Hot Rod Reunion – Timing Tower

CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION, OCT. 23-25, 2015

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 06:08:46 +0000

The California Hot Rod Reunion is truly a national and international event. Not only did racers come from all of the western states, but New York, Tennessee, Michigan, Wisconsin and Kansas as well. Several racers were from Canada, three or four from England and one from Scotland. Quite a lot went on at the Reunion – besides the racing, of course. Saturday afternoon NE II driver Tom Mardis and Sonya Rosas got married in the winners’ circle – Chaplin Matt performed the ceremony. The ceremony was delayed somewhat to allow groomsman, Bobby Cottrell, to finish his 7.0 Pro run. Sonya said that the 2015 March Meet brought the couple together. Seems fitting the Reunion should host the wedding. Saturday night at the end of Funny Car racing the family and crew of War Horse driver Roger Garten held a missing man fire-up. Garten passed away in June from injuries sustained in an on-track accident at Famoso. A fuel altered driven by Garten in the ‘70’s was pushed to the start line where the War Horse crew fired it up. The crew stood back from the car and let it run for about 60 seconds before shutting it down. It was a fitting tribute to Roger Garten and War Horse. Sunday morning Braylen posed for photos in front of Funny Car Crop Duster. While Braylen was suited up and ready to race, he spent some time collecting autographs from his fans. Although only three years old now, plans are for Braylen to be behind the butterflies of the Crop Duster in about 15 years. Tradition held, and after the Sunday morning ceremonies Red Greth’s Speed Sport roadster opened the first round of Funny Car racing. The Speed Sport roadster was given a push start, ran up the Budweiser lane, turned and made a pass down the Auto Club lane. The Speed Sport roadster, a ‘27 T, is known as “Old Noisy” because of the noise coming out of its eight tailpipes. Drag racing is, of course, a family affair as demonstrated in the Fuel Altered class. Pure Hell, was driven by Brian Hope while Rat Trap was piloted by his Dad, Ron Hope. On Sunday, the two met in the Chicago Style shoot-out. Brian demonstrated he had a good teacher by beating his Dad to the finish line. Hot rods, customs, rat rods, classics and old dragsters filled The Grove on Saturday. Sunday saw fewer cars in The Grove, but there was still plenty to see. As always, Cacklefest was held on Saturday night. This year more than 70 restored and/or re-pop nitro burning dragsters participated. Cacklefest is appropriately named. On Saturday the push cars were lined up and ready to go. Exhibition cars ran all week-end so there was never a lull in the action. Collin Millar brought his Anglia, The Flyin Fyfer, from Scotland to run exhibition – and according to the tower announcer – it took 7 weeks on a ship. Jerry Lee covered the quarter mile with the front wheels of his Model T Flatbed lifted. Fighting Irish the Funny Car ran side-by-side against Fighting Irish the Top Fuel car (the Funny Car won). Two altereds, Iron Maiden and High Heaven, ran. And, of course, racing ended Saturday and Sunday when jet car Black Pearl made the final pass of the day. And now for the final race results: The first pair to run a final round were Howard Anderson and Gary Renerio in AA/Supercharged. Anderson was in a ’38 Chevy Coupe and Reinero drove in a ’48 Austin. Anderson got off the line first with a reaction time of .078. Reinero was right behind Anderson with a reaction time of .084. Although the two had near identical speeds, Anderson at 208.88 to Reinero’s 208.33, Anderson got to the end first with an ET of 6.552 to Reinero’ss 6.723. Jr. Fuel cars were next up with Scott Parks and Don Enriquez sitting at the line. Enriquez ran on a 7.15 dial-in and Parks on a 7.02 dial-in. Although Enriquez had a better reaction time, .034 to Park’s .083, Parks crossed the finish line first. Parks ran an a ET of 6.837 at 191.24 mph and Enriquez ran an ET of 7.192 at 185.54 miles per hour. After Jr. Fuel it was the Pro Mods turn at the line. Andrew Berry the No. 1 qualifier in a ’68 Camaro met No. 3 qualifier Rob Moore in a ’60 Chevy Impala. This was quite a contest ending with Berry running .033 of a second quicker. Berry had an ET of 6.013 and Moore ran an ET of 6.046. Berry took the win traveling 242.76 mph to Moore’s 239.36. The A/FX finals put two Fords side-by-side. Steve Whitemore in a 427 ci ’69 Mustang and David Franklin in Old Yeller a 429 ci Gallaxie. Franklin broke out running a 9.225 ET on a 9.25 dial-in letting Whitemore have the win. Whitemore ran a 10.307 on a 10.25 dial-in at 129.47 mph. Next up were the Fuel Altereds. This was the final run of the final race for Pure Hell. Pure Hell made a valiant effort but couldn’t out run the Mike Sullivan Fiat. Jeremy Sullivan ran an ET of 6.20. Brian Hope ran an ET of 6.37. Pure Hell in the final run of its final race. The A Gas finals found Steve ‘Flattop’ Faller in the Auto Club lane and Brendon Frye in the Budweiser lane. Flattop was too quick leaving the line and turned the light red while Frey broke out running an ET of 7.569 on a 7.6 index. Frye took the win. DeWayne Sanders and Billy McDevitt were the two finalists in 7.0 Pro. Sanders took the win on McDevitt’s red-light. Sanders ran an ET of 7.36 on a 7.00 index at 136.91 mph. In A Fuel the win light went to Drew Austin. Bobby Cottrell was quicker off the line with a .008 reaction time to Austin’s .045. But Austin made up the […]

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CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION

admin — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 23:30:21 +0000

THE 23rd CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION IS OVER. TOP FUEL WINNER – TONY BARTONE FUNNY CAR WINNER – DAN HORAN, JR. This year the California Hot Rod Reunion was the 23rd time “we’re only going to do this once”. The now infamous quote from Steve Gibbs, the godfather of the Reunion, lives on. After three solid days of racing, the California Hot Rod Reunion (CHRR) came to a close after the final rounds of elimination held on Sunday. This year while the CHRR brought together race teams from around the country and around the world, not all the action was on the ground — with funny car bodies flying through the air and military style twin rotor helicopters and stunt planes buzzing the track, looking up was also entertaining. On Friday Funny Car driver Mike Lewis, in Nitro Nick, launched his fiberglass body after a blower malfunction caused the burst plate to blow. However, Nitro Nick reappeared on Saturday to loud applause and hoots from the crowd, body stitched back together by rivets and fiberglass resin, to qualify No. 11 in the 16 car field. Lewis made it through the first round of elimination, but fell to Dan Horan,Jr., the class winner, in the second round. During Saturday qualifying the body of Donnie Watkins’ Funny Car Thunderstruck shot into the air. Watkins failed to make the cut into the 16 car field. Exhibition cars, including AA Fuel Altereds ran throughout the week-end. Saturday Winged Express took the line next to Pure Heaven, Bradford sat beside Mr. Boston and just like in times past, Pure Hell and Rat Trap, were side by side at the start, and Iron Mistress ran a bye. Throughout the day Saturday, cars were pushed down the return lane and fired up in preparation for Cacklefest. Cacklefest, another brainchild of Steve Gibbs, was first held in 2000 with seven cars taking part. Now – 14 years later, to quote Gibbs again “more than 10 times that number” participated on Saturday night. Many of the cackle cars were on display during the day Saturday in one section of the pit area near the staging lanes. The newly recreated Barnstormer, the first supercharged fuel dragster raced by Tommy Ivo, was one of the many as was the Yeakel Plymouth AA/FD originally driven by Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen. When there was a lull in the racing, the Grove offered a look at whole lot of rat rods and hot rods. The Bay Area Roadsters were on hand with about 20 roadsters. Also in the Grove were the food vendors, where lunch could be fashioned with a Bud Light, Sid’s Redneck BarBQue and an A&W root beer float. The Manufacturers’ Midway and the Swap Meet provided ample opportunity to find needed parts, t-shirts, and memorabilia items. Or you could take a look in the staging lanes which were full most of the time. The elimination rounds started at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday morning and the final pair, A Fuel, finished at 5:15 p.m. TOP FUEL: This was a contest between the No. 1 Tony Bartone and No. 2 qualifier White. White in the Neal and White dragster broke at the line giving Bartone a win. Bartone with a reaction time of .352 ran 212.39 mph with an ET of 5.864. Bartone was on top the whole week-end – No. 1 qualifier, Top Speed 256.34 and Low ET 5.635. Bartone also took home the Heritage Series trophy. FUNNY CAR: The Funny Car finals was a repeat of last year pitting Dan Horan, Jr. in his Patriot Mustang, against John Hale in the Mike Burkhart Tribute Car. Last year Hale came out on top This year Horan took home the money. Horan ran an ET of 5.724 at 254.mph. Jason Rupert, the No. 1 qualifier had the low ET and top speed in this class but was sent home by James Day in the Pedaler in Round 2 of eliminations. This win gave Horan the Heritage Series trophy. PRO MOD: Mike Maggio got a free ride in the finals when Rob Cacioppo broke at the line. Maggio ran an ET of 5.699, at 259.01 mph. With these results Maggio set low ET and top speed of the day. A FUEL: Bobby Cottrell was in the winner’s seat in both A Fuel and 7.0 Pro. In A Fuel he met Bill Wayne in the finals. Wayne broke at the line giving Cottrell the win with an ET of 6.355 and speed of 216.06. After a slow reaction time of .156, Kin Bates, who had top speed of the day, didn’t advance to Round 2. Ryan Davenport, No. 1 qualifier and holder of low ET 6.257 broke in the semi-finals sending Wayne to the finals. Davenport held on to his Heritage Series points lead to win the series. 7.0 PRO: This class was split in two – 7.0 Pro and 7.0 Pro B. Cottrell met Eily Stafford, in the Killer Crower dragster in the finals. This is a 7.0 index class and Cottrell ran a near perfect index with an ET of 7.033 to take the win. Stafford broke out with an ET of 6.994. Stafford was the No. 3 qualifier. Both the No.1 qualifier, Chuck Roark, and the No. 2 qualifier, Richard High, went out in Round 1 of eliminations. Cottrell was the No. 9 qualifier. High was the Heritage Series points leader going into the race, but Cottrell ended up with both the race trophy and the series trophy. This proves the old adage – It’s not where you start that counts, but where you finish. Clearly, Cottrell finished in the right place. 7.0 PRO B: Running on a 7.0 index, in the final rounds Jesse Adams met Joey Steckler. Adams left the start with a reaction time of .096 to Steckler’s .103. Adams cross the finish with an ET of 7.046 and Steckler with an ET of 7.094. […]

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CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION, OCT. 18-20, 2013

admin — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 17:54:03 +0000

22ND CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION, FAMOSO RACEWAY, Oct. 18-20, 2013 Sunday Racing It’s amazing to see what amounts to flat open land around the Famoso dragstrip transform into a small “city” during Hot Rod Reunion. The population of that 3-day “city” would probably exceed a number of rural California towns. The size of this ‘city” was swollen by the pits of 38 funny cars, thirty-four 7.0 Pro cars, 80 Cacklefest cars together with about 170 other racers in the various classes. Sunday afternoon this “city” gradually melted away as cars not in the finals were loaded up and their crews rolled out. By around 5:00 p.m. one could stroll through the nearly empty pit area. The knots of people surrounding the cars being prepared for the final rounds readily stood out against the increasing open space. This week-end Mother nature showed she could be a cooperative partner in the event, however, Zeus,the Greek God of thunder, repeatedly stopped the thunder exploding from the the top fuel and funny cars when a number of oil downs caused long delays. It wouldn’t be Hot Rod Reunion without the Speed Sport Coupe to open Sunday morning fuel car racing. As is the Reunion tradition, Steve Gibbs in his orange ’50 Ford Coupe gave a push start to Red Greth’s orange Speed Sport Coupe aka “Old Noisy”. The Speed Sport Coupe was pushed from the far end of the track. When it was fired up, it turned around at the start line and ran for the finish line. Once the Speed Sport Coupe went through the lights, the first pair of funny cars fired up and fuel car racing was under way. TOP FUEL: The No. 1 qualifier, Denver Schutz in Raisin Express 3 had a bye in round 1 of eliminations, beat Bill Dunlap in High Speed in round 2, and Brett Harris in Nitro-Hemi in round 3 to meet the No. 6 qualifier, Adam Sorokin, in the Champion Speed Shop car in the finals. Sorokin left the line first with a .062 reaction time with Schutz following with a .129 reaction time. Schutz appeared to be catching Sorokin before his car pulled right and he crossed the center line. Sorokin took the win with an ET of 5.912 at 216.76 mph. After running strong in qualifying setting both low ET of 5.674 and top speed of 249.03, and running a race low ET of 5.671 and top speed of 255.48 in the quarter-finals, Schutz couldn’t take the win. Sorokin won with an ET of 5.912 at 216.76 mph. Although Jim Murphy went out in the 2nd round of eliminations, he gathered enough points to maintain his points lead in the Heritage Series and win the Series title. FUNNY CAR: When Dan Horan went into the final round of eliminations, winning would give him not only the Reunion Wally but the top prize in Heritage Series racing. John Hale in the Mike Burkhart tribute car played spoiler by taking home the Reunion win and thereby giving Jason Rupert the Heritage Series. Jason Rupert was the No. 2 qualifier and had the top speed in qualifying but lost to Hale in the semi-finals. At the end Horan and Hale both had reaction times of .128 but Hale was quicker with an ET of 5.685 to Horan’s 5.744. Horan’s Patriot Mustang ran in the 5.7’s all day Sunday, but couldn’t get into the 5.6’s for the finals. PRO MOD: The final round found Dan Myers in a ’69 Camaro and Tim Krupa in a ’53 Corvette at the line. No. 1 qualifier Marc Meadors and No. 2 qualifier Mike Maggio both went out in the semi-final round. Myers left Krupa sitting at the line with a .023 holeshot. Krupa’s reaction time was .131. Myers led Krupa down the track finishing with an ET of 5.958 at 250.37 mph. Krupa crossed the finish line with an ET of 6.672 at 229.82 mph. 7.0 PRO: 34 cars showed up to race in 7.0 Pro. The quickest 16 qualified in this class with the next 16 qualifying in 7.0 Pro B. This class races on a 7.0 index. Mike Smith qualified at No. 12 and took out the No. 5 and 4 qualifiers in rounds 1 and 2. Steve “Flattop” Faller in his ’63 Corvette runs in A/Gas in the Heritage Series, but turned out for 7.0 Pro. Faller qualified in the No. 6 spot. Faller ran near perfect index times winning in the first round by .002 of a second running a 7.014 to Joey Steckler’s 7.016. In the 2nd round Faller ran 7.001 and turned in a 7.014 in the 3rd round. Smith advanced from the 1st round when Mike Buersken broke. In the 2nd round Smith ran a 7.025 and in the 3rd a 7.017. The finals proved a challenge for both contestants when Faller red lighted and Smith broke out running an ET of 6.973 on a .000 tree. By going red, Faller gave Smith the win. 7.0 PRO B: Richard Phillips in a ’32 Bantam ran an ET of 7.165 at 189.76 mph in the finals to take the win after Dewayne Sanders broke. Phillips was the No. 8 qualifier and Sanders the No. 2 qualifier. Phillips marched through the ladder taking out first Mark Tarabochia when he broke down, then Ron Huegell when he broke out and finally by knocking off a quicker and faster Cal Tebb with a holeshot. A FUEL: No. 1 qualifier Kin Bates lost to Ryan Davenport, the No. 2 qualifier, in the final round. Davenport left the light first with a .027 reaction time and ran both quicker and faster than Bates. Davenport ran an ET of 6.256 at 214.55 mph. Bates reaction was .066, ET of 6.938 at 212.19. Kin Bates, a perennial A Fuel winner, ran an ET of 6.212 at 225.15 in the semi-finals but couldn’t repeat that performance in the finals. JR. FUEL: This class fielded only 9 […]

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CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION

admin — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 04:19:55 +0000

CALIFORNIA HOT ROD REUNION, OCT. 19-21, 2012 FAMOSO RACEWAY SUNDAY WRAP-UP: This week-end saw the running of the 21st California Hot Rod Reunion. Not only has the Reunion come of age, it now has spawned two offspring – the first, Bowling Green, is now 10 years old and the second, New England, will arrive in September 2013. Steve Gibbs, the “daddy” of the Reunion, missed the mark when he famously said “we are only going to do this once.” The Reunion has certainly grown up. The inaugural reunion held Nov. 14-15 1992 offered qualifying and eliminations by top fuel and jr. fuel dragsters. In 1995 A Gas was added to the line-up. This year saw nearly 240 racers entered in nine different classes. Bill Dunlap was the top fuel winner at the inaugural Reunion running in the 6.90’s. The 2012 Reunion saw Bill Dunlap running in the 5.90’s behind the butterflies of High Speed Motorsport’s top fuel dragster. Cacklefest, another brainchild of Steve Gibbs, was added to the Reunion in 2000. At that first Cacklefest, nine nitro-burning nostalgia top fuel cars were push started to light the fire before making a run down the track. This year a whopping 64 nitro-burners entered the Cacklefest. Now, Cacklefests are being held at events all over the country. The 21st California Hot Rod Reunion provided three days of fantastic racing including some exciting exhibition runs. The Reunion is one event which provides day-long entertainment. In addition to the racing, the Grove overflowed with hot rods, customs, classics, muscle cars and some ingenious rat rods. Shopping was also available at huge swap meet and in the Midway where a great many vendors were set up. A whole host of vendors were on hand to provide food, snacks, and drinks, including beer so it wasn’t necessary to leave the track. Below are a few of the nice cars parked in the Grove. Sunday morning the pre-race ceremonies were kicked, off as always, by Steve Gibb’s in his Ford Coupe giving a push to Red Greth in the Speed Sport roadster. The Speed Sport roadster came up the track, turned around at the start line and made a run to the finish. Watching this veteran of the quarter mile is always exciting. Back to racing: Eliminations started on Saturday. Sunday evening the final rounds of eliminations began with the Funny Cars at 5:11 p.m. and ended with A Fuel at 7:20 p.m. The winners of the Reunion were: Funny Car: The final pitted Mike Lewis, the #4 qualifier, in Brand-X against Steven Densham in Teacher’s Pet, the #7 qualifier. Lewis had a reaction time of 0.030 to Densham’s .111. At half-track Lewis was traveling at 199.55 mph to Desham’s 186.74. Lewis reached the finish line going 244.38 with an ET of 5.785. Densham broke after the half-track mark and slowed to 150.33 when he crossed the finish. Even though Jason Rupert did not qualify, he won the Heritage Series championship Top Fuel: Rick Williamson, the #1 qualifier came out on top besting Adam Sorokin. Sorokin beat Williamson at the line but sent up a wall of smoke at the finish spreading oil at the top end. Williamson had an ET of 5.809 traveling 235.23 mph. Sorokin was leading the points race in the Heritage Series and held onto his lead to capture the Series championship. A Fuel: Kin Bates, the five time Heritage Series winner, came in second to Les Davenport. Davenport got off the line first with a reaction time of .028. Davenport stayed in the lead even after slipping around after the half-track mark. Davenport got the car under control and finished with an ET of 6.260 @ 213.16. Bates lost this one at the start line with a reaction time of .105. Jr. Fuel: Bud Hammer the #1 qualifier sat next of Don Enriquez. Enriquez got a big lead with a reaction time of .116 to Hammer’s .30, but Hammer had the power and took the win with an ET of 7.044 @ 187.57. Enriquez finished with an ET of 7.572 @ 179.42. Pro Mod: Marc Meadors was the winner of this race after Scott Bailey broke after his burnout. Meadors also posted the fasted speed of the meet at 249.03 and the quickest Pro Mod run of the week-end at 5.873. 7.0 Pro: This was a large class with 41 racers taking the field. After qualifying, the class was divided into two. 7.0 included the top 16 qualifiers, with the remainder making up 7.0 B. This class runs on a 7.0 index. 7.0 Pro: Ronnie Lennon had a reaction time of .030, an ET of 7.250 with a speed of 161.56. His opponent Bob Murphy spun the tires and ended with an ET of 19.245. 7.0 Pro B: Dewayne Sanders had a great reaction time of .022 and an ET of 7.062 to beat Peter Leahy. Leahy broke-out with an ET of 6.956. A Gas: This class runs on a 7.6 index. Frank Merenda in a ’59 Rambler red lighted giving Rob Patten the win. Patten drove a ’63 Corvette to the win. Nostalgia Eliminator I: This is an index class running on a 7.6 index. Don Taros had a near perfect .011 reaction time to beat Steve Schoenfeld. Taros had an ET of 7.699 @ 165.46 to Schoenfeld’s 7.731 @ 146.05. AFX: The final of this race found Ernie Algorri, the #2 qualifier, sitting next to Doug Hampton at the line. Hampton who qualified #5 took the win after a double break-out. The 22nd California Hot Rod Reunion will be held Oct. 18-20, 2013 at Famoso. More images are available for viewing on our SmugMug site. Click below. Check our Images for sale on www.timingtower.smugmug.com SATURDAY RESULTS: After completing qualifying runs Funny Car, Top Fuel, Pro Mod, A Fuel, Junior Fuel and 7.0 Pro ran their first elimination rounds. A […]

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