meet champ and
locally-based Warren, Coburn and Miller “Ridge Route Terror” dragster, and
the yet-unpainted but fully operable resto of the awesome “Syndicate”
twin-Chrysler fueler out of Southern California. Additionally, Chuck Bayuk’s
old ride from the high country of Colorado, the Carey/Bayuk A/Fuel Modified
Roadster had completed it’s restoration and proudly joined the ranks of
cacklers on Memory Lane. Making a first (and only planned) appearance at
CHRR after it’s exciting debut at NHRR at Bowling Green earlier this year
was Ron Johnson’s restoration of the legendary “204mph ChiZler” of Chris
Karamesines, with Chris himself again present to occupy the cockpit during a
fire-up at the host hotel reception party as well as the big Cacklefest
event at the track. Last, but not least Al Bergler brought his “More
Aggravation” AA/Fuel Comp Coupe all the way from Detroit to Bakersfield,
following up his earlier introduction of this spectacular reproduction at
NHRR in June. Great additions to the already great mix of beautifully
restored machines that add to the spectacle of “living history” at every
CHRR!
A “breaking news” item at CHRR was that arrangements have been concluded by
a third party that will lead to the restoration of the fabled “Smirnoff”
dragster briefly campaigned by Darryl Greenamyer in the late-1960's. This
car represented the zenith of artistry in full-bodied dragster design to the
eyes of many back then, and remains a one-of-a-kind elegant beauty. The
complete chassis and body had been stored by Greenamyer since the car was
retired, and Bill Pitts had the car on exhibit next to his “Magicar” on
Memory Lane, complete with its carefully undisturbed accumulation of 35
years worth of dust! Be sure to see it in the photo section of our coverage.
The Pisano & Matsubara Vega of Danny Pisano
represents a gorgeous addition to the ranks of classic early Funny
Cars that have been pristinely restored and are fully operable as “cacklecars.”
Interest in restoring some of the more famous front-engined dragsters of the
1960's has been escalating for several years now, but the latest chapter in
the historic car restoration stampede is the interest being directed toward
early Funny Cars. The first signs of this manifested themselves in the east
with the introduction of cars at NHRR such as Don Trasin’s Foster-built
reproduction of the McEwen Corvette Funny Car and Ray Godman’s “Tennessee
Bo-Weevil.” Several additional cars made appearances at this year’s NHRR
(see our review of this event). With cars known to be in the works as well
as those making a debut appearance at CHRR, it is clearly a trend not
confined to the east. A beautiful restoration of Marv Eldridge’s Logghe-chassised
Challenger was on display at CHRR, as well as Danny Pisano’s dazzling
“Pisano & Matsubara” Vega pictured above. Ted Guth also chose CHRR to
introduce his immaculate restoration of Roland Leong’s “Hawaiian” Dodge
Charger Funny Car from 1969. With former-driver Larry Reyes being reunited
with the car for its Cacklefest debut, it seemed as if some sort of
“destiny” had to be involved when Roland Leong was co-incidentally chosen as
Honorary Grand Marshal for this year’s Reunion! It was a truly auspicious
“reunion within a Reunion” of original owner, car and driver that captured
perfectly the spirit of what CHRR is all about!
Space prevents mention of “all” the cars making a first appearance at this
year’s event, and the above highlights only the most noteworthy. However we
want to also mention some long-distance visitors from the east making a
cross-country tow to participate at CHRR. That includes NHRR Grand Marshal
Barb Hamilton with her ‘37 Willys Gasser and two of the original S&S Racing
Team members, Fred Bear and Dave Hales with their Willys Gassers. All three
cars were on display on Memory Lane for the enjoyment of west coaster’s who
had never before seen them, and all three also participated in a special
“flopper/gasser” section of Cacklefest festivities.
The quality of all the cars mentioned above is simply impeccable, as are
their historic credentials. If there is any notion of “seen one, seen ‘em
all” about CHRR this should quickly dispel that! It’s not a recycling of the
same limited pool of cars. This holds true across the other divisions of the
event as well, including the street rod show in the “Grove” at Famoso as
well as the high-caliber racing going on all weekend out on the track. A
great mix of returning old favorites, updated entries and entirely fresh
material on all fronts!
The so-called “Grove” at Famoso is grid of memorial trees planted behind the
grandstand area , each one dedicated to a prominent pioneer from the early
history of the sport. In this area is “Memory Lane” with it’s display of
restored cars, many of them now “Cacklecars” performing static fireups
throughout the event. The downtrack area of the Grove is used for the
gathering of street rods showing during the Reunion. With so many historic
restorations in Memory Lane, the space for the street rod show is squeezed a
little harder each year, requiring an overflow into the adjacent main
midway. There’s a mix of automotive eye-candy for every interest in the
field of entries for this car show, and a constant stream of admirers
looking it all over through the event. We took advantage of breaks in the
program to photograph a few for you, and a small sampler to tickle your
appetite is included in our companion album of CHRR sights.
It was unusually mild weather as the event officially opened on Friday, with
temperatures only reaching the low 70's during the day. Together with a
recently repaved track, conditions were optimal for some outstanding racing
and there was no disappointment in that respect. How good was it? Well after
the first round of qualifying on Friday afternoon, eleven cars competing in
Top Fuel had 5 second timeslips to show for their off-the-trailer efforts,
with six of them in the 5.80's. Run after run saw new “personal best”
clockings being turned. The situation translated across the entire racing
field, and in Junior Fuel “A” fully half of the eight-car field were in the
6-second zone, led by Scott Parks with a 6.934. The track seemed up to
anything thrown at it!
Even the camera gets a little bleary-eyed during
the ceremonial nitro-car cackleruns at the CHRR Reception party in downtown
Bakersfield. John Wiebe blazes away here in the restoration of his World
Championship Top Fueler.
After such an exciting opening day at the track, the fans were already in
fine spirits for the festivities at the Event Reception party held that
evening at the Doubletree Inn in Bakersfield. This year the Event Honorees
introduced during the reception included painter "Junior" Conway, Top Fuel
driver and car owner Bill Crossley, Grand Marshal Roland Leong, Don Hampton,
Don Enriquez, Fred Crow and Golden Age Award Winner Tommy Auger. Perhaps the
most memorable moment of the ceremonies involved Auger, who was a frequent a
Top Eliminator winner in the early 1950's driving his Vincent-twin
motorcycle. Unknown to Auger, his old racing bike had been fully restored
and sequestered offstage. It was a emotional moment for all in the room when
he was reunited with it for the first time in 50 years. Afterwards the
“party” lingered on into the night, punctuated by the customary fireup of
several cacklecars outside the hotel entry that has become a
much-anticipated sidelight of each Reunion.
Saturday it was more of the same in terms of exceptionally fine and moderate
weather and some stellar racing performances. As expected there was
shuffling the qualifying ranks as competitors got another shot at the track
with adjustments based on their prior efforts. Once again records tumbled,
and by the conclusion of Top Fuel qualifying all but two of the sixteen car
field had recorded 5-second passes. The bump spot was occupied by Rick McGee
with a 6.05. An additional highlight of the final Top Fuel qualifying
session was a postponed “final round” run between Adam Sorokin and Sean
Bellemeur to settle the rained-out NHRR championship round from earlier in
the year. It was a bit anti-climactic after the earlier runs turned in both
drivers, as Adam went up in smoke and Sean got lose further downcourse, but
Sean prevailed to claim the victory, extending his NHRR win streak to three
in a row!
Sean Bellemeur met Adam Sorokin to settle the NHRR Top
Fuel Eliminator title from their rained-out final round earlier this year.
Bellemeur won over an up-in-smoke Sorokin .
The day was interspersed with assorted “exhibition” runs by various cars not
entered in actual eliminator competition including (among others) dragsters,
wheelstanders, some early S/FX racers like “Pandemonium” and Jess Tyree’s
Pontiac, and always-exciting matchups between some classic Fuel Altereds.
Additionally, there were many pushstart test firings of cacklecars
practicing for the Cacklefest session that would conclude the day’s program,
as well as “squirts” by a few of deemed mechanically fit. It was a day just
jam-packed with activity, and as usual the best-attended day of the event
with seating at a premium .
Eliminations at CHRR actually begin on Saturday evening with the running of
the first round of A-Fuel and Top Fuel. Darkness has fallen by the time the
Top Fuel cars run, which adds to the spectacle immeasurably as any nitro
aficionado is well aware. However, the Top Fuel session seemed like a
contest to determine whether the weak link was car or track, as many seemed
to have everything set to “kill” given track conditions. Kill it did, only
the track won in many cases and there were an inordinate number of oildowns
requiring two hours to complete the session! As exciting as it was, the
crowd was a bit restless at all the delay. Waiting in the wings was the
Cacklefest program, however, and nobody budged from their staked out vantage
points!
Fuel Altered match racing was part of the exciting under-the-lights Saturday
evening racing program at CHRR. Ron Hope gets the “Rat Trap” ready to face
Randy Bradford.
From its inception in 2000, the the Cacklefest event during CHRR has seen a
remarkable growth in participation. It has given new purpose to restoring
historic racecars to a fully functional condition. Cars that might otherwise
only be remembered in photos and articles, or at best be restored as static
museum pieces have been provided a “theater” to again thrill drag racing
fans as a piece of vibrant, living history. Their place in history is
elevated by the effort and the incentives for personal enjoyment are many,
which has prompted a phenomenal response. A record 55 cars were part of the
show at CHRR-XV!
Folks who were attending or participating in races when these cars were
originally competing miss the tension and anticipation created during the
pre-race preparation rituals for these cars, push-starting them in front of
the crowd, winging and idling the engine while creeping into position on the
starting line, and last-minute pre-race adjustments. The Cacklefest
presentation relives these rituals that have disappeared with expedited
procedures now followed in modern day drag racing. It also adds the element
of many cars running simultaneously, and the audio/visual spectacle of
headerflames and nitro cackle. The cars are specially tuned to maximize
these aspects of the show, and some go so far as to use oversized fuel tanks
to keep it going as long as possible. All in all it is always an exciting
and memorable exhibition . For adherents to the “bigger is better” school of
drag racing, the same principle translates to Cacklefest, and the 50+ car
presentation at CHRR was proof of point.
John Ewald is hitting on all eight in his
“Mastercar” next to Roger Gates
in his Top Fueler further down track during the huge Cacklefest show at
CHRR-XV.
It began with a parade of the participants being slowly pushed or towed
downtrack as notes concerning the car’s history were provided for the
audience. The cars then staged at the head of the return road in preparation
for firing. The first contingent of participants were the “self-start” and
“static-start” cars, (namely the Gassers and Funny Cars), that lined up in
the plaza area between the starting line and grandstands. One by one the
pushstart cars followed, lighting up down the return road, idling around and
taking parallel positions across the centerline stripe starting at the 330'
cone and proceeding downtrack. The last nine cars, the original nine from
the first-ever Cacklefest event, concluded the program by firing and filling
in the tree-to-330' cone area. The massive show took about an hour to
present! We are providing plenty of photos in the album section of our
report to illustrate the production as words can’t fully do.
Sunday at the event gets down to the business of final eliminations in all
categories. A special feature at CHRR was the introduction of a new
eliminator category for Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars. These cars have appeared
at prior Reunions as exhibition cars, but growing interest in the class was
thought sufficient to warrant their inclusion in a more significant way. The
already crowded run schedule for the weekend necessitated a trial
arrangement for “Chicago-style” eliminations in this class. The way this
worked was a single qualifying round on Sunday morning from which the
quickest eight cars were selected. A normal elimination round was then run
among these quick eight. The two quickest winners from that elimination
round then met in the “final.”
 Lee
Jennings’ “Code Red” Plymouth Nostalgia Funny Car is typical of the
beautiful
and hard-charging cars participating in this year’s introductory
Chicago-style eliminator.
This proved so popular it is almost certain to become a regular feature at
future Reunions. We were most impressed with the quality of cars that turned
out and level of competition. Beautifully finished and “period-correct” in
appearance, these cars were but a tick behind the Top Fuelers in
performance, with several five-second passes recorded. Low e.t. went to
Chris Krabel, with his event-winning clocking of 5.982. Check out our photo
album for pictures of more of these cars in action during the race.
As usual, the racing was top rate across all categories, with the usual
stories of good and bad luck, upsets and dominating performances, and record
performances for many competitors. A few highlights of the day are included
as part of our photo report. At the end of the day,
Jim Murphy was at the top of the
heap, driving his “WW-2" to the Top Fuel Eliminator win over Jack Harris.
Nitrogeezers extends congratulations to Jim for his accomplishment, and to
all the other eliminator winners for a day of spectacular racing and
“keeping the flame alive.” Fellows, it was truly a “golden goodie!”
Top Fuel winner Jim Murphy prevailed over the
quickest CHRR field ever
to win CHRR-XV. Who says that green is an unlucky car color?
Here is a list of all the CHRR-XV eliminator champions and stats:
Top Fuel:
Jim Murphy: 0.130/5.989/244.69 over Jack Harris: 0.222/6.145/201.92
Nostalgia Funny Car:
Chris Krabill: 0.107/5.982/234.98 over Lee Jennings, JR.: 0.100/6.042/234.98
A-Fuel:
Kin Bates: 0.132/6.299/218.97 over Claude Lavoie: 0.070/6.393/219.61
Junior Fuel A:
Scott Parks: 0.030/6.918/191.93 over Jon Haire: 0.054/6.935/191.61
Junior Fuel B:
John Rasmussen: 0.116/7.206/185.37 over Fred Notkza: 0.153/7.216/186.52
AA/Gas Supercharged:
Ed Moss: 0.089/6.710/209.35 over Mike Leonard: 0.184/6.929/200.04
Nostalgia Eliminator:
Dan Schrokosch 0.028/7.642/168.85 over Rich Raymond 0.040/7.657/180.94
A Gas:
Rob Patten: 0.027/7.750/159.80 over Brad Chafee: 0.053/7.746/172.84
A/FX:
Winner: Kurt Chambers
Meet Low Elapsed Time: Adam Sorokin: 5.806
Meet Top Speed: Brett Harris: 260.19
Mentioned several times through the course of this article, the photo ops at
this year’s CHRR were plentiful and there’s much more to the story of the
event better seen in pictures. Easy enough to do that, just
(CLICK HERE) and
dig right in!
Many thanks to the entire NHRA Museum Staff for such an excellent event that
once again confirmed the California Hot Rod Reunion as the supreme event of
its type on the racing calendar. Our thanks to Mile Hollander as well for
enabling our access to bring you this report and trackside photos.
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