2017 Hot Rod Dirt Drags
The 2016 Hot Rod Dirt Drags were so much fun I just had to come back for a second helping this year. Nick’s Hot Rod Garage puts on the Hot Rod Dirt Drags and the Hot Rod Hill Climb in Colorado each year and they’ve quickly become two of my favorite events in the country. This year the 2017 Hot Rod Dirt Drags had some surprises, but we’ll get to that tomorrow.
The rest of the formula stayed pretty much the same, bring together about 100 amazing mostly traditional hot rods to recreate the drag races of the old days in Colorado when the racers were drag racing on dirt for lack of many concrete tracks, then add in the amazing location of the Best Western Movie Manor in Monte Vista, CO and you have a recipe for an epic weekend.
Thursday evening I was supposed to hook up the Galaxie to the camper and head west, but the passenger side exhaust manifold had other plans. So a couple of quick phone calls later I had a ride lined up to pull the camper the nearly 600 miles out to the San Luis Valley community of Monte Vista. In the 1955 a drive in movie theatre was built on a property adjacent to an old dirt airstrip, it was big enough for 300 or so cars to enjoy a movie. The snack building and projector room were also part of the same structure that the owner’s family lived in. 9 years later a 14 room hotel was added at the back edge of the theatre and built in such a way that the rooms could all see the drive in screen. Later another section of hotel was built bringing the total up to around 60 rooms that were all filled this weekend. A 2nd movie screen was added in 2003 as well.
When Mike “Nick” Nicholas was talking with some of the old guard of the Colorado hot rod world he heard stories of them racing on dirt air strips and came up with the idea to revive Colorado dirt drag racing and the Hot Rod Dirt Drags was born. When researching dirt air strips he found this location and it’s the perfect spot for the event.
More on the story in tomorrow’s post, if you’re reading this on the website you can subscribe and get all of the car show coverage updates delivered right to your email inbox.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
Buy a print (click on the image for the shopping cart) if you like a photo!
See you at a show,
Royboy
Support Royboy Productions!!!
The easiest way (which costs you nothing) is to share this post! IF you like this post, share it with your car friends using the social media sharing buttons below or just by sending them the link to this page. Every set of eyeballs on the site helps!
Thanks!