Dragfest Returns to Famoso

This morning Rod Stevens, promoter of the Third Annual Dragfest dropped us a note about his upcoming event scheduled for May 1 & 2 at Famoso Raceway. His budget is tight, but this year is inviting Nostalgia Nitro Funny Cars for an 8-car Open Qualified Show for with a $5,000 payout to the winner and $3,000 to the runner-up - with a payout down thru 12th. There¹s no charge for Nitro Funny Car entry or for crewmembers and now that Dragfest is a two-day show, it¹ll help everyone's racing budget. Among those already committed to Dragfest are Charlie O'Neill's "Fighting Irish" Camaro.
"McCain's Bomb Squad" Duster, Todd Losenko's "Jolly Rogers" Camaro and others.

Nostalgia Top Fuel will not be contested at this event, although some Test-n-Tune time will probably be available, the NAPA Auto Parts Ignitor for Top Fuel at Firebird Raceway in Boise is on the same weekend - so a light Top Fuel turnout was expected.

Dragfest will also have classes for Fuel Altereds, Nostalgia Slingshot Dragster, Real Nostalgia Gassers, an A/FX class, Open Wheel Flathead, 7.0 Pro, Jr Fuel, Hot Rod and Exhibition classes, but your racecar has got to be 1972 and earlier to get through the gate.

As they did last year, Dragfest has a 60¹s Back-up Girl competition and there will be NO limitations to the length of your burnout. This year will again feature the Saturday evening Drive-in movie set up in the staging lanes, a real highlight for racers and spectators at the 2009 Dragfest's come as you are, but stay in the car!

The Agent has already marked his calendar in pen for the Rod & Kulture Dragfest, you can get more information from their official revised website:
http://www.randkdragfest.com (Darr Hawthorne photo)[3/19/2010]

F.J. Smith into Canadian Motorsport HOF

One of Canada’s top drag racers is to be inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame on April 17th.  The noted racer and innovative car builder F.J. (Fred) Smith, of Cayuga, Ontario will be honored by his peers at the Induction Gala at the Sheraton Center in Toronto,

Not only was F.J. Smith one of the top drag racers in both Canada and the US, he went on to build some of the finest, mostly competitive Stock and Super Stock cars in the class. The cars built in his shop also won numerous NHRA “best engineered” awards.

Smith’s crowning achievement was the conversion of a front-drive GM car, which became the norm in the early 1980s, and stuff it with a V8 engine with a traditional rear-drive setup, without butchering the car’s integrity.

Working with the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors, who at the time was heavily involved in drag racing, Smith developed a car for the Super Stock classes in NHRA and IHRA competition, a car that received the blessing of the sanctioning bodies. By 1987 Smith was very busy building these cars, always improving on the basic design. Some of his achievements, such as the four-link rear suspension and front-end strut are used exclusively in the classes.

 "I'm just starting to realize the importance of the honor," said F.J. Smith after learning about his induction. "Just look at the list I'm joining. It's pretty satisfying to be in the same group as Bernie Fedderly, Gary Beck, and Frank Hawley."[3/19/2010]