Winter Nationals 2014

[57AGIN]

I got home not too long ago from 4 days spent at the Winter National Drag races in Pomona.  Along with 4 days of hard core racing, I was privileged to have my 57 on display for 3 days in the Hot Rod Reunion area, where they parked the nostalgia dragsters, gassers & funny cars.  There  were about forty cars of various makes & models on display each day.  The best day was Saturday, as there were 5 57 Fords displayed: 2 blown Rancheros, 1 Skyliner, my blown Custom 300 BS  Hilborn injected, Chrysler Hemi powered 57 T-Bird.  I believe we drew the most crowds and attracted a lot more attention than most of the bow-ties for a change.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of the Chrysler powered T-Bird.  It was featured in Hot Rod Magazine back in the 60's.

Bob
57 AGIN 

[57AGIN]

Here are the rest of the 57's at the Hot Rod Reunion Show at the Winter Nationals.  The last photo is what I really love to see at the Drags, how about a Super Stock/K Automatic 65 Mustang reaching for the sky.  I took lots of photos of the Fords during the Sportsman qualifications on Thursday, nearly all of them with their noses in the air.  None of them sound like stock cars did back in my days of racing.  None of the modern Cobra Jets did wheel stands, they just hauled bananas.

Bob
57 AGIN

[rmk57]

The super stock Mustang in the picture is Don Keen who went all the way to the finals and won super stock. I think Robert Pond made it to the semis in his 67 A/S Fairlane.

We're hoping to make the November race later on this year.

Nice photos!

Randy

[59meteor]

One of these days I`d like to race at the Winternationals and Las Vegos national event, the closest I have been was when I raced at the Fram Autolite Nationals in Sonoma CA in 2010. Since I live near Vancouver Canada, that trip to Sonoma was almost 2500 miles round trip, and I drove down by myself.Pomona and Vegas are a fair bit further, so normally, I only race at the Seattle WA Northwest Nationals as far as major NHRA meets go.
As Randy mentioned, Don Keen won Super Stock in his 289 Mustang, and Robert Pond made it to the semi finals in his A/Stock 427 4 speed 67 Fairlane. Keen was also racing his 428 4 speed 69 Mustang in Stock, but lost in the first round.
At the Seattle National event, they also have a display of vintage drag cars, and usually one of the largest crowds is at Jim Greens space. He normally has his "Assasin" Top Fuel front engine dragster on displayed, powered by a supercharged Nitro 427 SOHC, along with his tow car, a white 57 Ranchero with another 427 SOHC under the hood. The Ranchero looks very low key, wide whitewalls with flipper wheel covers, but that "Cammer" engine sure makes some jaws drop! Last year I watched MoPar Pro Stock racer Allan Johnston and his dad Roy looking that Ranchero over for a good 10 minutes. In case some didn`t know, Jim Green used to own the "Green Elephant" Funny Cars, and has possibly the largest collection of 427 SOHC Ford engines on the planet. In addition to the Assasin T/F dragster and Ranchero, he has a supercharged SOHC in his flip top 34 Ford "Phunney Phaeton", which was a magazine feature car in the 80s, and still looks great. He also has a SOHC in his black Model A sedan, and used to run a SOHC powered mid 70s Ford PU in tractor pulls. Not to mention lots of extra parts