Mr. Wags Digital Images

Digital Images from Mr Wags!
Wags at Bakersfield drags

This is one of my favorite events each year as the Annual California Hot Rod reunion brings back a lot of memories from the late 50's and early 60's where I started my racing days. The memory lane walk showed off a lot of old iron that looked brand new to me, and most of it really is. The racing was even good as the top fuel dragsters were pretty quick and fast. The crowd favorite had to be the Winged Express Fuel Altered run that started with an out of shape burnout, (Wahoo) and then a stormin' wild run that pleased everyone. The evening ended with the Cacklefest that is a big highlight for an old gezzer like me who was there when many of these cars did their thing. It was an 18 hour adventure for me and I am sorry I didn't get to spend the night and see Sunday as well. It actually was postponed until the Pomona World finals, so you could still see the finals.

I arrived in my red Wagso Vette by noon and immediately walked the memory lane. As you walk thru this path with the cars interspersed between the trees and plaques that honor many of the old racers, you get a different feeling than in sprint car racing that I love. The crowd stands back as many of the old fueler's fire up in place and just rap the airwaves with some of the sweetest sounds in motorsports. A close up view of a blown Chrysler with your ears barraged, your eyes burning and the smell of it all is undescribable. I then wandered the pits for a long time as too many hot rods on display and racers getting their cars ready went on and on. The swap meet had so many items, mostly relating to drag racing, but some other stuff as well, and seemed to be doing a brisk busines as I walked along. It took a while, but every once in a while I stopped and drank my gatorade and relaxed a bit before moving on. I ran into a lot of familiar faces along my walk, and many of them asked what was I doing there??? It's really my roots of racing, so you shouldn't be surprised. After practically wearing myself out, I checked in with the High Speed Motorsports team. There Walt Stevens, one of Josh Ford's sponsors and a member of the drag racing hall of fame himself, greeted me like he always does with a smile. I got to relax and share a burger while watching them work before heading to the grandstand to watch the track action later in the afternoon.

There was a new taller K-Rail on the track keeping cars in and unfortunately for me, it blocked the lower part of a lot of the cars, especially cars near the k-rail closest to my side, so picture taking was very difficult. I know it is safer, but with the short grandtands, you couldn't get high enough to really see it all. It was pretty frustrating when you could only see a cage and the motor above the white wall tooling by.

There was plenty of action on and off the track as the first round of top fuel went off. The High speed Motorsports car with Brad Thompson in the seat ran a 5.70 and smoked some pistons in winning his first round race. Watching the altereds run was pretty sweet as they put on a great show with only a few cars. The cacklefest was a highlight for me, even if I didn't get much in the way of pictures as the evening lighting, the crowd standing in front of me, my being so far away and the photog's standing in front of the cars when they were Cackling. It made it doubly tough, but it was still a blast! . What a lively day and I hope I can keep going as it brings a smile to my face as these cars light up and show off. It was an adventure just getting out of there when it was all done, but I'm already gearing up for next year's 20th annual!

The Bean Bandits car is still famous!

Staging lanes.

Starting line area.

Jungle jim

Jungle Jim Liberman was one of the crowd favorites of his time as was his lady Jungle Pam (who was in the house for this event). He is one of a long list of hero's now gone from our midst and was remembered along with the many.

One of the AA Supercharged gassers of the time. They were awesome.

These Willys cars are still some of my favorite looking drag cars. Sometimes it's a hard choice for me between this model and the 34 Ford that I really want.

A different AA gaser body style that was a little more aerodynamic than the bigger Willys.

A roadster that looks fast

This old dragster was fast in its day. Note the roll cage is nothing like todays that enclose the driver.

The Winged Express was, and still is, one of the most famous and exciting 92 inch wheelbase Altereds of all time! It is amazing these short wheelbase cars can ever go straight and compared to the 200 inch wheelbase dragsters that run the same motor, you can imagine the difficulty in driving one of these bad boys down a race track.

Easily one of the most memorable dragsters of it's time was the Weekly, Rivero, Fox and Holding car driven by Stormin' Norman Weekly. They were a giant at each race they ran.

This classic fueler full bodied style was one of my faovrites over the years. Tom Hanna was famous for his body work.

This classic no frills fueler was copied a thousand times over, at least.

The Vagabond was also a noted top fueler.

The Old Timer (?)

Burkholder Brothers Altered

Rear view.

Ed Pink's Old Master built by Don Long.

Tommy Larkin

The famous speed sport roadster was a noisy one.

Another fuel altered.

A gas dragster with a very early chassis design after they began building cars from tubing instread of using old cars to rebuild from.

The crowd was surprisingly from young to old. You could tell the old geezers that were there in the day.

Just one of the many Mickey Thompson incredible race cars.

Famous, but I didn't read about it.

Jim Kirby?

Cream soda roadster?

Hot lookin' old Ford.

Greg Leahy???

Probably a small engine gas dragster?

That's a happy camper in the seat of this fueler that is running right now!

George Boltoff drove this famed gas dragster of the 60's.

Western Manufacturing Special

Throttle Merchants. There were a lot of car clubs who ran in those dayws, some of them were among the fastest going.

Small block Chevy.

Nice looking oldie.

The license plate sez it all!

Nice

Scary looking roadster. Didn't look under the hood.

Don't you imagine, most of these cars probably ran against each other in the day?

I'll take the red one.

Very nice.

Doesn't look like a typical radical hot rod, but still really nice, and I'd take it.

Is that a Rat Rod? Looks like a home for them.

Well, it's red.

Really cool

Neat truck.

If this is a street rod, how do you drive it?

That smile is all about satisfaction!!! (it's all mine!!)

Let's hula?

Don't tell me that's a Rambler?

Not sure, but it's a Ford.

Another Willys

Rat Poison says something

Nice looking roadster

Street worthy

Low and no frills 34

A nice one

Don't see many of these Henry J's any more.

Mr Lucky needs some color.

Another rod that I could take home

There must have been a million of these back in the day with all kinds of motors lurking to stop light race you.

Don't know if this S & E car is from the Phoenix museum or not, but it was famous in it's day.

Interesting manifold on this one.

The Cacklefest t-shirt was selling well.

Those are tiny footballs these girls were giving away???

Where's the key, I'd drive it!

Imagine parking your rod in front of all those porta-potties?

An oldie with a small motor and a full body.

I love my 40.

Nice custom.

An old Merc from Montana.

Plain and simple, but paint needs to visit.

Another 55 Chevy

ONE UGLY TRUCK WITH A CALIFORNIA WORLDS FAIR LICENSE PLATE.

How many black rods are there?

That's a heavy hood

Very nice!

A nice 56

An old 40's but nice

Now that's rough lookin' horsepower.

Age old hot rod

Whatever

This is the memory lane going back towards the entrance

Fabulous shine

Do they not paint it on purpose?

She's the Crazy ............. who did what????

A hemi in black

Enough tatoo's for ya?

Pure Heavan is another wild altered

Is the wheelie bar long enough?

Packin' the chute.

There were some swell little get-arounds, with this one maybe the cutist.

Is that a Las Vegas helmet?

Herm Peterson's fueler from Washington I think.

Nice Stone Age car

Walt Stevens let me hang around the High Speed Motorsports team for a while during the afternoon, they fed me and let me enjoy a little of what goes on keeping a top fueler running. You would be amazed!

The High Speed Motorsports team pit area was working hard.

The Howard Cam Rattler, one of the many die-cast 1320 models I have.

Another pretty full bodied car.

You can't see the car, but it's the famous Sour Sisters Kenny Safford and Gaude Oldsmobile fueler. A strong one!

The Rat Trap fuel altered

Let's roll!!!

A top fueler heading for the first round

They fired this one up in their pit to check it out.

Another one on it's way to run.

Mean lookin'!!

Oldie

Didn't get much with the high K-rail and my low seat.

Brad Thompson and the High Speed top fueler ready to rock n' roll!

Another top fueler

The purple one. I have no clue on most of these as I didn't get a program, Wasn't always paying attention, but they all ran pretty strong.

The crowd stood at the fence all day blocking anything that came down the fire up road next to that fence. It was painful during the caklefest because you couldn't see anything as they fired and as soon as they got parked on the track, you had the photographers in the way. I never realized there were dozens of photogs to block the view from the grandstands.