Street Rod Nats history...

Maybe a bit OT for in here, but does anyone remember what year the first nats were held in Peoria, IL?

I think it was 1970, but I'm not sure... I know the seciond one was in Memphis, TN and I think it was in 1971.

Can anyone confirm?

TIA

 

1970 was the first and yes it was in Peoria.

 

What Mike said.

70 Peoria, then Memphis, Detroit, Tulsa, St. Paul .....

 

if you want a little more history , this car was driven there by Gene Sonnen and was entry number 1. he still has the car...and is a Hamb member

 

My buddy, Sam, was at the first one in Peoria and every one since in this car that he built in the mid-60's.

Needless to say he has LOTS of stories.

 

Staying at the Holiday Inn w/the CSRA in Memphis '71, there was a gennie Duece roadster offered for sale...complete and driver-original for $2.5k...
This was also the time when Mickey Lauria and friends started Total Performance. The CSRA were a great help to those of us who travelled as solitary cars to these events. If something went wrong, they were right there for you.

 

I rode to Memphis in '71 in a small block powered T bucket. I swore I'd never own a drop top car because of it but when the girls wanted the top down on the corvette I had to relent. In retrospect it was one hell of an adventure for a 18 year old kid who had never been out of town in his life. Charles Pehl from Temple led the pack in his red '32 Ford Pickup and so for as I know he still has it. Those were the days!

 

In issue #32 of The Rodder's Journal if you look in the Sonny (Elton) Hunt article about his 32s and 38 Chevys there is a picture of him and other rodders holding up the sign for the first Nats in Peoria. Pretty neat pic (and article for that matter).

 

Kool- thanks ya'll.. I lived in Memphis back in '71 and seeing all the hot rods on Highland avenue at night, was the motovation to fix up dad's old '34 that had been sitting in the backyard for 9 years.


It's the yellow one under my name.

 

I went to Tulsa in 76. I was lucky enough to stay at the host hotel. Carshow all night with people driving around the motel. Had 1 bed and guys sleeping on the floor because there weren't any rooms.

 

I went to detroit in 1972 still have the jacket patch. driving a 40 ford coupe with my girlfriend, now my wife. got pictures somewhere buried.

 

Small world - I stayed there too.

 

A couple of friends from the M*** Street Rod ***'n attended the Detroit bash in '72.One drove his Deuce 5 window out with a car top carrier attached and his wife and two kids(in the rumble seat) with him.My friend Vito bought a 34 Plymouth 2 door sedan with a SBC in it for $1200 and drove it home! He sent me a video awhile back that he had made from 8mm movies he and his wife shot of the event.Some really great cars at that event.Art and Mickey Himsl with Mickey's tub and the T panel that Andy Brizio owned that was painted by Art. Don Kendall's SUPER low T-bucket that was hemi-powered and had a flip up roof for access and the gas tank located under the floor!The roof wasn't much higher than the slicks.

 

When I found out that Peoria had hosted the 1st Street Rod Nationals my interest peaked. I wanted to know more about the event so I began looking for any information I could find. My search began with a call to the Camber of Commerce. They were very helpful and after talking with them awhile they faxed me a copy of the original flyer that was filed for the event.
The 1st Nationals were held November 14-16, 1970. Registration was in Peoria at the Peoria Sands Motel, The motel is now long since gone. They held a Happy Hour and Dance on Friday night at the Howard Johnsons which is now the Mark Twain Hotel downtown.
They had sponsered street driving events on saturday and a swap meet on sunday.
The show itself actually was not held in Peoria, Il. It was in Goodfield, Il at the Timberline Recreation Farm which still exists today although it is much smaller now than it was then as much of the property has been sold off.

The show was sponsered by the SlowPokes CC, Peoria. The front of the flyer has a picture of a 32 roadster owned by a gentleman by the name of Jim Wisner. I was able to talk with him on the phone and he remember it all like it was yesterday, I could tell that our conversation sparked many long forgotten memories. He still lives in East Peoria and still ones the 32 roadster that was featured on the front of the flyer.

After speaking with him I took a trip to the Peoria library and was able to locate the converage of the show by the local newspaper.
Now you would think an event such as this would be big news.
Not So...The Journal Star only ran two small photos and one paragraph in the D section of the paper.

I kept searching for several weeks. I was able to find some pictures on the internet posted on websites that now no longer exist and was lucky enough to find a copy of the Rod & Custom issue form November 1970 on EBay. I have never paid so much money for a magazine and probably never will again. But it's mine now and is a treasure to me.

I have pulled the magazine from out of it's wrapper and have scanned the artical that Rod&Custom ran. I have posted the images to my Webshots account along with the cover of the flyer and the artical from the paper so that all fellow HAMBer's will be able to enjoy what I think is a real peice of hot rod history.

I hope that maybe someday Peoria will be able to host the Nats again. That would truely be a coming home.

Enjoy...http://rides.webshots.com/album/557104796MCbeJh

Unfortunately the pages are not loaded in actual order so to follow the artical you'll need to jump around a bit.


BJ

 

I'm sure you meant the first street rod nationals were held August 14-16, 1970

Mick

 

You beat me to that one Mick

Dennis

 

As fate would have it we were visiting realitives at the time of the 71 natls. The folks dropped me of and went to Graceland's gates or to eat catfish or some other tourist gig and I had one of the greatest days of my life, I will never forget it!!!!

 

Me, choprods,and Tony a good friend, drove to Memphis, in one night,grabbed an hour or two of sleep in a rest stop,and had a good time. I drove my 37 plymouth coupe, choprods was in his model A coupe, and our Tony was in his 37 ford sedan. Tony still owns the same 37 Ford today, but it has been through many changes. Choprods model A is still going and My 37 plymouth was still in existance, both were in Iowa, last I knew.
I went to Tulsa, hotter then hell, that year, also attended St.Paul many times,that was the best place, for good cruising streets and nice shade trees.
This thread brings back some good old memorys!

 

This was on the ****roach. When i took it off, it fell apart in my hand. The owner drove it to the 73 nats with a manual ****** in that thing.

 

My bad...very sorry. TYPO. They were held in August. The magazine ran the article in it's November issue.

November in Illinois wouldn't make for much for show. Kinda cold. Brrrrrr.

 

A 25 th anniversary of the Street rod Nationals was held in Peoria in 1994.
It may have been sponsored by Rod and Custom or Peterson. They gave out a Dodge keychain or some trinket to those that attended the original Nats.
As we were leaving on Sunday a big storm came up and knocked down one of the vendor circus tents where everyone was trying to get out of the rain.
This got no magazine coverage and we never heard if anyone was hurt.
deChrome

 

Charles still has the pickup and 3 other 32 Fords, 40 Ford coupe, and more. He is in a wheelchair and can't drive any of the streerods, but does go to a few local runs. He was instrumental in starting the Lone Star Street Rods ***c. and was always helping in their events.
Still in auto parts business in Temple and his son has a special interest type car lot.

 

I was 5 at the time, so I missed out....

 

If memory serves me right, it was Memphis again in 75, Sue and I were down from Alaska with the 40 there and won the "Long Distance" award that year. The "Trophies" were a "one time only" one off belt buckle that were presented by Norm Grabowskie(sp). Still have mine and were it occ***ionly for specil events. Even saw Elvis walking his dogs early that morn at Graceland. Ah, those were the days!!!

 

Sorry for the fuzzy pic, but...

 

Well, the "search police" oughta be happy that I DID one and resurrected this thread. Yeah, maybe it is a bit O/T but if that's the case it will just slide back into oblivion once again where all bad threads go....

I just got done copying and posting some over 100 slides that I took at the '79 NSRA Nats in St. Paul. They're posted here:

http://www.terrysgearheadgarage.com/archive79nats.html

I figured the photos would fit within the topic of this thread just as well as me taking up more cyberspace with a new one... so enjoy!

Here are a couple samples...

 

I was at the 71 Memphis Nats and first met Tex Smith, Tom Medley and Andy Brizio. Rumored that Elvis drove through in a 40 Ford coupe. Spent a nice half hour talking with Tom Medley about his Vrod.

 

TerrytheK Thanks so much for the pics of St Paul. The Orange 34 roadster was/is mine,and that was its first trip out of the neighborhood. Had a great time,and across the corner was a black 34 roadster,Cal Tiefenour,and 34 hiboy coupe of Lenny Redwine, all St Louis guys. I enjoyed seeing so many cars and people I knew then and wonder how many are still active. Thanks ****

 

Sombody from one of the big magazines wrote about how they started the first show in Peoria. It was a fly by the seat of your pants show. I`ll try to find the article.

 

As much as the term "Street Rod" is not one of our favorites these days, the Street Rod Nationals was a big motivator in getting people back into driving old cars again, especially on long trips, like going to the Nats. Lots of rodders were still into muscle cars at the time and the idea of driving home built old cars hundreds or thousands of miles was like going to the moon.

A friend of mine built his T in 69 and drove it to the first Nats in Peoria. He is a real hot rodder and when I moved to this area I used to see him driving his hot rod to work in the morning, necktie flapping in the breeze. I said some day that will be me, and it was, except I didn't wear a necktie.

Here are some pictures of his T. It is a true survivor and looks exactly the same today as it did in 69, down to the same tires.

Don