Listening to the Utterback Home Companion
Last time my column really resonated with a lot of folks. Lots of "atta boys!" from the sportsman ranks and a few from some professional long-time railbirds...and deafening silence from the nitro ranks. Gee, big surprise there.
Before we revisit that with a few ideas I have to right all the wrongs of our listing ship, let's listen in on one of my favorite radio programs. It is Sunday evening at the sprawling Utterback estate, a time when we like to sit in the parlor and listen to the latest edition of "A Scary Chrome Medallion." The show is already in progress, but we might get to hear the host and commentator tell us what’s new in Lake Dough-be-gone. We love this part of the program and lucky for you, they’re just coming back from a commercial:
You are listening to NDPR. Nostalgia Drags Public Radio…
(Applause)
“It’s been a quiet week out on Lake Dough-be-gone, California, my hometown." (More applause.) "The oleanders and their sap are blooming and making a blooming mess out of the paint job on my car. My neighbors, the Applegates, think I should coat my car with WD-40 and quit complaining. Complaining. That is what I do, you know. Complain, about lots of things. Things like this:
We lost another drag strip to progress this last week. Actually we lost two drag strips, one to progress and the other to some sort of analytical double-speak as per the facilities press release. The big shut down has to be the closing of Los Angeles County Raceway. That’s right folks, just on the outskirts of Lake Dough-be-gone. The race plant that opened in 1964 has gone through many phases of events, from Top Fuel shows, to division seven points races, to the Goodguys, and the prototype to what we all love today, that being of course the NDRA, and the fabled 60-foot tire smoke cone for Top Fuel. The track has been flourishing as of late with a Friday night program that would draw 300 or so cars, mostly street legal. Bernie Longjohn did a great job and will be missed. Most around our neck of the woods had a love-hate relationship with LACR. Sometimes the weather would fail us. It was in the high desert after all. But if you ever needed to test your new hot rod at a moment's notice, nitro or not, one phone call to Bernie and you were welcomed and accommodated professionally. Rumor has it he’s headed back east somewhere to pick up where he left off here. We wish him and his family much success.
