The Fifth Annual Gasser Magazine Reunion at Thompson Raceway Park (formerly Thompson Drag Raceway) in beautiful northeast Ohio is now in the record books…the weather record books, that is.  For the second year in a row, the eliminations were rained out.  That was a bummer, but everyone had a good time anyway.  There’s nothing like a little rain to get the bench racing going and the old photo albums passed around.  Remember, this is a reunion and “The older we are, the faster we were!”

 I love this event!  Why else would I spend 15 hours or so each way driving, waiting in airports and sitting in really cramped airplanes?  (All airplanes are really cramped when one happens to be 6’4” and 235 pounds unless one can afford 1^st class…and I can’t!)

Okay, here’s how it was supposed to go.  There were 4 basic groups of classes.  First were the nostalgia gassers, A/GS through H/G. 

The feature class was A/GS with the track putting up a $1500 purse ($1000 to the winner).  The rules for A/GS were pretty simple.  In addition to the same rules set up for the rest of the nostalgia gassers, it was “Supercharged cars only, heads-up, no index, no wings, .400 Pro Tree.”  There were six cars entered, Jeff Cryan in the Ron Bizio 33 Willys pickup,  Richard Duecker’s “Bad Boy” 33 Willys, Mike Hill’s 53 Studebaker, Ken Kull in the “Red Baron II” 33 Willys pickup, Greg Mauchamer in the “Classical Gas” 33 Willys, and Rocky Pirrone in the “Boss Hydro” 33 Willys.

A/G thru G/G were all set up on half-second indexes as head-up classes except for H/G which was a dial-in class for cars running 12 seconds and slower.

Next were the Pro Gas classes.  These classes were for gassers that didn’t meet the nostalgia gas rules, for example; wings, two-steps, etc.  Four classes were included, A/Pro through D/Pro following Goodguys indexes.

For cars that didn’t fit in the other classes, there were the Hot Rod classes, HR1 and HR2.  These were classes for roadsters, fenderless coupes, pony cars, and anyone with a gasser who preferred running dial-ins rather than heads-up indexes.

For the dragsters and altereds, there was one dial-in Comp class. 

Last but not least, the track set up a Super Stock dial-in class for…well…super stockers.

The idea was, and will continue to be in the future, that although the meet is, in fact, a nostalgia GASSER meet, anyone with a nostalgia car can come and find a class in which to race.

The way the schedule was set up, Friday and Saturday were open for time runs, grudge races, etc. with Friday evening set up for a “Gamblers Race”.  Saturday evening was another Gamblers Race along with exhibition runs.  Eliminations were scheduled for Sunday.

As I said, that’s how it was supposed to go. 

What happened was Friday and Saturday both saw several hours of time runs, bracket racing, and exhibition runs.  On Saturday, in fact, it ran late into the night with the final runs taking place well after midnight.  There was a ton of racing taking place and a lot of great wheelstands, smoky burnouts and great runs.

Sunday, the eliminations were rained out completely.

Despite the weather, gassers were everywhere!  There were a number of “survivor” cars, real “from the day” gassers still around with little, if any, updating.  There were the popular recreations of the old style gassers.  There were modern gassers, tubbed and slammed.  There were “Pro” style gassers, able to run deep into the sevens.  There were Willys, Anglias, Austins, Henry Js, tri-five Chevies (and a Ford or two), Plymouths, and pretty much anything else that a gasser can be made from. 

The best part of this meet, for me, is the people involved.  Rain or no rain, one can talk with some great folks.  I don’t want to start naming names, because I KNOW I’ll forget many of them and I really don’t want to insult anyone by leaving them out.  You can spend hours listening to stories of “back in the day”.  Some of the stories are even true!  When you come to the meet next year, don’t be afraid to introduce yourself to one of the many legends there.  You’ll find that, to a man (and woman) that they’ll be friendly and more than willing to chat with you.  It can be a real education.

To sum it all up, if you like gassers and the people who race them, “Ya shoulda been there!”