In its glory years, the Cowtown Nostalgia Nationals used to take place at Mid-America Raceways in Wentzville, Missouri. But that track is no more, having been sold for the real estate value after a death in the track operator's family. That is usually enough to kill any event, but not this time. The good folks at Kansas City International Raceway stepped into the breach (on short notice) to keep the race alive.

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Over the years, this event has been one of the better Nostalgia races in the Midwest. Car count has always been good, and it has been reasonably well attended. Big names in the Nostalgia game such as Arnie Beswick have made regular appearances, and there was always a great selection of Ardun Hemis, flat heads on nitro, and 358 inch Mopars in the pits and on the track.

Put together on the fly, the KCIR event nevertheless managed to capture much of the previous flavor of doings at Wentzville. A number of feature cars were enlisted for some match race action, and a good number of Nostalgia racers and show cars made the trek to Kansas City for the three-day event. It was a pretty good result for the first ever KC Cowtown Nostalgia nationals, and as the Midwest Nostalgia set sees how life at KCIR can be, the event should do nothing but get better with each coming year. Drag Racing Online extends its thanks and congratulation to the owners and staff at Kansas City International Raceway for making the effort to extend the life of what may have been the premier Nostalgia drag race in the Midwest.

MOTES AND WILLIAMS (AND NEWKIRK) VS. SCOTT PARKS

Visually, this was a diverse race match-up. R. C. Williams brought out his and partner Ray Motes' World Champ twin-engine gas dragster from the '70s to take on Scott Parks, who was wheeling the parks Family Jr. Fueler. Mike Newkirk was at the helm of the twin, and was faced with the "quick leave vs. big finish" dilemma in taking on the lighter, better-leaving Parks digger. In the best run of the match race, Parks left on Newkirk, and posted a winning run of 7.10 @ 185.68 mph to Newkirk's 7.37 @ 190.51 mph. Newkirk, more known for his efforts with various Funny Cars, did a great job with the twin, taking what is essentially a museum piece and getting it to the other end in good shape twice. Parks, with father Frank turning the wrenches, is hard to beat in his usual VRA-Good Guys eliminator mode, and handled the KC match race task as well.