Drag Racing Nostalgia Fest - Hudson, MA - 1/4/20

[dungeonracer]

The Sick Puppy Dragway will be set up in Hudson MA and will be letting attendees at the Nostalgia Fest have at it.
Expected attendance is around 150 people, so should be a good time (and busy).
Could probably use a hand setting up (we'll get there around 11am).
Fest starts at 1pm and goes to 6pm.
Sounds like there will be lots of memorabilia and even some old drag race videos will be shown.
If you have nothing better to do...…

[dungeonracer]

It turned out to be a great event despite a near disaster.

We were setting the track up and I went to hook up the computer, and it hit me. I had forgotten the computer!!

A call to Robin (my wife) was made, and thankfully she would bring it down. But she wouldn't be there until after 2 (show started at 1).

As it turned out, the staging lights on the tree worked, so we would line the cars up and have a "flagman" start the race. That actually worked out quite well. Comments were made that that's how drag racing started out, so everyone was cool with it.

The Sick Puppy track was a big hit. According to the computer, we ran 127 races. That doesn't count the hour and a half before the computer showed up. Itchie, Paul and I were quite busy setting the cars, returning the cars, and answering a LOT of questions.

Before we even sent the 1st cars down the track, we were approached by a member of the Push Rods car club and asked if we would come back in August and set the track up for their annual event. Itchie and I are pretty sure we will.

There was a fella from RI that had brought a bunch of his cars (4-5 dragsters, a VW truck wheelstander, a Willys and a motorcycle). Once I told him what the track record was, he set about trying to break it. After quite a few attempts, he finally did it. With one of his dragsters, he ran a very impressive .8316 at 330.98 mph. While the car isn't legal to the Sick Puppy guidelines (he used foam tires, Sick Puppy guidelines require urethane), it is the quickest and fastest so far on the Sick Puppy track.

The event was supposed to go to 6pm. But around 4, the place emptied out like there was a fight in the parking lot. Something was said about old guys not being able to see when driving at night. Thus, we were able to break down the track early. Big thanks to Paul who came and helped with set up, talking to people, running the races, and breaking down. Really helped out, and it's much appreciated.

I had brought my camera, but was so busy I never even got the camera out. There were plenty of attendees that took pictures, so I'm hoping they'll post on FB. If they do, I'll snag 'em and post them here.

And yeah, they want us back next year.....

[dungeonracer]

Found a pic that the organizer Jack Brady took..
If you look up on the wall, you'll see a TV. They played old videos of the drags back in the day all day long, many at New England Dragway.

[32lbking]

Wow! I think the only place I have seen that many people gathered to race slot cars is some of the European events. Looks like a fun time.
As far as not having enough time to take pictures, it reminds me of teaching kids to fish. I used to try fishing along with teaching them, until I learned it's more fun to just help THEM and and not try to fish at the same time LOL
Randy

[GASSERMAN]

That's cool. Glad everything worked out for all of you's. Cant wait for the pictures. Bob................

[dungeonracer]

Wow! I think the only place I have seen that many people gathered to race slot cars is some of the European events.

To be clear, this wasn't a slot car meet. It was an annual nostalgia event where old timers got together and shared photos, videos and just rehash the good old days gone by.
We were invited to set up the track and let these guys have at it again in miniature form. And since we race the type of cars they had raced back then, they really liked running them.

[dungeonracer]

Here's proof of the record run by Dave Stone from RI. That's him behind the monitor


And a pic of the crowd from another angle...