Old Guys at Las Vegas Drags 2008

[3RRL]

There is a whole group of "the old gang" that I am still in touch with. These are guys I've known since I cam to America in 1957, so in my case, a lot of them from the 1st grade and ever since. We went to Junior High and also graduated together from High school...I've known these guys for 51 years now!!! Shees!!! There 9 of us total, but since we were in Vegas, it was hard to get everybody together at the same time. It wasn't long though that we were BS-ing about the "old times".
Then we went to the Drags the next day.



There was a lot to see and I was pretty excited.

 

[3RRL]

Since we are all old guys, we all used to belong to car clubs and motorcycle clubs. Even our girl friends. Loretta knew a lot of these guys too, since we met in the 7th grade Junior High. It was really great for all of us to see each other again. Only one guy flew in from another state, but surprisingly, all the rest still lived around the Southern California area.
Here are some action shots from the bleachers.





It was really great to see the top fuel dragsters and funny cars. The noise was incredible! I remember when top fuel ran in the high sevens around 180mph! They started running around 1:00pm. The Army top fuel rail had low ET of the day, (I think) but we left around 2:30.
We were exhausted!

 

[EddieWalker]

Rob,

Nice pictures, but there's nothing there like a Kama with a grapple on it!!!!!!

Eddie

 

[3RRL]

Rob,

Nice pictures, but there's nothing there like a Kama with a grapple on it!!!!!!

Eddie

Hahaha Eddie, yeah I was having withdrawals and my buddies couldn't understand it.

 

[mikim]

I've known these guys for 51 years now!!!
I'm afraid I've got ya beat.......... There were 44 in my graduating class and I started kindergarten with 40 of 'em......53 years ago.......

 

[scott_vt]

Good Afternoon Rob,
Looks like a good time had by all !!! I keep in touch with a couple of my old buddies, but time sure has a way of gettin away from you !

Nice pics and Im sure you guys tipped a few !

 

[Dargo]

A good friend of mine won the 'Mopars at the Strip' event there a couple of weeks ago in his "Drag'n Wagon". His father raced that car from the 60's on until he passed away a couple of years ago. His oldest son has carried on that tradition with that car and has done quite well with the old car.

Here is a link to his website Indiana Chrysler Kia Mazda Volvo - Evansville Chrysler Dealership that includes many pictures and details of that Vegas race. His late father is pictured in the first picture of the old wagon. Both the father and the son are class acts and are huge supporters of nostalgia racing. He's been trying to get me to run my '62 at the track, but it's too much of a trailer queen after a 5 year frame off restoration. I nearly messed up at a cruise in earlier this year. In a 'burn out' contest I blew both rears on my first pass and they only had a couple hundred miles on them. Fortunately I didn't damage any wheels or anything. Future burnouts will be far milder for me.

 

[3RRL]

Dargo,
My trip was April 12th at the drags.
Your friend is right saying it's a beautiful, must see track. When I was there I saw an old sled like that run and it hauled azz! Was your friend there that weekend perhaps?

 

[Dargo]

No, he was running somewhere in the midwest then. I believe he went with a bit of a different engine this year since he blew his engine at the end of last year. I'm relatively certain he was running some low 9's last year and decided that he liked the 10 index area better.

 

[Eagleview]

Ahh , drag racing . I remember it well , driving really really fast dressed up in womens clothing ,,,,,,,,,er that is what you'se are talkin about is'nt it ?