James Drew photo

Ed Justice Jr, Justice Brother’s Honoree Gas Ronda and TV Tommy Ivo at the California Hot Rod Reunion Reception.

Darr Hawthorne photo

First Lady of Motorsports Linda Vaughn spent some time reminiscing with old friend and Crew Chief Donnie Couch outside California Hot Rod Reunion Reception, held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bakersfield.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Master engine tuner “Famous Amos” Satterlee who tunes the CANIDAE Top Fuel Sand Drag Team spent lots of time in the nitro pits getting to see old friends and fellow racers.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Funny car driver Jim Adolph (left) talks the past with the legendary Bob Muravez who was dubbed Floyd Lippencotte, Jr. by Steve Gibbs and Mel Reck in 1963 when he won six national events under his alias Lippencotte, Jr.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Reunion Race Director Alan Miller (left) chats with Wally Parks Motorsports Museum Curator Greg Sharp with a break in the racing action.

Darr Hawthorne photo

The faithful fans showed up as did the wall of photographers for the 17th edition of the California Hot Rod Reunion, an event, as Director Steve Gibbs has said started out as a friendly gathering with no plans on holding a second Reunion.

As well and providing financial support for the Wally Parks Motorsports Museum in Pomona the Reunion has grown to symbolize our drag racing heritage.  Old friends and teammates are reunited all over the Famoso Raceway complex and the classic drag racing stories get swapped over and over again about drag racing’s rich history.

Here is Friday’s coverage as the quarter mile opened for competition.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Top Fuel pilot Brendan Murry and “East/West Bob” Eakins took some to chat before Friday’s first round of nitro qualifying.  Brendan is in the lucky 13 slot with his early shut off 6.728.

The Top Fuel cars will run another qualifying session Saturday at 1 PM with the first round of eliminations for the 16-car field set for 5 PM.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Troy Green makes a burnout prior to his strong 5.812/254.95 charge in the first round of Top Fuel Qualifying.  The High Speed Motorsports team led by Crew Chief Brett Johansen has the Donovan 417 set up right sitting in the #3 position.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Defending California Hot Rod Reunion Champ Brad Thompson is sitting this event out while still atop the Hot Rod Heritage Series point standings.  Thompson will not compete as he is still recovering from serious neck and spinal injuries suffered in a top end crash at the Nightfire Nationals in Boise last August.

Darr Hawthorne photo

Terry Cox leaves the line on his first round qualifying pass in the “Cheetah IV” Wilson/Ninnis/Cox Top Fuel Dragster running a 6.250/236.03 MPH.

Darr Hawthorne photo

America Nostalgia West AFX/NSS Drag Racing

Southern Californian David Franklin drives this car originally campaigned by his parents on the drag strips of Texas as “Old Yeller”.  His family ‘61 Ford Galaxy has never seen the street, sitting in the middle of A/FX class qualifying with 10.091/132.52 MPH charge.  Franklin is the leader of the growing America Nostalgia West group who race under their own strict rules, putting on a show as cars of the 60’s did.

Darr Hawthorne photo

America Nostalgia West AFX/NSS Drag Racing

John Richmond from Escondido CA drives this radical ‘65 Mercury Comet Cyclone to a 10.551/125.97 run, currently sitting #16 in qualifying.

America Nostalgia West AFX/NSS Drag Racing

Phil Featherston from Stockton CA ran a best of 9.867/134.56 MPH in his ‘64 Thunderbolt.  He sits 5th in the A/FX class.

America Nostalgia West AFX/NSS Drag Racing

Arizona’s Glenn Gibbons launches his altered wheelbase injected Pontiac LeMans running a 10.742/124.61 MPH.  Back in the pits, the team was loading the A/FXer back into the trailer having hurt the engine on this pass.

America Nostalgia West AFX/NSS Drag Racing

Steve Whitemore from Dixon CA drives this 1967 Mustang to the #12 position in A/FX at 10.34/131.48

The “Tiki Warrior” Monza, powered by a supercharged Chevy made an afternoon run down the Auto Club Famoso quarter mile with this 7.67/166.97 pass in the Exhibition class.

With the track temperature in the high 80’s, the number one qualifier in Friday’s Top Fuel session is Utah’s Brett Harris with his 5.750/259.74 MPH pass.  Harris also grabs Top Speed of the event at nearly 260 MPH.

The rest of Friday Qualifiers in Round one looks like this:

2 Rick White 5.797/254.45
3 Troy Green 5.812/254.95
4 Jim Murphy 5.818/258.32
5 Pete Kaiser 5.995/248.34
6 Adam Sorokin 6.064/231.95
7 Rick McGee 6.087/237.78
8 Rick Williamson 6.102/207.37
9 Shannon Stuart 6.158/211.21
10 Terry Cox 6.250/236.03
11 Mark Malde 6.275/170.48
12 Denver Schutz 6.317/249.37
13 Brendan Murry 6.728/166.35
14 Lee Jennings Jr.  6.966/189.87
15 Jack Harris 7.841/115.19
16 Rick Rogers 7.973/118.28

Running in the Exhibition Class rather than with the AA/FC’s is Vic Miller’s “Vic’s Vega” a former “Veney’s Vega”.

It’s an original 118-inch wheelbase ’72 Ken Veney-designed Ken Cox chassis sporting a Hilborn fuel injected 500 cubic inch Chevy big block on 30% nitro built by Vic Miller with a Trans Specialty 5000 Powerglide through a vintage Olds rear end. Vic says that this is the first time in the past 36 years that the period-correct Vega will go down a track on the U.S. mainland – having spent much of it’s life offshore after Veney sold the racecar back in ‘73 to Hawaiian Jack Cambra.

‘Cacklefest’ Offers a Real Blast from the Past at California Hot Rod Reunion

50-plus historic cars are ready to “fire-up” the crowd at Auto Club Famoso Raceway

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – (Oct. 10, 2008) – It’s the sweetest sound in the world to car folks: 50 or more vintage dragsters fire up and “cackle” 10 gallons of nitromethane fuel each in less than five minutes. The sound of that exploding nitro will be music to the ears of thousands of fans at fabled Auto Club Famoso Raceway, near Bakersfield, Calif., on Saturday night, Oct. 11, as Cacklefest once again roars at the 17th annual at the California Hot Rod Reunion, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California. The Reunion runs from Oct. 10-12.

“A Cacklefest is like a barely controlled atomic bomb,” said Greg Sharp, curator of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, producers of the Reunion and the man who coined the term back in 2000. “That exploding nitro cracks like a gun shot and shoots header flames into the night sky. It’s a sight to behold and people love it,” said Sharp.

Among drag racing fans, Cacklefest is now a common word. Perhaps Webster’s will add it in the dictionary soon. There’s even a www.cacklefest.com This year, according to Sharp, more than 50 cars will push-start their early-style front-engine dragsters like they did in the 1950s and ’60s, then line them up down the center of the drag strip at Famoso with the headers glowing and the motors running or ‘cackling.’

“Cacklefest is a proven inspiration for enthusiasts who have experienced this unique event,” said Steve Gibbs, former NHRA vice president and current board member of the Parks Museum.  “With each passing year we are amazed to see newly resurrected pieces of automobile history appear at the event.”

Some of the famous cars debuting at the 2008 Cacklefest spectacular include:

-- Bucky Austin’s “Dailey & Johnson” AA/FD. Austin is bringing six Cacklefest cars to the Reunion from Fife, Wash
- Bob Hirsch’s “Anaconda” AA/FD, raced by Marvin Schwartz
- Scorcher’s AA/FD, the first Australian 200-mph car
- “TV Tommy Ivo’s 1974 rear-engine car, owned by Bruce Larson
- Del Weisner and Harold Owens’ AA/GS ’33 Willys

Cars are coming from all over, including three cars from Michigan:

- Al Bergler’s “More Aggravation” AA/CA
- Larry Payne’s “Gang Green” AA/FD
- Ed Golden’s “Probe” AA/FD

Seven of nine Cacklefest originals will return, including:

- Howard Cams Rattler
- Magicar
- Beebe and Mulligan
- Art Chrisman’s “Hustler”
- Vagabonds
- Safford, Ratican & Gaide
- Kuhl & Olson

The first Cacklefest in 2000 featured only nine dragsters, but as the event’s popularity rose with subsequent Reunions, so did the number of classic cars.  At last year’s California Reunion, more than 70 vehicles participated (a Cacklefest record), and 35 dragsters cackled in Bowling Green, Ky. at the 2008 Holley National Hot Rod Reunion. 

Said Gibbs, “From the very first Cacklefest, I knew we touched upon something that took many of us back to a hallowed era.  It was pure magic.”

The 17th annual California Hot Rod Reunion, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, Oct. 10-12 at Auto Club Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, Calif., is a 3-day festival of speed, hot rods and American automotive enthusiasm.  It’s also the season finale of the inaugural NHRA’s Hot Rod Heritage nostalgia drag racing series.
Produced by the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, presented by the Automobile Club of Southern California, and located in Pomona, Calif., the Reunion is part of the museum’s “living history” philosophy, which works to bring to life the sights, sounds and people who made history in the early days of drag racing, land speed racing and the golden age of American car culture. 
Unique among motorsports events, the Reunion honors some of the top names in hot rodding from the past and features a fabulous array of cool drag cars, street rods and customs of the historic and present-day hot rod eras.

Daily general admission tickets/pit passes will be available at Auto Club Famoso Raceway gate, (www.famosoraceway.com). Cost per person: Friday, $20; Saturday, $20; Sunday, $15.  Children 15 and under are free when accompanied by an adult. Auto Club discount is also available at the gate: $2 off Friday and Saturday and, $1 off Sunday. Active military personnel get in free on Sunday.

The Reunion features a wide variety of activities and events, including:

- NHRA vintage drag racing, featuring some the sport’s most famous and historic cars and drivers, racing in such classes at Nostalgia Top Fuel, Funny Car, Fuel Altereds, Supercharged Gassers, Classic Super Stock, Hot Rods and others. It’s the grand finale of the NHRA’s Hot Rod Heritage Series.

- Hundreds of gleaming pre-1972 hot rods, street rods, custom cars, rat rods, classics and muscle cars.  “Memory Lane” will have a display of nostalgic race cars. The Justice Bros.
Spotlight Award will fall on drag racer Gas Ronda.

- California Hot Rod Reunion Reception, held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bakersfield, Fri., Oct. 10, from 7 p.m.- 10 p.m. Open to everyone at no charge, it’s a tribute to the Reunion’s Grand Marshal, gasser great Junior Thompson, and the other Honorees. The reception offers a chance for fans to meet some of drag racing’s heroes.

- Cacklefest on Saturday evening, where nitro-burning historic, front-engine top-fuel dragsters and other classic race cars are push started just like in the “old days.”

- The Swap meet and Reunion Midway filled with hot rod and automotive related vendors. Something for everyone!