since everything has been cancelled I thought I'd post some Bakersfield pics. I posted these in 2006, but the thread has since been photobucketed.... what a bunch of dickheads. I think back in 2006 there was a lot more people posting photos. I bet a lot of those are gone too. here we go..
I went every year from the first till the 25th....A lot of the parts in this motor came from that swap meet...In the early days there were lots of 392 race parts...When they started charging to park your car in the grove that was it for me....I remember the first years they had a barbecue meal for everyone.......
Shitbucket slit it's own throat doing this crap. Glad you got them rescued. I saw the handwriting on the wall and rescued mine before they stopped people for retrieving their own photos.
Went to the March Meet and Hot Rod Reunion @ Famoso for several decades. Moving to Texas in 2019 brought an end to that but recent meets lost their glitter. Probably not their fault, I just became a grouchy old man. Drove my Willys almost every time.
Thanks for taking the time to post the photos. I went to the CHRR last October and it was terrible, nowhere near like it was 10-15 years ago.
I went over from the UK in Oct 2006 and again in Oct 2007. It was 10 years before I went back in Oct 2017, and it was a pale imitation of what it was in 2006 & 2007, let alone what it must have been like before that, and on the basis of 2017, I won't be returning.
I can't imagine what a colossal disappointment that must have been to travel all the way from the UK for that, I only drove 100 miles. I got there at 8 am (when the website claimed the gates opened) but they had already begun letting people in at 7 am. Naturally, I was pissed.........what's the point of going to a swap meet if you don't get through the gates as soon as it opens? I walked the whole grounds (three times) drove home (100 miles) stopped to eat and was still home by 2 pm. What a bummer.
The CHRR was the brain child of Steve Gibbs. It was a great event under Steve's control. Then NHRA became involved, pissed Steve off, and he quit. Now it's just a big money grab for NHRA, and they have run off most of the big players in the vintage drag racing scene. Damn shame.
Steve and Greg Sharp made you feel welcome, and delivered free Nitro to the Cackle Cars, for a while.
It became just another Heritage Series race...The last one I went to there were very few exhibition cars making runs... Ticket prices went up and the quality of the event went down....Then they started charging for parking in the grove....That was the last straw for me...
this is mostly it for 2006. here's Don Garlits and Gene Winfield after the Cacklefest .... the track was very sticky.
The Jalopy Journal
