Between
true Cacklefest events there are several cars in the "family"
that serve as goodwill ambassadors doing displays, charity functions
and appearances at large public events. Such was the case at
the 59th annual Grand National Roadster Show at the Fairplex
in Pomona, CA where 12 cacklecars drew thousands of roadster,
hot rod and custom car fans to their displays and fire ups.
Organized by Ron Johnson of Cacklefest.com and help from the
Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum, the cars were welcomed with
open arms by the shows promoter, John Buck who gave them all
premier spots for maximum exposure. Ten cars were housed indoors
and three outside as they were doing fire ups all weekend.
Without further ado, enjoy these photos documenting the show.
Photos by: Darrell Conrad, Pam Schavrien,
John Ewald, Ron Johnson
The veiw heading to Pomona
on a SoCal winter day.
Ron Johnson's "Ivo Barnstormer"
before it enters the show hall. At the end of the day it won
2nd place in the dragster division only bettered by the Ivo Showboat.
The coveted Best of Show
trophy.
Barnstormer owner, Ron Johnson,
chassis innovator Kent Fuller (who built the original Showboat)
and "TV Tommy" Ivo in the recreation of his 1960 4-engine
Buick dragster. The perfect recreation was done by Bruce Dyda
of Dyda Race Eng. The dragster was so good it won best of show
in the race car class.
Famous car painter and
ex-drag racer Bill Carter stopped by and of couse, Ivo was all
smiles.
The indoor cars
were some real beauties like the Mondello & Matsubara AA/FD
restored by Karpo Murkijanian and Pete Eastwood.
Bobby Hansen's restored
Wynns Spoiler AA/FD.
The Yeakel Plymouth
Spec. originally owned by Lou Baney and Vince Rossi and driven
by Tom McEwen was restored by the Baney-Rossi-Goble families
and is now among the crown jewels of cacklecars. This beauty
took home 3rd place in the highly contested Dragster division.
Here's the multi-car display.
McCloud Bros. Bluestreak Spec. front and center, to the left,
Doug Robinson's Horsepower Eng AA/FD. Behind McCloud is Bobby
Hansen Wynns car, Trevor Larkin's dragster and Don Prieto's Hustler
V. Behind Robinson is the Shubert & Herbert fueler, Ken Blackmore's
Poison Ivy entered by Jay Carpenter and Bob DeBurn. At the very
end of the row is the Yeakel car entered by Frank Baney.
Gary Beck's 32 roadster was way behind the group in the far corner
of the building and the outstanding (first prize winning) C-10
pickup of the LaMarche family was back there too. Connie LaMarche
has push started the Barnstormer with his 50's F-100.
McCloud Bros. Bluestreak
Spec. AA/FD
Trevor Larkin's SBC powered
cacklecar.
Doug Robinson's Horsepower Eng
AA/FD. This was the debut of the car that Doug has kept since
he last race in 1966. Sitting in his shop, basically in tact,
Doug finally gave in to numerous requests for him to restore
this famous piece and when he finally did it - he did it right.
Ken Blackmore's Poison
Ivy AA/FD.
Ron Hope in front of
the Paradise Alley and Hustler V dragsters.
John Ewald and Doug Bush of D&S
Custom Plating who does all the chrome work on cackle and show
cars...great guy
Before putting Doug in the Mastercar
for a fire-up, John does his patented pre-fire monolog. He uses
a loudspeaker system in the rig to explain to the crowd the history
of the cars, the particulars of the engine and the facts about
nitro. To most this makes the actual fire-up much more interesting.
Ron Hope and Mousie
Marcellis - two old AA/FA guys.
On hand for autographs were some
cast members of "The Pharos" from the 1974 classic,
American Graffiti including Bo Hopkins and Manuel Padia.
Padia was offered a seat in the
BankAmericar for one of its scheduled fire-ups and jumped at
the opportunity.
The only other cacklecar outside
and in action was Ron Sterns with the Ratican-Jackson-Stearns
A/FA.
The man who built the BankAmericar
in 1969, John Buttera, and his family were on hand and posed
for this shot with the last front engine dragster he ever built.
Wayne Phillips is in charge of
maintaining the museum cars and is always a great help at the
shows and races the cacklecars appear.
Talk about having this deal down
pat, Ewald posts the event fire-up times to ensure maximum crowd
attendance.
Crew Chief Bob Danly
wacks the throttle for the fans.
We now have our youngest cackle
driver yet... John Buck, the owner and promother of the Grand
National Roadster Show had his 5 year old son in his lap..yep,
he dug it.
Kerry Morris, who always helps
push start our cars at Cacklefests gets his turn the the Mastercar.
Annika Buck, wife of
show promoter John Buck.
Mikey Cravens, who with his father,
runs IKON Powder Coatings located in nearby Anaheim and they
specialize in race, show cars and hot rods.
Best of Show
Ivo & Cars
Video from Show
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