Drag racing legend and founder of Isky Racing Cams, Ed Iskenderian surveys the damage after a Bob Muravez T/F oildown. (Zak Hawthorne photo)

So, much more than a facility, Famoso is as much a Mecca for nostalgic drag racing fanatics as Indy is for the U.S. Nationals. Since I belong to a couple of Internet groups focused on those Golden Years of Drag Racing, the anticipation for the Reunion has been intense. Old friends and competitors planned breakfast at Zingo's, dinner at the Wool Growers, and attending the traditional open header festival at the Double Tree Hotel.

Friday morning brought an early trip to Famoso where we were greeted by a constant barrage of flies lured by the drying manure field adjacent to the strip. We managed to make three exhibition runs that day as my son made his first quarter-mile passes down the track. That first pass provided such incredible feelings as my mind wandered back to so many Division 7 races I attended in the '70s and '80s... and it was my kid at the wheel!

Zak Hawthorne's Chevy II makes its debut on the Famoso quarter-mile.

Nostalgia Top Fuel qualifying continued throughout the day, then it was time to make it over to the show at the Double Tree. A huge collection of '30s and '40s hot rods assembled early in the parking lot and the entryway contained the restoration of the Ernie's Camera Shutter Bug dragster (photo below), the Doug's Headers altered-wheelbase Chevy II, and a wild red Camaro sporting zoomie headers to WOW the hundreds of assembled addicts.

(Tim Marshall photo)

While this explosion of sound was going on in the parking lot, inside the ballroom the Snake and the Mongoose were sharing their reflections on Reunion Grand Marshall Marv Rifchin, founder of M&H Tires. Dave McClelland hosted this year's Heritage Award Honorees of Bob and Don Spar the founders of B&M Transmissions, Roberto Skinner and Tom Jobe of The Surfers Dragster, fuel dragster pilot Bobby Tapia who ran an outstanding 6.54 in February 1968 at a time when the NHRA National record was 6.88, manufacturer and racer Doug Thorley who founded Doug's Headers in the early 1960s, and drag racer and land speed record holder Don Vesco.

The A/FX final was all Fords. (Tim Marshall photo)

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