Nostalgia Gassers Racing Association

Bonne Terre is a fairly new track owned and operated by Jared Keen and his excellent staff. He has done a great job getting this place in order. The pit area is newly sealed black top and has excellent parking. The concession stand has good food. The track is a little narrow 1/8 mile with about 1300 feet of shut down. The traction is excellent! Return road is fully paved. It is a very nice place to race.

Ken Kapper and I arrived at 5pm on Friday the 23rd and found Rod Urish and crew Richard with their Anglia already there. That evening, we each got in 2 time runs.

Saturday; Dave Walters arrived with his Henry J around 2pm followed by Jack Kaylor and crew, Poppa Jack and grandson little Jack with their Rambler. Then Rob Rothweiller with his 55 Chevy & Mark Campbell and crew Steve Zeiter with their Rambler arrived around 2:30. Ed Miller with his 55 Chevy was about 10 min behind. Mark Dulle with his 63 Nova arrived @ 4:30 after being stuck on the highway from a sudden downpour.

After getting all settled in we got to make our first time run around 6pm and by 6:30 we had a huge downpour. Unfortunately after about an hour and a half of steady rain and another storm on its way, Jared called the race. He thanked us and said he was very pleased with our group.

Report by Ralph Grote

Friday morning, we were excited, to finally be heading out to our first race of the season, at one of our favorite tracks. Mike had hoped our 41 Willys Blue Mule would be the first to arrive so he could at least say he beat Huffman Trucking, 33 Willys pickup, once during the event but Bryan and June were first on the scene. Willys pickups made up the majority, as Bob’s 38 Rat Poison arrived with wheelie bar intact. 52 Henry J’s were well represented by Ken’s yellow Henry and Joe’s Blown Money. Rounding out the field were the James Gang, 40 Willys coupe, Gun Slinger, Jack’s 62 Rumbling Rambler and Rod’s 48 Lost in the 60’s Anglia. Friday evening, we all made a couple of passes before gathering our chairs together to enjoy a cold drink and each others company.

The rains came, despite Accu-weathers prediction, but by morning the clouds passed, allowing the track to dry so the show could go on. Even with the hot humid conditions, the fans loved being able to talk to the drivers and sit in the cars. One young man like the Hero card fine but used his Nostalgia Gasser’s t-shirt for driver autographs.

With completion of our first pass about 4pm, it was time for our group meal. As usual, our members provided a wonderful feast. We were joined by prospective members, Jim and Nancy Anthony, who have a 1965 Nova, Novocain and Bob Browns friend, Randy Ramsdell, who had not raced in 10 yrs. His 1966 Chevy ll with a small block 406 consistently ran 6.20 which gave him the win in the 6.99 and faster class. Congrats Randy.

Another 2 rounds of friendly competition completed the days on track activities with no major malfunctions to report. Kaylor’s, Kaufman’s, Urish and Brown all packed up to make the drive home, while the rest of us extended the visit, camping out for the night, pulling out in the morning.

Our next event will be a new venue in Bonne Terre MO June 25th, set up by Ken Kapper. Come on out and see the Nostalgia Gassers in action!

Respectfully submitted by
Mike and Debbie Hoffman

A great and busy weekend of drag racing took place in Havanna. We arrived Friday afternoon to find Bryan & June Huffman and Dave Walters & Jungle Denny already homesteading on the great spot reserved for our group. Jess & I pulled in with Bill Eveland and Jack & Judy Kaylor right behind us. We were all invited to do some test and tune. A few of us took advantage since the weather was so great.

Bryan Huffman got some new Hoosier slicks he wanted to try. He was happy they ran with beautiful launches and straight as an arrow. Bill Eveland had to do a little adjustment on his fan belt. With all of the new improvements he made over the winter, he also found that the Injun requires a little more fuel.

Saturday morning the rest of our group arrived putting us at 9 racers. Gary, Lavon & Brian Blasey and “The Beach Boys”, Ted, Joe, Brandon & their crew all spoke of driving in the rain most of the way. They were happy to find us dry and with sunny skies.

We started our passes early with 2 before lunch. Early afternoon we had 2 passes and as evening rolled around we had 2 more.

In doing 6 passes in one day, everyone had a chance to pair up with each other. The announcer enjoyed the friendly competition between the Beaches. It is always fun to see Dads and Sons face off. Looks like Joe owes Dad Ted a steak dinner.

Brandon Beach & Jesse James had a pretty fair shootout with one redlighting and the other starting in 2nd gear. We will just guess at who did what.

The track asked our racers to do a parade lap during the evening performance. They were greeted with many cheers and thumbs up for all their efforts.

As always we had a great potluck. Dave Walters & Jungle Denny supplied and grilled burgers, brats & buns. The rest of us brought everything else to complete the meal.  We have some of the best cooks at the track.
After dinner, Jack & Judy Kaylor left to help out at the I 57 track in Benton, Ill. Our group had 2 events to cover this weekend. One of the other racers scheduled for I 57 had some mechanical difficulties. Jack & Judy Kaylor stepped-up to cover that spot. Thanks to the Kaylors.

We all had a fun weekend and are looking forward to coming back to Havanna again in September.

Jesse & Bertie James

We arrived at Cordova Raceway around 4:00 PM. It was again pleasant to be greated by familiar faces at the check in gate. The weather was forcasted for sunshine and comfortable temperatures with “no rain”. Yee Haw! We were not dissapointed, it was picture perfect.

Bryan & June Huffman, Steve Rice & his son Stevie were already parked when we rolled in. Shortly after, Bill Eveland came to complete our group for the evening. A few test’n tune runs were made by Steve and Bill to try and work out some Spring gremlins.

Saturday morning the rest of our group trickled in including Joe & Ellen Kaufman, Bill & Cathy Wamboldt, Glen Steinhoffer, and our very own “Beach Boys” Ted, Joe, & Brandon. Last but not least, Randy Tavoletti and his crew. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, one of our members was unable to make the trip. Tom Hanson, who lives in the Cordova area, graciously accepted an offer to make some passes with us. His 42′ Studebaker was a nice addition to our group. This put us back to an even number of 12.

We were scheduled to make 2 passes on Saturday and 1 pass on Sunday. However, it escalated to 3 passes each day.

Attrition set in Saturday afternoon. Bill Eveland had done quite a bit of work on his Pontiac over the winter so some adjustments were in order. After a couple runs, his drive shaft decided it couldn’t handle the new power and went south. New member, Glen Steinhoffer, had a fuel cell leak that put his Willys out for the rest of the weekend. The last pass on Saturday evening sent Randy Tavoletti to his trailer when his power glide said “no more”. Joe Beach had a rear end problem but after some serious wrenching, he was up and running. Due to our group dwindling, our Chairman Bryan Huffman recruited a fast little straight axle Nova, pitted across from us. He ran a couple of rounds and dropped out when his shifter broke.

Since we were so busy racing, trying to squeeze in our Saturday evening potluck was tricky. We decided to wait until our last pass of the evening was over. Thanks to Cathy Wamboldt’s quick and talented grill skills, we were enjoying burgers with all the trimmings and the rest of the wonderful food our group always supplies. Nobody eats better than we do.

Sunday we ran smoothly with the group that was left.

A few of us will be ordering parts and putting things back together. It’s all part of racing and I am sure they will be up and running soon.

It was fun to see everyone again and we are looking forward to the next race.

Jesse & Bertie James

On May 13 & 14, 2016 the Nostalgia Gassers Racing Association attended the Hot Rod Racer Reunion Drags. Attending were Bryan Huffman, Jack Kaylor, Mark Cambpell, Rob Rothweiller, Ken Kapper, Rod Urish, Bob Mitchell, and Ed Miller.

On Friday it was tune & test and passenger night. There were tons of cars on Friday night making runs with lots of riders. Those Missouri people know how to have fun as there were lots of tune & test.

The Gassers made several tune runs with passengers. A lot of people had a lot of fun riding in the gassers. We had our Saturday meal with lots of good food and a lot of FISH, from WalMart, It was very good and we told the fisherman they did a lot of work. Thanks to our cooks and we all got a lot to eat.

All in all, we made a lot of runs and a great time was had by all.
Bryan Huffman