Hot Rods and Kustom Cars
It’s that time of year again! Time for the 2015 Calendar For Charity! For the 7th year I take some of my favorite photos from the year and I use them to create some of the koolest calendars that you can find anywhere. 100% of the profits go to the Wounded Warrior Project.
There were lineups from just about every combination of vehicles that you could imagine at the 2014 Duck Drags. It was a lot of fun to see what came to the line together and see who could pull of the win.
I’d been hearing for a couple of year about the DuckusCrapus Drags at Tulsa Raceway Park. DuckusCrapus.com is a website that has amongst other things an active forum. The drags are a way for the members of the site to come together and have some fun at the strip. Lots of great cars were there and I got some fun photos. If you see a photo that you’d like to have as a print, click on it to go to the gallery page where the photos live and you’ll see a “Buy Photos” button that allows you to pick any size you want.
Shortly after noon a bunch of us got directions from the Old Geezer Show promoter Bill Baker for a good place to go eat. Turns out his suggestion was a bit odd to outside appearances. The place is named Tractor’s and it’s in a Shell gas station. Well, I’ve eaten at weirder joints.
Although the overall turnout may not have been big, some seriously nice rides were in the mix. Thanks to an unruly tractor owner who wouldn’t move his John Deere we couldn’t get quite the shot we wanted of the Mercs all together, although I did get some later in the day after we moved a few around. The day was full of good friends, stories and good times at the Old Geezer Show.
For the second year in a row I trekked down to Lamar, MO for the Old Geezer Show. A small town with a small show that’s big on quality and awesome people. A horrible forecast kept the attendance down a bit but what was there was pretty great.
With the numbers down due to the weather, it didn’t take long for me to cover the show. I hated to, but with a 10.5 hour drive ahead of us we decided to get on the road early and make it home in 1 drive stint and save the hotel fees. Thanks to John Wells and everyone involved for putting on a great event and having a couple of Kansas boys up for a great time.
As the day went on the sun even peeked out a few times, although not for long. The cars just kept rolling in.
The rain turned to snow which turned back to rain, really more of a mist than really rain. Just enough to be annoying but not enough to keep me from having the camera out shooting photos. The cars kept rolling in throughout the day, into the main show area, the preferred parking and even into the indoor show spaces. The weather wasn’t kind to the pinup contestants but they were TROOPERS and went on anyways. I was not envious.
The cool weather and precipitation might have kept some folks away but those of us that traveled to the show were going no matter what at that point. I made sure to publicly shame anyone on Facebook into showing up :). If a little inclement weather keeps you from hanging out with the rod/kustom family, well then you just don’t have your priorities right, especially when the show is to benefit a great cause like Helping Hannah’s Heart.
In 2012 a new show arrived on the scene. A weekend had been vacated by the Hunnert Car Pileup ending it’s run. The new show was put on by a friend so of course I had no problem driving 701 miles each way to check out a 1 day show. The weather was less than pleasant, but the turnout was fantastic. 2013 I didn’t make the show due to attending another event, so when the date for the show changed in 2014, I booked a room and made plans to attend the 2014 Iron Invasion.
The show fliers all call out for traditional hot rods and kustoms only. The crowd did a pretty good job this year of sticking to that with minimum whining. I hope in the years to come we can see this show turn into another fantastic time capsule type show featuring the timeless styles of of the old days while encouraging folks to build their own rides in a way that will never go out of style.
Dan’s Model A
When the announcement was made that the Rumble would be moved to Commerce Street I was excited. I’d heard of the shows that I missed at the Go Away Garage years ago. I thought maybe, just maybe some of that mojo was left and this show could pick up on it. A few of the same folks are still involved, so why not?
Johnny Hammann’s 47 Chevy
I’ve been attending the Rumble since 2009 when it was the Rumble in Delano and held accordingly in the Delano District of Wichita. The venue has changed, the date has changed and those are hard things for a show to survive. The Primary’s Car Club that puts the event on has done a great job weathering the changes and they are on track to take this cool show to new levels over the next few years if the 2014 Rumble is any indication. Though the show is still relatively small compared to many others, they have a vision, some good folks to put it together and they have a great location. The job now is to get the word out to the folks out there how cool of an event this is and encourage even more folks to show up next year.
The Galaxie parked amongst my friends’ rides. The plan was to get up early and head down to Arkansas City for the Last Run then to head up to Wichita to the Rumble. After being up late working on the 2015 Calendar For Charity Friday night I overslept and ended up skipping Arkansas City. The Rumble was awesome, the best one yet.
This was a fantastic event, getting to stand between the cars, getting close up action, breathing the nitro fumes, feeling the soul shaking power of the cars. Man o man the 2014 Nitro National was great time!
After a 3.5 hour drive from the Ol Marais River Run in Ottawa, KS down to Tulsa, I was finally at the 2014 Nitro Nationals at Tulsa Raceway Park. By the time that I got to TRP the car show was pretty much over, I’d been seeing cars headed north for the final 50 or so miles of the trip, so I expected to not see many cars at the show portion of the event.
As with last year I had to run down to Oklahoma for another event. The Ol Marais River Run still had cars showing up as I left but I had the Nitro Nationals at Tulsa Raceway Park to get to.
The show is big, and getting bigger every year, the Saturday night cruise I haven’t made yet but I hear it’s a blast, if your cooling system is up to it. For the previous 3 or so years the Ol Marais River Run show has been hit by rain, this year that was the forecast all week leading up to the show but Thursday that changed and as far as I know it didn’t rain during the day time at all.
I’ve been attending the Ol Marais River Run in Ottawa, KS for the last few years. This lil ol show in a small town has grown to one of the largest shows in the region. There were over 1600 cars at the event by about noon on Saturday.
On my way up to the Hot Rod Hill Climb (coverage here) I stopped in Ellis, KS at Big Creek Restoration for a shop visit.
Final post of the 2014 Hot Rod Hill Climb
After everyone went up the hill, well they had to come back down…
The T-33 replica making it’s first pass up Leavenworth Mountain in the 2014 Hot Rod Hill Climb.
I was absolutely floored by the almost mythically rare speed parts that were not only there, but on cars that were being flung up the mountain. Like the best museum ever except the parts are sitting there to be dusted, they were on the cars and being used. I just can’t get over all that I saw at the Hot Rod Hill Climb. Here are the photos from my perch on the side of the mountain.
Saturday morning of the Hot Rod Hill Climb I skipped breakfast at the hotel to get back downtown as soon as possible and start shooting photos. The sun was up but behind the mountains so the photos were fairly low light at first. The pancake feed had a huge line of people, it didn’t take long for the show part of the event to be overflowing with cars, and the crowd was overwhelming.
