J.Ukrop submitted a new blog post: Down in Bakersfield: A Pictorial Continue reading the Original Blog Post
What a great story. Fun photos too. The younger guys may never know the feeling of shooting several rolls of film at an event and then the wait to see the photos after they come back from being developed and printed and the expense that went with it. Hoping that you had the right lens setting because there was no going back and correcting the photos without a lot of trouble and expense. Just reading that you were at the right time to help the folks load the car on the trailer and that it was a memorable moment rather than a chore was fun. Learning the couple's history with the car would make a great story in it's self. Thanks for a great read with the first cup of the morning.
Awesome! To me, CHRR and drag racing in general, is not strictly about the racing, it is about the event and how one experiences their time.
Thanks Joey, I can always expect some little memory popping into (or out of) my head after seeing your photos. As I said in your other recent thread; Bako was my home away from home for quite a number of years, but only for a few days at a time as this Oregonian can only take so much of that SJV heat. It actually started a few years prior with racing at Mesa Marin or the NSRA events, the first time at Famoso was for Super Chevy Sunday, boy what an eye opener that was. My old high school pal had moved to Bakersfield and invited me down every couple of years but what really hooked me on Bako was the reunions, they sure made me wish I had been born ten years earlier as the front engine dragsters were giving way to the rear engine cars by the time I first stepped foot on a dragstrip. That was about 1970 when I started helping an older friend with his Super Stock hemi Belvedere sedan which led to my interest in having a drag car of my own. Thats a whole nuther thread but thanks again for jogging those good time memories.
Anyone traveling from northern California - be sure to find fm channel 103.3 just south of Fresno. Worth it, commercials and all.
Lived in the Bako,/Taft/Ducor/Porterville area all my life. There is NOTHING here that is attractive to the sophisticated SanFran/LA crowd which make it a wonderful, conservative place to live! and we have Famoso. Life is good.
J the pictures are GREAT! Just how I remember mine from a dumbass kid and teenager! My cameras were a 110 instamatic with a cube flash, if I was lucky! Or the hand me down Minolta srt101 35mm. Film adds character and coolness if you ask me. It's the experiences we put in our cameras in our minds and you my friend had a good one! Thanks for sharing! Joe
tale well spun, having lived the Bakersfield experience personally it took me back to the true grit of the classic facility. The film choice took me back to the glory era of my racing days. Thanx bro
Lurking for years, had to sign up to speak to this thread. Never thought about it, but there are four big moments when you are taking a car to an event. One is putting the car on the trailer at the shop, and setting out. Lots of anticipation. Did you forget anything? Two is taking the car off the trailer at the event. More anticipation. Sizing things up when you get there. Three is putting the car on the trailer after the event. How did things go? Four, it's taking the car off the trailer and putting it back in the shop. The end. Time to unwind, and think about the next event. Helping someone load a car onto the trailer after an event is kind of an intimate moment, if that doesn't sound too weird.
That doesn’t sound weird at all Dutch I know exactly what you meen! There’s something very special about helping people handle their race cars, I think the intimacy you feel is very real. If you think about the time, money, and effort we put into our Hot Rods and race cars it makes a lot of sense as you are literally handling the embodiment of someone’s hopes and dreams.
@J.Ukrop...Great Story, Great Pics and you really caught some vintage flavor with those pics. It's great meeting veterans of the sport as well...however they were involved.
Hey J, Nice story and photos. That takes me back quite a few years to 1960 in Bakersfield. It was the 2nd annual Smokers March Meet event. It was fun filming and spending the whole morning to late afternoon there enjoying the top racers of the day. But, since then, we have gone to Bakersfield plenty of times since my wife's mom and dad moved to Lake Isabella on the other side of the Eastern mountains. It was a destination different from the small Lake Isabella community and the desolate area where they lived. Bakersfield was a big city on the other side of the Southern boundary of the Sequoia Forest hidden from Lake Isabella. A destination? With the surrounding towns called Arvin, Weedpatch and Bodfish, Bakersfield was a little larger and more in tuned to the community events. During the photo shoot days, it was a gas stop on the way to the San Joaquin Valley or the SF Bay. On the way home, it gave our cars a rest stop for that long uphill battle of a South bound Grapevine freeway. In those early photo shoot days, Kodachrome, Ektachrome color slides, and Plus X/Tri X combos were the rage with most photographers. Film was the thing and developing/printing your own stuff was lots of fun and brought anyone back to the core of photography. There is an appreciation to those that still use film cameras and the rare color & b/w films. Jnaki Just before the digital age came into being, I was hit by the advanced film techniques and developing prints at home. So, I invested in a new motorized, Canon AE2 camera and a 300mm auto focus telephoto lens. I was branching out into surf / sailing photography as well. With additional add-ons, I could get a 600mm telephoto for distance photography, yet still use a shorter auto 300. No more creeping up to the starting line at the drags…I could sit back and get great shots from a better location without fighting anyone for ring side seats. But as life intervenes, I was given a digital 35mm size camera and that changed the whole ball game even before I shot one 35mm film photo using my then, NEW, photo equipment. That new stuff got sent to its leather cases and into a cool hall closet. It is still sitting for someone to want/need a new motorized Canon AE2 35mm film camera with assorted regular and zoom lenses plus accessories attached. A package deal… Anyone still interested in a New Canon AE2 film camera and telephoto lens package? WITH 35mm film... The neat thing was/is these new lenses will fit some digital cameras that have the same click mount attachment points. Tenba My old 1966 Asahi Pentax 35mm film camera still sits in a drawer waiting for its glory days to start again. But, alas, digital is still hard to overcome.
"As of late, I’ve been searching to the point of insanity to find that feeling—that grit, that authenticity. Time and time again I ask myself, “What is it about all this stuff that’s so appealing? Is it the speed or the style or the history or the danger or the fact that these cars just make sense?” That’s not a question I’m able to answer today, and I’ll wager I’ll spend the rest of my days trying to pinpoint it." Yep Joey, that feeling is very real and definitely timeless. Having grown up going to Lions I didn't know it but that's what I felt every time my Dad said yes to taking us to the races. My pulse was racing as we turn into the track, I couldn't wait 'til we were parked to get out of the car, running to the fence. The sights, the sounds, and the smells of hot rods and racing are etched into my soul forever. In my shop these days I am surrounded by reminders of those days, old cars, old parts, old magazines and photos of some cars I knew back then. It's easy to stay out here tinkering with my projects and being lost to the world. When events come up it's often hard to convince myself to leave this place and brave the crowds but I'm always glad when I do. There's nothing like going to an historic track, seeing and hearing historic cars, getting a snoot full of nitro, no matter what year it is. It's like a powerful booster shot.
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