2017 Hotrod Reunion

[SCraig]

I spent last weekend in Bowling Green, KY at the NHRA Hotrod Reunion. I've been for the past few years and this year's event was awesome. The event is a combined drag race, car show, and swap meet. I barely even made it through the car show area and spent all weekend at the drag strip.

Since it was a "Hotrod Reunion" it was a "Nostalgia" event. None of the current crop of Top Fuel dragsters or Fuel Funny Cars or Pro Stock or Pro Mod cars. That doesn't mean they were slow though. Tony Bartone's Nostalgia Top Fueler ran in the 5 second bracket ad 250-ish mph (I don't remember the exact numbers).

They had a bit of everything:

From Mild .....

To Wild .....

To Weird ....

To everything in between ...

There were some iconic machines from years gone by on display as well:

Bruce Larson's USA 1 Corvette (he had a Camaro there to):

Mickey Thompson's US Marines Funny Car

"Jungle Jim" Lieberman's Monza Funny Car

One of Roland Leong's "Hawaiian" dragsters

The dragster below is an absolutely immaculate rebuild of a dragster that first ran in 1971. We talked with the owner and he said that they spent a huge amount of time and money returning it to a point as close as possible to the original car. Some of the original manufacturers are now out of business, some of the parts are no longer available and had to be machined by hand. He took photos of the original decals and sent the photos out to have new stickers created from the photos. The colors on some of them reflect nearly 50 years of fading.

A little bit hot all weekend but with hardware like that around who cares?

 

[jcdeboever]

Great set, you must have had a pass

 

[baturn]

Very nice! Looks like you had a great couple of days.

 

[tirediron]

Nice!

 

[Shafty]

Nice shots , I'd love to get to one of these but Ireland is **** for motor sports, well modified cars for that matter

 

[SCraig]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments.

Great set, you must have had a pass

Not this time. I usually do because I'm ostensibly part of a crew (the "Pure Junk" Bantam in the 4th photo down) but this time I never got around to it and was just a plain old spectator all weekend. The beauty of drag racing is the claim that "Every ticket is a pit pass" so even without a crew armband I could go anywhere except on the track itself.

Nice shots , I'd love to get to one of these but Ireland is **** for motor sports, well modified cars for that matter

That's unfortunate, and I'm sorry to hear it. Come over this way any time and I will find a race we can go to. Out of curiosity, has it always been that way or is it more of a recent development?

Racing is alive and well over here. I have several tracks nearby I can choose from, 2 circle tracks and 3 or 4 drag strips. Beech Bend is one of the older tracks in this area but they have some very good, very big races each year so I go there a number of times. Over the next few months they have scheduled:
Car Craft Magazine Summer Nationals (July 21-23)*
Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals (August 11-12; 1955, '56, '57 Chevy drags, show, etc.)*
LTX Shootout (September 2)
Holley LS Fest (September 8-10)*
Buick GS Nationals (September 13-16)
AMRA Fall Harley Rally & Drags (September 21-24)
NMRA All-Ford World Finals (September 29-October 1)*
Goodguys Nostalgia Nationals (October 13-15)*
* = I'll be there!

There are a number of tracks in the area that host HUGE events (Thunder Valley Raceway in Bristol, TN; Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL; Atlanta Raceway in Commerce, GA) and a little further south there are tracks that race year round.

 

[zombiesniper]

Great set.
Some great old cars there.

 

[Shafty]

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments.

Great set, you must have had a pass

Not this time. I usually do because I'm ostensibly part of a crew (the "Pure Junk" Bantam in the 4th photo down) but this time I never got around to it and was just a plain old spectator all weekend. The beauty of drag racing is the claim that "Every ticket is a pit pass" so even without a crew armband I could go anywhere except on the track itself.

Nice shots , I'd love to get to one of these but Ireland is **** for motor sports, well modified cars for that matter

That's unfortunate, and I'm sorry to hear it. Come over this way any time and I will find a race we can go to. Out of curiosity, has it always been that way or is it more of a recent development?

Racing is alive and well over here. I have several tracks nearby I can choose from, 2 circle tracks and 3 or 4 drag strips. Beech Bend is one of the older tracks in this area but they have some very good, very big races each year so I go there a number of times. Over the next few months they have scheduled:
Car Craft Magazine Summer Nationals (July 21-23)*
Danchuk Tri-Five Nationals (August 11-12; 1955, '56, '57 Chevy drags, show, etc.)*
LTX Shootout (September 2)
Holley LS Fest (September 8-10)*
Buick GS Nationals (September 13-16)
AMRA Fall Harley Rally & Drags (September 21-24)
NMRA All-Ford World Finals (September 29-October 1)*
Goodguys Nostalgia Nationals (October 13-15)*
* = I'll be there!

There are a number of tracks in the area that host HUGE events (Thunder Valley Raceway in Bristol, TN; Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, AL; Atlanta Raceway in Commerce, GA) and a little further south there are tracks that race year round.

It's always been that way, the pool is to small and everything is expansive here.
We have a following for t rally, bikes, 4*4,auto cross and drifting.

 

[BrentC]

Very nice set!

 

[SCraig]

Great set.
Some great old cars there.

That's a fact. They were everywhere. At this race last year I heard them mention on the PA system that there were over 2,000 show cars on the property plus all the drag cars.

It's always been that way, the pool is to small and everything is expansive here.
We have a following for t rally, bikes, 4*4,auto cross and drifting.

That's too bad. I've seen some bike races from Ireland, I think, but that's about all. I guess I just assumed that racing was pretty big all over Europe but apparently I was wrong.

Very nice set!

Thanks, Brent. Much appreciated.