Volume IX, Issue 3, Page 8

03/08/07

Let the Racing Begin!

By the time you folks are reading this our racing season will have officially begun. The 49th March Meet will be happening out on the West Coast at Auto Club Famoso Raceway, near Bakersfield, California, from March 9 -11.  Unless you have been sleeping under a rock, you know that this is the biggest race of the year for the nostalgia drag racer. I have mentioned in my previous columns the lack of excitement and general apathy towards the March Meet this year. I think I need to amend that.

The first weekend in March I went to Famoso for a little testing in the Danny Pisano-owned Pisano & Matsubara nostalgia funny car. With probably at least 200 cars trying to test (when was the last time you heard the track apologize for so many cars being there?), I think people are getting excited. They're just not spewing it all over the internet message boards. Hmm...Maybe it’s on Myspace now? Can I also add that I love Agent 1320? In the past I have been miffed that he scoops my gossip and new car news before I can write about it in my column. Now it looks as though I'm off the hook. Behold this quote taken from Agent 1320's column on Thursday. March 1: Racing Net Source CEO Jeff Burk had this to say: “I don’t know if we can afford a man with my former boss’s talent and experience, but I can tell you this: unlike some of his former employers we encourage all members of the team to engage in driving race cars every chance they get.” That’s great news! That’s my excuse for being late on my columns! I drive race cars! This is perfect. I love Agent 1320.

While being the most talked about nostalgia race on the planet, the March Meet is not the only event happening in March. Our good friend Virgil Hartman has put together a really fun event happening March 10th at Silver Dollar Raceway in Reynolds, Georgia. The “Blast

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From The Past” will feature 7 classic-bodied nitro funny cars, 10 front engine dragsters from the Southern Slingshots group, a '71 Mustang-bodied jet funny car and a Southern rock tribute band named the Wall. (Am I missing something or is there a Pink Floyd tribute band with that name? How about calling themselves Holly Scratchit or Letter Skin-her? Can you tell I have named a tribute band or ten in my day?) Anyway, what’s not to love about this event? Yeah, I got your Free Bird right here!

I got to chat with my buddies Butch Hedrick and JR VanOsten at Los Angeles County Raceway during a test date recently and was very pleased to hear about their 2007 schedule. They head up the American Drag Racing Association and do a great job catering to the sportsman nostalgia racers. Hey, I thought we were all “sportsman” racers? They call their events the Classic series. Here’s the schedule:
April 14: ANRA Season Opener, LACR, Palmdale, CA
June 23: ANRA Summer Nationals, Auto Club Famoso Raceway (Bakersfield, Ca)
August 25: ANRA Cool August Nights, Auto Club Famoso Raceway
November 9-11: ANRA Classic Finals Auto Club Famoso Raceway

Since the Goodguys pulled out of running events at Auto Club Famoso Raceway (does it seem like I have typed Auto Club Famoso Raceway a lot in this column?) this opened the door for the ANRA. Great news for this organization, especially with the demise of LACR coming later this year. Butch did say he was in negotiations with LACR to put on a “Last Drag Race” style event at the fabled high desert racing plant. It'd also be cool to see some nitro cars show up to say goodbye and thanks to Bernie Longjohn. Maybe a tribute band or two?  They are also talking to Speedworld in Arizona and Redding Dragstrip about a couple of dates.

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