Nostalgia Gassers Racing Association

Meltdown Drags
Byron Dragway, Illinois
July 18 – 20, 2014

The 2014 Meldown Drags were like a Nostalgia Gassers Family reunion. Almost all of our members were there. Those who were not, were missed and in turn missed a huge and exciting event.
Racers started arriving Thursday morning and continued to come in thru early Friday. We had a great pit area that we shared with the Great Lakes Gassers. Our two groups have a friendly annual shootout for bragging rights and a traveling trophy. We also shared potluck dinners Friday and Saturday evening. Some of the best food to ever hit a dragstrip parking lot, was enjoyed by all.
The weather for the weekend was perfect. Not a drop of rain and the temps. were midsummer normal.
Racing started Friday with 2 runs. The first run was to establish an ET. The friendly competition started with the second run. Let the bragging begin and bring on the food. Smoked Turkey and Smoked Pork Chops were the main course, provided by the Great Lakes Gassers. They were accompanied by many outstanding sides and deserts from everyone else. Excellent!
Saturday was a great day of racing for our 2 groups. We had 2 more runs and were worked in between the many other divisions of racers. The racing field was huge. This event also hosted a car show that added to the already over the top amount of spectators. We greeted many adults and children, signed hero cards, sold shirts & caps and had a great time.
Saturday evening, more bragging(or not)and more great food. Several of our group provided & grilled the main course of burgers, brats & hotdogs. Again our two groups pitched in with everything else to complete the feast.
After dinner the results of the shootout were announced. This year the Nostagia Gassers(under dogs last year)squeaked by to take the win and claim the traveling trophy. We will proudly display and honor it until next year, when we meet up again with our friends, the Great Lakes Gassers, to defend our title.
Sunday morning brought an exciting addition to the weekend, as we had the honor of meeting Ed Iskenderian & Bones Balogh. What a pleasure it was to meet and chat with these two gentlemen and they were gracious enough to do some autographing on some of our cars.
As Sunday went on, Bz’s Rod Shop sponsored a special race for anyone who wanted to participate. Several of our group signed up and left a little more rubber on the track. Everyone who raced recieved a prize. Shirts, gift cards and several other items were enjoyed by all.
The Blasey’s super fast blue 40 Chevy Coupe was honored with an award from Gasser Wars Magazine.
It was chosen as the “Best Survivor Car” at the track for 2014. Way to go Gary, Lavone, & Brian!
The entire weekend was great with all of our friends and “hats off” to the entire Meltdown crew for hosting such a well planned event.

Jesse & Bertie James

World Series Of Drag Racing
Cordova, Illinois
August 22 & 23, 2014

Bryan Huffman and Ken Kapper arrived early Thurday to stake out our parking. Jess & Bertie James and Steve Bacon moved in later that afternoon. As the weather predictor mentioned, it rained all the way from Wisconsin down to Cordova and it continued off and on most of the evening.

Friday morning, more rain. As the day went on the rest of our racers filed in. Jim Predeau and Danny Mann, Ben Bacon, Bill and Cathy Wamboldt, Gary, Lavon, & Brian Blasey, Ted Beach & crew. Last but not least Randy Tavoletti & friend. Ralph Grote came in with the Crude Crew and spent time with all of us and our good friend Jim Pierick who runs a fast front engine rail. The rain let up some time around noon and they had the track ready for racing shortly there after. June Huffman came in sometime after lunch driving a tricked out 32 Ford pickup. Parked next to their car trailer, it was definitely an eye catcher, especially with a big “For Sale” sign on it. Our group got one run in, mid-evening.

Saturday morning, more rain. This time, it was around 3:00 before racing commenced. Once the rain let up, the spectators came spilling in. We signed many hero cards and enjoyed picture taking and conversation with kids and adults. At around 6 we had our potluck dinner with all the usual fantastic dishes brought by our members. We never go hungry! The group got their first run in around 7:00 and a second one a couple of hours later. The bleachers were packed on both sides of the track. Everyone ran great and the crowd cheered them on. After the racing was completed for the evening, there was a “Meet’n Greet” on the track that several of us attended. This involved a lot more picture taking and signing of hero cards, t-shirts, hats or whatever would soak up a signature. Soooo many nice people. What a great time!

As many of you know, or may not know, it was a bittersweet weekend for the Crude Crew. “Mister Crude” has been retired. It was special to have the whole crew present for the last race of this amazing gasser. Driver- Danny Mann, crew members-Jim Predeau, Bob Hajak & Bob Worrall were all there to give the little orange 9 second Anglia a great send off. As usual it did it’s long smokey burnout and thrilled the crowd to a standing ovation. It has had a long and rich racing career that many of us will not forget. All of us wish the group good luck in their next racing endeavor.

Jesse & Bertie James

August 16th
World Fuel Altered Nationals
Eddyville Raceway
Oskaloosa, Iowa

On Friday the 15th of August, Bryan and June Huffman arrived at Eddyville, Iowa Dragway. Later in the afternoon Mike and Debbie Hoffman arrived. At approximately 4pm it started sprinkling light rain. There were a few breaks in the clouds and the track personnel kept working to dry the track for their Friday night program. Mother nature would not give up and later in the evening they canceled activities for the night.

On Saturday the rest of the group arrived, Mark Campbell and friend Rob, Jesse James and son, Clint and grandson, Steve Cregut [Rat] and brother Dave, Randy [Vandal] Cree and friend,Ken Kapper and Jim[*&^$ Head] . One of our racers decided not to make the trip because of high chanced of rain. With rain for most of the night and continuing sprinkles for the afternoon, it looked like we were not going to race. Late afternoon it finally cleared off and the track personnel went to work drying the track and in about an hour or so they started putting cars down the track. Since we had a odd number of cars Bryan and Randy recruited a fellow with a 64 Falcon to even us out. We gave him a Nostalgia Gasser Shirt to wear and he fit in great with us and had a lot of fun.
At about 6pm we had our pot luck dinner. Once again, plenty of great food for everyone.
At about 7pm we made our first pass. Everything went well and we put on some great burnouts and runs for the crowd. We ran a second pass at about 9:30pm. The dew was starting to come in so we were all careful to make safe runs. The track ran cars until 11pm and then it got too much moisture on the track so they called the rest of the event for the evening. We were done with our show and several members loaded and left. They ran the rest of the Fuel Altereds on Sunday to finish their program.

Even after a all afternoon rain delay the spectators showed up to fill the stands. We all handed out tons of Hero card and signed autographs all afternoon. So in a summary, once again the track was very happy with our show and welcomed us back for next season.
A great time was had by all and we got to run our cars and enjoyed great camaraderie.

Bryan Huffman