Old6rodder
05-04-2009, 03:03 PM
Howdy gentlemen, I'm back from Bakersfield and seriously agrin. :D Two weekends in a row, didn't miss even one chance to run'er and got to enjoy the addition of two more HAMBsters to the fray out here. Got to watch a new driver cut her quarter teeth in one, a fellow old hand re-aquaint himself with the scene in his and become the second ever winner of our own new rotating local "trophy" (the SoCal HAMBie), a friend take home a second meet trophy in his, a butt-load of fun racing and a striking fast rising level of interest in HA/GR. Far more of the many questions at these two meets were regarding particulars and recommendations than the more passing inquiries of previous meets, signifying a much deeper actual interest.
One thing I want to say is that we are where we are so far out here thanks mostly to these venues run by Randy and Butch. These two gentlemen have opened a door for us HAMBster haulers that is unique to the west coast and without which we wouldn't yet have a toe hold, nor much prospect of one. And without that toe hold the class wouldn't be poised to do what you're going to witness in the next two years.
'Cause hang onto your hats folks, HA/GR is primed and cocked to flat out explode in these parts. The three that ran at the ANRA Opener and the four at Dragfest are truly the first whiff of the fresh peanut butter below the just pried up lid. We've begun only the second season we've been allowed to run with twice the cars we finished the first with a mere five months ago. My own eyes have seen four more in progress (that's built frames with parts attached, in the flesh, gentlemen) in the L.A. area alone, and over a dozen nearly complete parts piles were claimed to us at these two meets. Should but a third of those see light that's an honest dozen before the second season ends. 2,4,12 (conceivably 20) ..... this is the kind of growth curve that makes this sort of thing my friends.
We're thrashing out the minutae of a way to incorporate the class as a subsection of an existing one. This will facilitate adding it to the main program in a permanent form even at this embrionic stage and allow it a stage to expand upon when the time might come.
More is being done pragmatically here to find HA/GR its own mainstream niche than anywhere else outside Australia (by the way, thanks for some of the pointers, good sirs :cool:). And because (not in spite) of the quarreling, harranguing, arguing and downright bickering we've done on this and parellel sites, plus the lessons good & bad learnt second hand from others' noble efforts, the many possibilities and implications it can mean are being addressed in quite thorough a manner. Thus giving us, I believe, a better than good chance of riding this particular tiger successfully.
I don't believe it's alone the meets that've gotten me so downright up about it all again, but they sure as hell had a part in it.
ps. I got to lose a semi-final round to a car from the shops of, and in the style of Kay Sissel's early '60s altered, a car and a local guy I really liked. :D Just to run against it and to meet Ron and the team (some good eggs) was a blast, but wait; they'd even gotten the run on a roll bar video. At fifteen to his ten seconds dialed you can see me trudge off into the sunset (sic) and Ron pick up the skinnies to blow by in the traps, just a bone classic "could'a been then but for ..." video. Achingly perfect.
I hope to have a copy of it soon. :cool:
All in all,
:D, just f'ing :D
One thing I want to say is that we are where we are so far out here thanks mostly to these venues run by Randy and Butch. These two gentlemen have opened a door for us HAMBster haulers that is unique to the west coast and without which we wouldn't yet have a toe hold, nor much prospect of one. And without that toe hold the class wouldn't be poised to do what you're going to witness in the next two years.
'Cause hang onto your hats folks, HA/GR is primed and cocked to flat out explode in these parts. The three that ran at the ANRA Opener and the four at Dragfest are truly the first whiff of the fresh peanut butter below the just pried up lid. We've begun only the second season we've been allowed to run with twice the cars we finished the first with a mere five months ago. My own eyes have seen four more in progress (that's built frames with parts attached, in the flesh, gentlemen) in the L.A. area alone, and over a dozen nearly complete parts piles were claimed to us at these two meets. Should but a third of those see light that's an honest dozen before the second season ends. 2,4,12 (conceivably 20) ..... this is the kind of growth curve that makes this sort of thing my friends.
We're thrashing out the minutae of a way to incorporate the class as a subsection of an existing one. This will facilitate adding it to the main program in a permanent form even at this embrionic stage and allow it a stage to expand upon when the time might come.
More is being done pragmatically here to find HA/GR its own mainstream niche than anywhere else outside Australia (by the way, thanks for some of the pointers, good sirs :cool:). And because (not in spite) of the quarreling, harranguing, arguing and downright bickering we've done on this and parellel sites, plus the lessons good & bad learnt second hand from others' noble efforts, the many possibilities and implications it can mean are being addressed in quite thorough a manner. Thus giving us, I believe, a better than good chance of riding this particular tiger successfully.
I don't believe it's alone the meets that've gotten me so downright up about it all again, but they sure as hell had a part in it.
ps. I got to lose a semi-final round to a car from the shops of, and in the style of Kay Sissel's early '60s altered, a car and a local guy I really liked. :D Just to run against it and to meet Ron and the team (some good eggs) was a blast, but wait; they'd even gotten the run on a roll bar video. At fifteen to his ten seconds dialed you can see me trudge off into the sunset (sic) and Ron pick up the skinnies to blow by in the traps, just a bone classic "could'a been then but for ..." video. Achingly perfect.
I hope to have a copy of it soon. :cool:
All in all,
:D, just f'ing :D