Funny Cars to the lanes! 10/8/03
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Darr
Hawthorne has over 20 years of experience
in the entertainment business and
television commercial industry as
a marketing representative, executive
producer, commercial producer, and
film editor. As a producer and editor
he won many national and international
advertising awards.
Darr
acquired his addiction to drag racing
in 1964 when he toured to the U.S.
Nationals with Wild Bill Shrewsberry
and Jack Chrisman. He also worked
on Division 7 Sportsman crews in
the 1970s & early '80s. He's been
a freelance motorsports journalist
covering NHRA, nostalgia drags,
NASCAR, and IRL. He's been a Touring
Professional Spectator, and is currently
helping his son build a '64 Chevy
II Funny Car.
He
will contribute his thoughts to
DRO as the mood strikes him. He
is from California, after all.
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 If
you love drag racing the only place to be on
the first weekend of October is the California
Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway. This year's
version showed just how much the Reunion has
grown and matured under the careful stewardship
of Steve Gibbs, newly retired Grand Pubah and
keeper of the NHRA flame.
It's a struggle to balance the racing, the
Cacklefest, the car show, the manufacturers,
the racers and the fans, but the reunion is
truly a party for the drag racing fan. Since
everybody starts out as a fan this show is really
for you. Yes, there are legends of yesterday
who are still laying down low six second and
a few high five second passes in front- motored
dragsters, but this show is as close to the
regular fare you'd see on a Saturday night back
when we had more SoCal drag strips. We'd get
these kinds of shows on just about any weekend
back when we had Lions, OCIR, San Fernando,
San Gabriel, Fontana and Irwindale -- a mixture
of fast dragsters, altereds, gassers, doorslammers,
factory experimental cars, jet cars, wheelstanders,
and of course the funny cars.
Having been to a bunch of these reunions so
far, I'd always thought that the missing link
to those earlier years was the return of funny
cars. This year's Reunion showed the balance
I craved with a handful of vintage funny cars,
a marked change from past shows. While the old
days of innovative slingshot dragsters were
the foundation of modern drag racing, the funny
car brought in the crowds. The days of 64 funny
cars made an incredible show and the enthusiasm
of this Reunion crowd was reminiscent of the
reaction shown for funny cars back in the '60s
and '70s.
The funny car contingent of Randy Walls, Dale
Pulde, Dan Horan, Nathan Bugg, Bob Godfrey and
Jeff Gaynor were out in force this year, hopefully
setting a trend for the coming years. Horan's
Pulde-tuned Mustang was running career-best
6.40's all day and never took it apart! These
crowd pleasers put on a great exhibition show,
but it was disappointing that Pat Foster's restoration
of the Mongoose's 178 English Leather funny
car couldn't make it to Famoso. This U.S. Nationals
winner, now owned by Don Trasin, will make the
2004 Winternationals and then enter the NHRA
Museum at the Pomona Fairplex. We need more
funny cars out here!
Seeing some fine examples of Thunderbolts and
recreations of early altered-wheelbase cars
caught my eye as well. Hey, we've got an altered-
wheelbase Chevy II sitting in the garage, too.
I guess the main thing I found this year was
the diversity of the old days, not just diggers,
but also the entire historical drag racing spectrum.
As part of the resurrection of this once great
racetrack, NHRA must start to fix the lousy
pit conditions at Famoso. I saw a bunch of racecars
bottom-out while dodging the numerous potholes.
It's not only dangerous for these precious cars,
but for the safety of the fans. The dragstrip
surface has made a great comeback; it's time
to finish the job.
Even if you're only a fan of today's 330 mile
per hour top fuel dragsters and funny cars,
you'll find something to love about the California
Hot Rod Reunion. When Sam Jackson, executive
director of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports
Museum announced next year's Reunion date is
set for Oct. 1-3, he also suggested that fans
should "Make room reservations now!"
You won't be sorry.
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