Back at the track one car that
had no shortage of attention was the Smirnoff AA/FD owned and
restored by Joe Passelaqua (below).
Leading the multi-car cackle
teams is Bucky Austin who rolled in claiming his own zip code
with 5 cars including Jerry Ruth AA/FD, Dead End Kids A/FD, Eagle
Electric AA/FD, Austin Bros. Northwest Hitter AA/GD and the first
Jr. Fuel cacklecar. It's not clear if the car is a restoration,
recreation or partial recreation. It was a Woody originally.
Jerry King is the owner and he raced in the late 60's into the
70's.
Cacklefest staples Kuhl &
Olson. Just visible to the right is the magnificent restoration
Mike Kuhl just completed of an original Mr. Ed trailer.
Ron Johnson's pit was the home
to his two red beauties - the new Barnstormer and the seasoned
Shubert & Herbert car.
Cacklecar Row
John Ewald's Mastercar and the
Ewald Bros. BankAmericar were lost between the massive rigs of
Tom Hanna and Bucky Austin.
The Mondello & Matsubara
AA/FA restored by Karpo Murkijanian and Pete Eastwood could not
have come out better. A real work of art.
John Loukas finally got
his old shoe Neil Leffler out of the woods and into the car.
The Grand daddy of cacklecars
- Bill Pitt's "Magicar"
One of the many cool sights over
the weekend was watching NHRA Chief Starter, Rick "The Iceman"
Stewart climb into the Howards Cams Ratter for a fire-up.
Dusty McWilliams making
sure the injector blade seal after an engine whack.
Needless to say, Stewart really
enjoyed this deal. If was the first time he'd been in a fuel
dragster since 1967.
Is Rick thinking, what
am I doing at the Big Show? These guys have all the fun!
With John Ewald and Bob
Danly looking on, Don Ewald warms the BankAmericar.
The Mooneyes dragster
was on hand but did not participate in Cacklefest.
What the hell? Yep, for the first
time a Blown Fuel Hydro (now the first cackleboat) was added
to the Cacklefest program. Mary Rife was drag boat racing's answer
to her land counterpart, Shirley Muldowney. The only difference
is that not one female followed in Mary's shoes - at least in
Blown Fuel Hydros.
In 2004 Mary found her old 1973
boat in California and decided to buy and restore it. The end
result of her and husband Scotty McCally's labor was alive and
well at Bakersfield. For the many of us who followed and participated
in drag boat racing it was a real sight to see. The entire restoration
and Mary career are documented on WDIFL.com.
Now here's proof that boat racers
can thrash with the best of them. When they warmed the engine
for the first time on Friday there was no oil pressure. So, with
the help of a tractor, they yanked the engine out and fixed the
problem (pump shaft). They fired it again 3 hours later.
Then and now.... wow.
The art work on the McCloud
Bros. nose is really trick.
Tom Hanna took cacklecar rigs
to a new level with his new 45 foot 2007 transporter fit for
a king (in this case, his car).
The rig easily transports
two dragsters and a push car.
One can only scratch their head
or laugh hysterically when they roll out the Creitz & Donovan
car from the top deck of the trailer. The front wheel dollies
are not that baffling but the rear ..... ?
Another Cacklefest first
timer was the Shrank Bros. car.
Old time East coast drag racing
photographer Charles Milikin Jr.got a huge thrill firing up the
Stellings & Hampshire fueler.
It was not by any means the quickest
restoration on record as it took Bill Turney, with the help of
his Tucson buds, four years to get Chuck Griffith's "Starlite
III" AA/FD from a barn rat to one of the nicest pieces anywhere.
Bill Turney watches as Jim Allen
who lettered the car and also pinstriped it puts on the 1965
United States Drag Racing Team sticker that were reproduced honoring
the 1964 and 1965 British International Drag Festivals.
The Starlite was pitted
in the Speed Sport camp.
"The Grove"
was home to about half the cacklecars.
Among the cars in The Grove were
Dennis Prater's "Stellings & Hampshire" car and
the well traveled Frantic 4 fueler.
Another new entry was the unique
Tognotti's Speed Shop car. They ran out of time to get it "live"
for this years Cacklefest. But they promise to make flames in
2008.
With so many incredible restorations
hitting the deck every year its gotten to hard to pick a "Belle
of the Ball" anymore but if we were, the Yeakel Plymouth
Special would be deep in the running.
Tom McEwen with his 1965
ride.
Engine builder Mike Kuhl
oversees a Friday fireup.
Although it was on the lot for
the 2006 CHRR, Dave Beck's "Warren-Coburn-Miller" restoration
was done and running for 2007. This was another marathon project
that was well worth the wait.
A big welcome back to Ed Cortopassi
and his Glass Slipper. This was Ed's first Cacklefest for 4 years.
John Ewald warms up his
Mastercar on Saturday.
Mark McCormick warms
up Ron Johnson's Barnstormer.
The Chubasco fueler was
on hand again this year but did not do the Cacklefest.
Talk about a bad fit! Jerry Gross
got a fire-up in the Frantic 4 car and obviously he's way bigger
that Norm Weekly.
Jay Carpenter warms up
The Syndicate.
Double your pleasure,
double your fun!
Talk about a nitro fix!
Brian Kaplan samples the goods in the Vagabond pit.
Leave it to Big - here is his
latest addition to the Swamp Rat fleet. A new (really new) 392
Chrysler Hemi between the frame rails of Swamp Rat XIII. Don't
know if it ever fired but it sure looks different.
A work in progress is Larry Anderson's
newest project - the 1965-1966 Zeuschel-Fuller-Nix AA/FD restoration.
You can look for this guy to debut in 2008.
Here's an oldie for sure.
The "Trick Part" award
went to Tom Hanna for his incredible "injector primer".
The small tank hidden under the scoop is filled with gas and
when Tom first pushes the throttle the tank rotates on a cam
and dumps the gas into the injector. It then locks into place
freeing the throttle pedal to actually fire the engine on nitro.
During breaks Friday and Saturday
the required practice push starts (new car or driver) were pushed
up the strip (or up the push road) to insure (hopefully) they
would not have a problem during Cacklefest. Here Butch Maas gets
a feel for the Creitz & Donovan car.
Dave Jeffers prepares
to push the Dead End Kids.
Don Hampton waits his turn in
Bucky Austin's Eagle Electric car. Ringleader Steve Gibbs pacing
the action.
Jack Jones in the Northwest
Hitter.
Tom Hanna waits to try
out his new engine primer.
Jerry King test fires
his slick Jr. Fuel car.
Trevor Larkin give it
a go.
Terry Maestrejuan isn't
new to his car but did a practice push anyway.
Even The Ace had to go
back to school.
Mike Leach pushes down
in The Poachers for a burnout.
Jessica Anderson goes
for a practice start in The Vagabond.
Second generation driver
Jimmy Scott Jr. does his test in Poison Ivy.
Bill Crosby finally got
a chance to push start his Scorpion V and this was his first
test.
Mike Kuhl makes final checks
of the engine while Paul Rossi gets ready for the first push
start of the Yeakel Plymouth Special.
On Sunday Cindy Gibbs got the
final Mastercar fireup of the weekend and we all know how much
Cindy likes fire ups!
Keeping with the current theme,
Valerie Harrell then got to fire the BankAmericar for its fuel
tank drain.
CHRR
Cacklefest Page 1
CHRR
Cacklefest Page 3
CHRR Cacklefest Page 4
2006
CHRR Cacklefest DVD
 |
