WOW – 40 YEARS OLD!!
IT WON’T BE LONG UNTIL THE WESTERN NATS IS AS OLD AS MANY OF THE CARS IN ATTENDANCE. Over the years the Kern County Fairground has proven to be a good home for the NSRA Western Nats with plenty of parking and plenty of cruising lanes.
There was a lot to do at the Fairgrounds in Bakersfield over the week-end of April 29-May 1 – the Thursday night bar-b-que, the ladies’ tea (which hosted 135 participants), the quilt display, a free continental breakfast, Sunday church service, the swap meet, the vendors, Revell’s model car ‘make-and-take’, women’s world, the safety inspection and, of course, looking at 1,727 of the most creative, ingenious, innovative, not to mention, dazzling, splendid, and down-right gorgeous vehicles gathered together anywhere.
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The Street of Rods section this year had a section for 29 and below (29 refers to the age of the driver-not the car), fabulous forties (models between 1940-49), kustom korner (1936 or newer customs or lead sleds), and be-bop boulevard (Buicks, Olds, and Pontiacs).
The photo below was in the 29 and below class.
This photo is a line-up at the kustom korner.
We saw a lot of nice cars this week-end, but one that caught our attention was a 1967 Mustang owned by Mike Payne of Bakersfield. This car was purchased new by Mike’s grandmother in Bakersfield. It has 137,000 miles on it, is all original and still looks good.
In the late forties and early fifties Ford and Chevy were vying for the title of ‘best selling truck’. The photo below shows the Ford and Chevy trucks of the era.
Sunday morning the 41 award winners gathered in the winners’ circle providing an opportunity for folks to get a good look at those cars selected by the judges. Awards are given by the Mayor of Bakersfield, the CHP, the NSRA Safety Reps and Division Reps, ISCA, and others.
The slide shows below have photos of the winners.
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More photos from the award ceremony will be posted, along with the photos above, on our SmugMug site – 
All of the photos you see on this page, and more will also be on our SmugMug site.
Timingtower.com also gives an award. This year Roy and Pamela Hawks’ 1948 Chevy Pick-up was chosen as the Timingtower.com pick. The custom and restoration work on this truck was performed by the Castro brothers at Ultra Car Care in Bakersfield. More about this terrific truck (shown below) can be found in the Feature Car section of this website.
The long-distance award went to Robert Harmon who drove his 1939 Chevy from Newark, Ohio – 2,400 miles – photo below.
Throughout the week-end, about $70,000 in prizes were given away, many of them through a drawing by Wings Kalahan. In addition, to playing tunes, Wings posted prize-winning numbers on a board at his trailer. The award and prize ceremony started at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. The winning prize numbers were expertly drawn by Kaiah and a lot of nice prizes were given away. The super prizes consisted of three $3,000 checks, and Jim Clendenning, Chuck Crawford and Marlow Klein each took home $3,000 – nice way to end the week-end.
Below is Kaiah – ticket selector extraordinaire.
The three super prize winners with Tom Wilkerson, the event director.
After all the prizes were given away, the show was over.
Mother Nature co-operated admirably and the week-end in Bakersfield couldn’t have been better. Next year the Western Nats will be held on April 28, 29 and 30.
All of the photos in this article, and more, can be found on our SmugMug site
Saturday started out cool and overcast, but by noon it was sunny and warm. As we expected, there were even more cars in the Fairgrounds today. The award winners have been selected and will be gathered in the winners’ circle tomorrow morning. Monday night we’ll have photos of the award winners including the timingtower.com pick. Below are but a few of the nice cars we saw today.
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Today, Friday, April 29, the Kern County Fairgrounds started filling with all types of specialty cars – hot rods, customs, classics, rat rods – as the 40th NSRA Western Street Rod Nationals got underway. We send Mike Chrispyn, the NSRA Event Director, our prayers and best wishes after the death of his wife, Laura. Laura’s smiling face at the registration desk will be missed.
If the number of cars in attendance today is any indicator, tomorrow the Fairgrounds will be full. Below are some of the cars we saw today:
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We’ll post photos of more cars tomorrow. It’s hard to describe the spectacular sight that is the Kern County Fairgrounds this week-end. The show will continue until Sunday afternoon.
It’s time for the Western Street Rod Nationals in Bakersfield. Check here for photos from the show on Friday and Saturday nights and on Monday evening for the full event coverage including photos from the awards ceremony.
The Western Street Rod Nationals (“Nats”) will be held in the Kern County Fairgrounds on April 29, 30, and May 1, 2016. Event registrations will be at the Doubletree Hotel in Bakersfield and starts on Thursday, April 28 at 1:00 pm and runs until 6:00 pm. Friday registration is from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and Saturday it’s from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. This show attracts about 2,000 of the finest vehicles anywhere.
