The 10th California Hot Rod Reunion

5-7 October 2001

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Gassers on the Strip

Tim Burns is still searching for the tuneup for his Pro-Super Willys
Chris Abbey and Tim Burns face off during qualifying
The Goshgarian & Abbey Corvette is a beautiful new car with some fantastic craftsmanship

Steve Castelli qualified in the #1 spot for A/Gas, but was outrun in the first round by the eventual winner, Ed Cooper.
Mark Leonard's Chevelle

Ed Cooper's very quick Dart with the new Pro-Stock Hemi was the eventual A/Gas winner

Mark Mahood's A/Gas Camaro
Don Chemello's "Mr Toad's Wild Ride II" out of Fullerton, CA

The Mallicoat Brothers Barracuda, driven by Dale Boomgarten, was the Pro-Super runner-up to Steve Woods' Prefect in a very close final race

Always a threat, Ron Nunes showed up with his Pro-Super Corvette

Gary Reinero's Pro-Suoer Austin had a few problems over the weekend.

John Overholser's 56 Chevy A/Gas was a nice piece

Friday afternoon was the the last pass for the beautiful Don Owens-Reid Dahlin, A/Gas 41 Willys.  Somewhere around the 800-1000 foot mark, the car made a hard left turn from the right lane and went through the left lane guardrail in a spectacular shower of parts, dust, and fire.  Many of us near the starting line figured that the driver was toast!  Fortunately, while the car is obviously severely mangled, Don Owens walked away with nothing more serious than a badly rung bell!

Current plans are to salvage the car as a street rod (just to prove they can!) and a new race car was already under construction.

The Cactus Jack's Camaro A/Gasser was the unfortunate recipient of a portion of guardrail resulting from the Owens-Dahlin crash.  The front of the car and the driver's side roofline were pretty thrashed, but everyone walked away!

"Speedy Bob" Nevins made his first outing with his new A/Gas 41 Willys.  His 1st qualifying pass was his first pass ever on the car.  He has some work to do, but it looks promising.  With JR and Tommy Thompson helping him out, he should get on pace pretty quickly.

Steve Wood's swoopy Studebaker
Pro-Super winner, Steve Woods, makes smoke with his unbelievable Prefect.

I love this car!  Paul Soliz's Street driven Plymouth absolutely epitomizes the early gassers...and he has a BUNCH of fun racing it!
Evidently he's hot the only Soliz family member doing this stuff.  This ones cool too!
Good looking, unknown Willys
Those of you who are old enough to remember the "Gasser Wars" will remember Bones Balough.  He may have retired from racing A/GS, but it sure wasn't to a wheelchair!
The "Wild Fox" was a very nice looking 55 Chevy
Other Strip Action
Pretty strong 60 Chevy, isn't it.

The Batto Trucking Crosley Comp Coupe is a strong runner in Nostalgia Eliminator...and fun to watch too.
Comin' at ya!
The Double Trouble twin started life as Jim Busby's twin Ford DOHC digger
Mr Flathead, John Bradley, didn't have a great weekend with his always cool digger.

Ron "Big Yohns" Johnson had Mendy Fry driving his Jr Fueler.  Mendy qualified number 2, but went out in the first round due to an unusually late (for her) reaction time.

Here's a name from the past...Shirley Shahan, the Dragon Lady

The Juggers "Old Lady"

The Sissel & Mike entry is quick, fun to watch, and has a unique sound Top Fuel launch.  
Very cool!  A twin flathead Comp Coupe!!
One of the guys that's been around forever, Jess Tyree has a screamin' Poncho
Cacklefest, Parade & Pit
Not too unusual!!  Jim Green of Seattle (remember the "Green Elephant" FC?) brought his 34 Ford Phaeton flopper with a blown Ford cammer (with belts driven cams).   A Willys with FLAMES
One of the high points of the weekend for me was watching, for the first time in 37 years, the Frantic Four Fueler of Weekly, Rivero, Fox, and Holding push down, fire-up, and make a short burnout.  Norm Weekly at the wheel. Greer, Black & Prudhomme car pushes down
Gas-FX member Tom Bell did the push truck honors for Rich Guasco's "Pure Hell".
Pat Foster in Don Trasin's Jade Grenade.  Pat just finished the restoration prior to CHRR.  Awesome job.
A neat lakes coupe. Many who have been to CHRR have seen Bill Pitts' beautifully restored Magicar.  Bill periodically fires it up during the weekend, and some lucky SOB gets to sit in it while that happens.  Unfortunately, there's no way I'd fit in it, so I did the next best thing.  I grabbed a chair directly behind one of the tires (and the zoomies!) and watched the crowd while getting a snootful of nitro.  It seem that the crowd enjoyed the show.

Just an added note...if it wasn't for Bill and his enthusiasm, it's unlikely that the current crop of restorations and the Cacklefest itself would even exist.
Had to put this in.  Jack Coonrod was kind enough to take my picture as I sat in his newly restored "Northwind" fueler.  Probably shouldn't quit my day job though.  Looks like I would have gotten my elbows pretty well scraped up if I'd tried driving like that!
Earl Floyd pushes down in the Northwind...Hey!  I coulda done that!!
Red Greth in Old Noisey

This was just too unusual to not include.  Nice work on it, too.

The Freight Train...nuff said.
"Da Greek", Chris Karamasines did the pushdown honors in the Preisling-Loukas Comp coupe. Okay...it's a lousy photo, but I gotta show Mike Boyd carrying on the tradition.