Event Coverage CHRR 25th Annivesary - Drag Racing & More - 10/20-23/2016PICS!!

Here are some.

 

Marty Strode - Thanks for adding pics

 

More.

 

[QUOTE="Marty Strode, post: 11751751, member: View attachment 3361990 [/QUOTE]

Man, Dale Withers' deuce 5w just gets better every year, really liked the kidney beans.

 

thanks for posting JJ and Marty.......

 

Boo Hiss on the cacklefest! Come on, don't try to fix something that ain't broke. Those g***er guys from back East were fantastic, we had a great time bs'n with a few of them, hope they come back next year and bring some of their friends. I was also a fan of that 32 five window.

 

Thanks for the pics

 

Great pictures, thank you.

So I feel that everything in life is a learning experience or at least an experience. This year I hope the NHRA learned ALOT. I'm not a negative person and understand that life moves around us and you can play how you see fit. I've been playing and having a great time for 13 years straight at a place that has bug infestations, smells like Cowpoop, and isn't very scenic outside of the racetrack. Helping in the pits, pushing dragsters, and best of all meeting a ton of great people.

The races are what spawned this event, the Cackle fest and Friday nights are what make it great. No question. The NHRA got somebody else in charge and they wanted to add their special touch to it. So instead of using a very successful recipe and program they decided to change it. BOY What a mistake that was, because halfway through the Cackle fest people were leaving the bleachers because they couldn't see the cars. The drivers were not happy either because A you push dragsters to the little end on the return road to fire up just like they used to and B your stands are packed from the little end all the way down and C if you push them up the track from the big end there is no place for the cars that don't start to pull over making a bottleneck where now there's only one lane for both the push car and the FEDs to get by. Hence the return road was always used because there was plenty of room should something go wrong. Not to mention you are pushing guys into the lights which hamper the vision and make it pretty damn hard to see the push car from the FED in front of you. Seems like maybe a non racer thought this up?

As I sat in the dirt swap/parking area watching the looks on the folks faces as they left I thought wow what a misfire.

I was signed up to push an A Fueler which won many races and has been a consistent participant since I can remember, the other guys with me were signed up to push as well. From what I learned there were 106 cars to cackle only 40 were let go by a private selection session, and one alternative because they pitched a good enough fit after driving from Colorado with 6 cars to push and being told on Thursday upon arrival sorry you can't play.

All in all the NHRA blew the best thing that has ever happened to them. Bring back Steve Gibbs the guy had it down pat. I am really hoping they pull their cranial lumps out of the dark spot they are in and look for the return of the sun. Because they lost about half the crowd and all the revenue that it generates, not to mention all the fun many of us looked forward to. I understand the money part of it, but good heavens if you chase away your paying customers you've already lost.

Was I dissapointed? Oh my how dissapointed I was. One year I pushed many different cars during the Cacklefest as I was able to pick up the stragglers who didn't have a "period" car or their car gave out. During the day we all pushed cars down the return road to the delight of the crowd. Same year We won most period correct pair. that was the highlight in 2014. Then this, what a hard pill to swallow.
But hey maybe I'm wrong and the "new" Cacklefest program won't be that bad...................

All the best - Tim

 

I have got to get to this event! It looks to me like there were ample vintage Funny cars and Fed's actually making p***es. Great pictures every one.
Jalopy Joker, what was a pair of those narrow slots going for? (ET's- Fenton's)

 

I was there with a customer's FED running in 7.0 Pro and we were just one of 38 cars in that category alone. A 7.09 in qualifying was only good enough for 18th in the final order. We got through round one with a 7.004 and then were on the right side of a 6.98 to 6.96 double breakout in the second. Lost in the next by .0048 to the eventual category winner.

I don't know about the slots but the Soapy Sales Donovan valve covers in one of the photos left with me as one of the final pieces in my Don Long T/F restoration puzzle.

Roo

 

Those valve covers say, "Soapy Sales!"

 

This was posted on FB by Cindy Gibbs. If you guys are upset, follow her lead.

To my CHRR family who left Bakersfield upset and saddened, here's my suggestion. Write a letter (try to be respectful, if possible) and let the board of directors at the museum know exactly how you feel about the messed up weekend we had. Address it to all of the members, the list of names is on the site. My father deserves better than the cluster that took place. The only thing that was a success was our Nitro Alumni Auction...and that's because WE DID IT. There is power in numbers, let's make our voices heard From Cindy Gibbs, Steve Gibbs daughter!

 

rooman, I plan to attend next fall as a spectator. Most of the events I have attended in the East are good but some what lacking when it comes to actual racing. Static displays are great and I fully understand the rationale but I want to see some real old time racing. A trip back in time, at least for a few days anyway. Great score on the covers, I did not even notice that in the picture.

 

Those covers have been for sale for a long time at a super rediculas price tag, that even the original owner wouldnt touch, hope the seller came back to earth with a respectable price

 

send letters to NHRA Museum & NHRA Headquarters

 

I owned the other set of covers, ran them on this Don Long car back in the 80's. When I quit racing, I sold them to my race partner Tom Willford, who sold them to Mike Kuhl. Mike used them on a restoration . I was also with Roo, when he purchased his.

 

Killer coverage Joker.

 

The "Soapy Sales" rocker boxes shown in the previous post are the same ones shown here back home on the original Woody Gilmore Soapy Sales AA/FD. With the help of Kuhl and Wayne King I bought them from Tom Willford who agreed to sell them on condition that they be used in the restoration of the car. I'm pretty certain that they are one of the two original pairs because they resurfaced in the PNW where Joe Winters was running the car at the time of its demise AFAIK. Those shown in the swap meet photo is probably the other original pair as there were two complete motors, one in the car and the other in the trailer.

I have seen other Soapy Sales rocker boxes offered for sale over the years but they all had a square block style engraving, probably survivors of the funny cars that Larry ran under the Soapy Sales moniker. What was on the Don Long Mr. Lucky car that went to Australia as "Soapy Sales" I don't know.

 

I spotted those covers on a 392 in a 40 Ford ch***is, that was for sale at the fall swap meet at Portland in '87. Gary Clapshaw ( who would go on to NHRA Funny Car and Top Fuel racing) bought the engine. My nephew was running Gary's Nostalgia dragster team, was able to procure them for me. It's great to see them back on the original car, thanks for sharing a picture.

 

...............and thank you guys for maintaining them in the interim. The resto project would not have been quite the same without them.

 

He did Bruce. I called him early last week and told him to make sure that he brought them to Bako so that we could haggle over price. Not long after I first purchased the Mr Lucky/ Soapy Sales car I talked to Larry Huff and he told me that he gave a pair of valve covers to a crew member way back when and they are that pair. I paid about what I was going to have in the 4 rib covers that I already had by the time I modified them to be visually correct.
Here is a photo that I took of them on the car (in Australia) in April of 1970.


Roo

 

[QUOTE="Jalopy Joker, post: 11752892, View attachment 3362905 [/QUOTE]

I sat in the stands right there, these gals know what it takes to sell beer, how well I know.
Coldest $7 beers I've ever had.