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| Bowling Green, Kentucky |
| Review posted by member: |
| office |
| Description: |
| Fathers Day weekend has been elevated to a new high thanks to the National Hot Rod Association and the folks from Holley. |
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Fathers Day weekend has been elevated to a new high thanks to the National Hot Rod Association and the folks from Holley. The festivities began the weekend before the holiday way out in Texas when the folks from Street Rodder Magazine began their annual journey known as the Road Tour from San Antonio with the guidance of Tim Foss and Jerry Dixey. They pulled into middle Tennessee on Thursday the 18th of June and made a short stop in Nashville at Hunter’s Custom Automotive where owner, Johnny Freund, aka; “The King of Chrome” feed everyone and provided goodie bags for the participants. A special treat was revealed when Vintage Air President and Road Tour Host, Jack Chisenhall rolled in with special guest, Tom Medley. Tom is a Hot Rod icon and was gracious enough to personally autograph a copy of his Road Tour poster for Johnny Freund. After a short visit by these road warriors they were off to Bowling Green, KY to visit the Corvette museum.
Friday morning the tour concluded when they arrived at the Hot Rod Reunion in Beech Bend Park near Bowling Green Kentucky, home to event sponsor and automotive mogul Holley Performance Group, parent company of great performance names like, Weiand, Earl’s, Hooker, Flowtech and NOS. Beech Bend Park with its rolling hills, nestled along the banks of the scenic Barren River has been a favorite camping area and amusement park for decades but, the real attraction is Beech Bend Raceway with its unique covered grandstands that have antique stadium seating that once filled the Sulfur Dell baseball field in Nashville. From there, the close up and personal affects of the nitro burning, front engine rails and funny cars give you the full effect. Names like Don Garlits, Ronnie Sox, Buddy Martin and Doug “Cookie” Cook just to mention a few filled the air and the over two thousand show cars that blanketed the hills made it truly an historic event. Everyone not only enjoyed watching the hot rods light up the asphalt isle, but hours were spent reminiscing about those bygone years of our youth when the days and nights were spent at the local drag strip with larger than life heroes. Saturday night the much anticipated Cackle Fest was spectacular, local legend and once owner of the famed Music City Rod Shop, Bob Amos was memorialized when his son drove his once famous Hemi powered rail down the strip with another local street rodder, Pat Castle using his unique show winning F100 as the push vehicle.
As some of you may remember, there was a time when NHRA was involved in every aspect of street and strip performance. Most car clubs were NHRA sanctioned and all automotive events were either sponsored or regulated by them. So, it was no surprise when things were ran so efficiently even down to event registration. Your window sticker and credentials were mailed to you weeks in advance, all you had to do was show your souvenir badges at the gate and proceed into the show. Once in, take your badge to the official tent and pick up your goodie bag. Short lines, easy in and out, you could tell these guys have been doing this for years.
Walking through the large vendor area, swap meet and show and shine area with the sound of good ole’ rock and roll playing and the endless roar of drag racing and the sweet smell of tire smoke in the air one couldn’t help but rejoice in the moment. Fathers Day will never be the same again, if you’re not a father, a weekend at the Hot Rod Reunion could turn you into one! Life is all about making memories and I left Bowling Green, KY. with a ton of great ones. If you were there, I’ll see back in 2010, if not, I look forward to seeing you there, you’ll glad you did.
For more information contact the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum at www.museum.nhra.com
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