No. 1 qualifier in Nostalgia Comp was the hemi-powered Ford of Bob Schneider, who ran 9.271/144.24 mph in radical coupe.

Guys like Randy Tavoletti of South Chicago Heights, Illinois showed up with his A/Gas Supercharged Willys in tow and a dozen other friends, all members of the "Geezer Gassers" club, with him, representing A/, B/ and C/Gas blown and unblown in their Henry Js, Willyses, Anglias, Prefects, Austins and Thames gassers. "This is super," he said. "Plenty of old cars and lots of racing." Tavoletti got a surprise birthday celebration from his gasser friends in between rounds of serious racing.

One hit of the meet was the running of Dave Koffel's original "Flintstone Flyer," which ran a second quicker than its old times in the 1960s. Koffel and George Benedum Jr. teamed up after George gave the gasser back to the Koffel family. His father had owned it in Arizona.

And there were Marty and Ron Roberson, who came up from Monroe, South Carolina and Dunedin, Florida, who ran into Darryl Hobbs of Trenton, Ohio, who drove for their dad, Wilbur, in his C/Dragster and A/Competition cars. "This has been amazing," Marty said, "seeing the old (fully restored) Flintstone Flyer of Dave Koffel's, the old Super Stockers like the ones I saw when I was a kid ... I was at all the NHRA Nationals from 1959 to 1971, and I saw a lot of them in their day."

And then there were people like Larry McLendon (above) of Summerfield, Florida, a spot on the map just down the road from Don Garlits' Museum of Drag Racing. McLendon, driving his 116-inch dragster powered by an injected, alky-fed flathead engine. McLendon was the first to enter the reunion, and he did so even before the first weld was tacked onto his digger. He got runner-up in Oldies Eliminator on a red light to Gordy Bennett of Pennsville, New Jersey, who drove his Ford six front-engine dragster to a 10.886 elapsed time, at 109.49 mph. Serious times for a straight six, eh?

And so it went. We saw Ray Godman, Don and Pat Garlits and right-hand man Tommy "T.C" Lemons, "Ohio" George Montgomery, the Freight Train, Arnie "the Farmer" Beswick," Dave McClelland, the Speed Sport Roadster, the "Sour Sisters" fueler, Bob Glidden, Grumpy's Vega, Nicholson's white Comet, Brannen's maroon T-bolt ... and we could go on and on. Space limits further names, but name a famous name from the 1960s through the 1980s and they were likely there.

There will be another at Beech Bend next year, Gibbs told us. We told him, "We'll be there."