California Hot Rod Reunion 2004

What could possibly possess normally rational human beings to go on an endless quest to find a large hunk of 35 year old pipe and tin? What rationale could justify spending thousands of dollars to restore or recreate a ghost from the past? What magical moment can bring grown men to tears and for a awhile - a short while - erase decades of time and make an old dog feel like a young pup?

Page One

There are some things in life meant for the night... candlelight dinners and fine wine, cruising the strip, fireworks shows, vampires and paramount to us - nitromethane! After the success of last year's Saturday night show, this years schedule included the first round of the 16 car Top Fuel show, the newly initiated "Cackle Parade", and of course, Cacklefest under the lights. At sundown the stands were packed and they were four deep at the fences. You could shoot a cannon in the pits and not hit a soul. This is what most came for and believe me - they got it.

Since there were 40 cars this year (and the newly added parade) I'm going to try to share the entire experience with those who couldn't make it and of course for those who were there but too overwhelmed to absorb it all. If you like this expanded coverage, let me know. If you don't I'll just go back to showing the Cacklefest itself as this new format is VERY time consuming. I will keep the commentary at a minimum as most of the photos speak for themselves. And speaking of the photos - keep in mind I can only publish what I get so if you or your car got slighted, send any shots you have!

Cacklefest officially went into gear on Saturday afternoon when Steve Gibbs and Greg Sharp held the "drivers-owners meeting".

During the day some of the car/driver combinations did test push starts... priming the pump for the real deal that night. This is Cacklefest newbie, Herm Petersen in Chris Karamesines' 1968 car.

Another newbie, Zane Shubert in Ron Johnson's "Shubert & Herbert" repop.

Dave West did it one better in his Beebe & Mulligan car with a push start and burnout.

With the staging lanes stone empty, at 6:00 p.m. the first call went out for Top Fuel and the Cacklefest cars. By 7:00 p.m, the left four lanes were full of 16 NTF cars and the right five lanes were full of 40 Cacklecars. A sight in itself.

Master Car and the yellow Greer-Black-Prudhomme beauty.

Newly painted Stellings & Hampshire

BankAmericar

John Ewald, Bob Danly and Alex Mikkelsen (aka the Master Car guys.

Rick (I never smile) McDonald and Bill "Mr. Cacklefest" Pitts.

John (I always smile) Loukas

Sunset - the Nostalgia Top Fuel drivers are suiting up.

Hustler I

Hannamobile

Bob Painton's John Wiebe restoration.

As the nitro thunder of the first round of Top Fuel fills the air, Jeep Hampshire takes a nap.

Pete Eastwood ready to go in his Samurai.

"Lonesome George" Bolthoff is ready....

Bobby Langley chomping at the bit to get the deal going.

Hard telling what Ron Rivero is chomping on.

In previous years the Cacklecars were just staged at the top end and pushed down with the announcer trying to tell the fans who they were over the engine noise. This year the fans were treated to a slow parade down the track so everyone could see the cars prior to them firing up. Appropriately, Dave McClelland did the introductions as the cars, drivers and crews passed by the starting line. This format will be a fixture as the fans loved it. Here they are in the order they were introduced.