Fans raved so much about the wildly popular Golden Corral car show at the 50th Anniversary Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals in February that NHRA will replicate the show at the upcoming 46th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Nov. 11-14, at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
Dubbed Hot Rod Junction, this car show will have a few new wrinkles – most notably the winning cars from this year’s Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California Twilight Cruise Nights – as well as many of those that made the Golden Corral so successful: It will be in the same location, adjacent to the main entry gate, and it will again include all-time classic hot rods, such as Tommy Ivo’s Barnstormer AA/FD, Chris Karamesines’ Chizler AA/FD, and Roland Leong’s Hawaiian dragster that Mike Snively and Don Prudhomme drove.
“It’s a real treat for the fans, a chance to see and enjoy the history of the sport, from world-record-setting Top Fuel dragsters from the golden age of drag racing to hot rods to street rods to some of the Bonneville cars,” said NHRA Museum board member and retired NHRA Vice President Steve Gibbs, who added that many of the cars’ owners and original drivers will be there to chat with fans and sign autographs. “We’re going to have a real wide variety of cars … it’s Hot Rod Junction.”
Among the treats for drag racing aficionados will be Art and Walt Arfons’ Green Monster rear-engine dragster that “set the drag racing world on its end” in the 1950s by adding as much as 20 mph to the norm with runs in the 150- and 160-mph range, according to Gibbs.
He said the Green Monster, which has an Allison World War II aircraft V-12/1,700-cubic-inch engine that cranked out more than 2,000 horsepower, sat for years before recently being fully restored by Jon Rowley.
"This is the car,” Gibbs stated emphatically, “not a replica. It’s quite a car, and it’s great to have it back fully restored for presentation.”
In all, there will be about 30 invited cars such as the Green Monster, 14 of the 2010 NHRA Hot Rod Heritage Racing Series champions, and approximately 40 street tods that earned their spot as a Cruise Night winner.
The owners of the street rods on display, such as Leonard Knight ('39 Ford Deluxe coupe), Robert Siminger ('29 Ford Model A Tudor), and Linda Hopper ('58 Corvette), live locally.
Entry into the Hot Rod Junction car show is free with a paid event admission. For ticket information for the 46th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, the final race in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season, log on to NHRAtix.com or call 800-884-NHRA (6472).