This was the first event of its kind, a massive tribute to the Spirit of Lions (Drag Strip) that came from the vision of Rick Lorenzen who has done well in business and has an intense love of drag racing and a personal connection with Lions. In just a year Lorenzen turned one of his huge warehouses into memory lane.

The saying, "You build it and they will come." could not be more appropriate than here. The attendence was beyond expectations and it turned out to be one of those who's who of drag racing deals.

Aside from the mind boggling indoor displays of vintage cars and sets, the 20+ fuel cacklecars outside was the big show. There were some cars that never ran at Lions and they were not part of the push fire-ups. Only cars that actually graced the 1/4 mile at "The Beach" were featured. The cool part was the air was full of nitro, the only downside was it was in bright daylight.

All this said, this event is best shared in photos and now that I have the time to embed them here they are. The first page are shots taken by Don Ewald, The second page is shots from Dave Kommel who has been shooting the sport for decades.

Note the movies on the marquee. In front of the Granada were all the cars featured in these movies. It is not clear which ones are the real deal or just perfect recreations.

Darrell & Pam Conrad's restored Veney's Vega was on display in the loading dock.

As we head outside to the Big Show, the Veney's Vega restoration of Darrell and Pam Conrad is the last thing you see.

This marked the debut of the restored Walton Cerny & Moody RED from 1972. The principles were Darielle Moody and Hal Sanguinetti. This is the real deal car per Don Long, who built it.

At the right end on the line where cars than never raced at Lions. They would be static start only which they did prior to the Lions cars.

This also marked the return of the Godfather of cacklecars, Bill Pitts with his Magicar. As it should be, original driver Jeep Hampshire was in the seat. The Pitts family had a very rough 2016 and it was great to see them back in the fold.

Down the line Ron Johnson was waiting for the cue to fire the Barnstormer with Tommy Ivo in the seat.

As usual, Steve Gibbs was the one who turned the dogs loose one at a time.

Next across the lot was the Waterman & Hampshire Clearspark car with Ronnie Hampshire in the seat.

Ron Johnson's Shubert & Herbert aka Shooby powered by a small block Chevy on nitro. Original driver Zane Shubert in the seat.

The next rumble came from Gerry Glenn in the Schultz & Glenn championship car.

Cherie Glenn in the Warren-Coburn-Miller restoration owned by Mike Aaby & Alan Workman.

When the Freight Train shut off it was back social time aka bench racing.

All the cars were left in place for the second fire-up that took place a couple of hours later.