Saturday August 13, 2005
Samoa Nostalgia
SAMOA
DRAGSTRIP: 50 YEARS LATER-The golden reunion only comes around once, and August
13th’s Leon’s Car Care Center
Nostalgia Reunion/Saturday Shootout served up plenty of racing surprises for
those waiting out various hold ups.
Steve Costelow brought his heavily flamed Model A coupe down from Medford, only to have
it suffer an unfortunate blow within the first passes of the day, when its rear
differential blew, spitting out rear gears like teeth from a busted mouth. In
many respects, it was a sign of frustrations that racers and crew were to face,
though still having fun making history.
And
history was made, partly in the form of the first all-girl final round in
Junior Dragsters, in which Malli Blasdell got her
first taste of 1st place victory in a 9.57 run to the Eighth-mile
cones against Junior veteran Kara Pettit, who ran
8.09, as Points leader Robbie Waddell took the Consolation win over Mike Pettit.
Top
Qualifier Richard Williams held the low E.T. of the day with his ’32
While cars
soared up the ‘strip, a roundup of classic hot rods shone in the sun for show
‘n shine judged by their peers (race cars were voted on, too). Nick Wilwerding’s purple-flamed ’53 F-100 lit up the most votes
for People’s Choice awards.
It may not
have been a “Wally race” – the famous Wally trophies were Sunday’s prizes – but there were Redwood Wallys
given: wooden-carved trees with a racing slick underneath its branches, shown
prominently beside displays of old photos and news clippings of yesteryear,
before the Redwood Wallys went to new homes at the
end of the day.
One of
those wooden trophies went to John Antongiovanni,
when his Chevy II ousted Troy Beck’s ’69 GTO in the Pro final. Ron Gulbransen’s ’68 California Special earned him a Redwood
Wally in a
Two
drivers were able to become One With the Tree with
perfection in reaction times: Adam Moore in his ’69 Camaro
and Roger Ponder’s self-proclaimed “Nasty” Nova. For
Ponder, from
Jackie
Allen’s ’04 Focus was the victor in Street over Jim Broderson’s
Ford F-150, and John Widmann out-biked Kirk Speelman in the Redwood Harley Davidson Sportsman bracket.
There were so many runners in Nostalgia, the bracket was split up into two:
Slow and Quick. Ana Toledo’s ’69 Mustang
was quick to capture the Slow Nostalgia win over Brian Stone’s ’67 Firebird,
and Doug Atkins spared no time in securing a 1st-place Redwood Wally
with his ’69 Z28 over Brent Noales’ ’69 Dart in Quick
Nostalgia.
Capping
off the racing was a Super Pro match up between Scott Tucker and Dennis
Ellsworth, Jr., who raced for 1st place on July 10th to
Tucker’s advantage. The top Redwood Wally a month later went to Ellsworth, with
Richard Williams in his “Bad Attitude” roadster taking home third.
--
Tim O’Brien