Saturday, Nitro Revival took center stage at Laguna Seca. Activities included “Rolling Thunder” Push Starts on the Hot Pit Lane and many static starts throughout the day. This was capped off with the awesome “Line of Fire” at days end that filled the paddock with good old nitro. The fans loved it all.

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Top Fuel vet Frank Bradley manned the wheel of Steve Gibbs' '50 Ford to push Rob Bruins through the paddock to push start staging.

The cars were pulled into the lanes in the order they would push down. Kenton Greth thought he was going to tow the Speed Sport roadster with a mini bike. Thought is the key word. He ended up pushing the bike with the car still in tow. Help did arrive and Kenton was in the car for the push start.

On our way to the entrance of the Hot Pit Lane we passed the pits of some of the road race cars.

Representing the early days was the "Wild Thing" flathead dragster of Brant Inglis. The Inglis Speed Co. car is a 1958 Chassis Research TE440.

Kansas John Wiebe "Violin Car" owned by Don Love and driven by 1979 Top Fuel World Champion Rob Bruins. Push car was the blown '53 Willis of Herm Petersen. Bruins had the distinction of being the only racer to win a Top Fuel championship (1979) without winning a single event in that same season. Bruins had another unique footnote to his career – he was one of the few who never lost to Jerry Ruth, the Northwest’s self-proclaimed King and 10-time NHRA Division 6 champion.

Dunn & Reath Rainbow AA/FD owned by John Neas and driven by Harry Hibler, who, while managing San Fernando had become a Top Fuel drag racer. This was at a time when safety equipment was lagging behind the potency of what a nitro-burning Hemi Chrysler was capable of cranking out. Certainly Harry saw firsthand just how dangerous it was running the Pond weekends, but he loved driving Fuel Dragsters, even though the one he drove was a grenade at times.

Harry then moved to Petersen Publishing. First he worked at Car Craft selling advertising, working his way up the ranks to become its publisher, then moved onto Hot Rod. “I became publisher of Hot Rod when Robert Petersen was running the magazines. The publishers were like the head of a small corporation. "The bottom line was you had to make a profit for your division or you were in trouble."

Oil baths, grenaded superchargers, blown up engines, failed drag chutes, and guardrail layovers are just some of the occurrences that gave Harry the moniker of “Hand Grenade Harry”. After his days of driving dragsters and jet cars, he then managed egos while serving as the Publisher of Hot Rod Magazine for 11 years. Harry was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2013.

Sonny Messner's Swamp Rat III-B had none other than Don Garlits in the seat while Steve Andersen's Tom Hoover car had Bob Muravez at the controls. With the absence of Tommy Ivo, Kol Johnson took the seat of the Barnstormer.

Bob Muravez - aka Floyd Lippencott Jr was the lucky dude who got the seat of Steve Andersen's stunning Tom Hoover "Hanna Fish Bowl Car". Bob has a storied and long drag racing career that is best chronacled at: AKA RACING

Bob Larson was up for the Arizona based Bounty Hunter/Connie Kalitta AA/FD restored and owned by Allen Bridges.

Kenton Greth in the Speed Sport I of his father Red Greth. This car inspired Steve Gibbs to not only paint his '50 Ford SS orange but to carry the color into the Nitro Reviival theme. For complete information on this iconic car visit Speed Sport I on Cacklefest. To be noted, drag racing legend Frank Bradley was driving the push car.

At 16, Red began competing in organized drag races in the Phoenix arena since Tucson did not have a facility. He did, however, participate in street racing held at the Mount Lemmon “cut off” a straight stretch northeast of Tucson which included a built “start” and “finish” line between two cattle guards. Eventually Red began building and driving winning “drag” cars while in high school and joined the best known car club in town, the Lords of Tucson, and raced in a variety of cars from dragsters to roadsters to funny cars. Red became a member of the famed “Speed Sport” Racing Team where he developed a roadster in 1957, driving it to a speed of 169.11 MPH which was unequalled by any drag machine to that date. In 1994, that Speed Sport Team, and the car, were inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. That car still runs today and Red still drives it at special events.

Kenton is an accomplished and versatile driver on his own.

"Wild Thing" was included because it should have been. A classic Chassis Research chassis flathead dragster restored/owned/driven by Brant Inglis out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Super nice guys who are having more fun than the law allows.

Pushing the Dunn & Reath fueler was Erik McMorrow in his perfectly restore GMC PU. Erik is a one of the faithful push guys who makes our shows happen.

Dave Uyehara was in the seat of the Raynor, Bishop & Herbert car that was a staple in NorCal drag racing. Uyehara is another Bay area racer that has been inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame.

Dave honed his car building craft and drove for Dick Oswald in top gas and also Oswald and Cohen's AA/FD. Uyehara found seat time in many of the local top fuel cars and even ventured into the funny car class during the 1980s.

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Pushing Ruth was Mike McClure who is a member of the Nor Cal Hardtops who have supplied regular push cars for many cacklecar events.

Veteran drag racer Sam Chastain brought the Iron horse from his home in Auburn, California. The car was originally owned by Dan Richins of Salt Lake City who was a railroad engineer, hence the name. Sam also tunes and drives the car.

Nitro Revival supporter Mike Mantel got to give original driver "Wild Bill" Schrewsberry the shotgun seat in the Hemi Under Glass.

Upon his exit, Garlits was overheard saying, " “When I die, if I go to heaven and its not as good as this, I don’t want to stay!”

At the end of it all a bunch of media folk had a meeting of the lenses on the wall. LtoR: Bob Barry, Don Ewald, Whit Bazemore, John Drummond, Cole Coonce, Les Mayhew, Keith Burgan, Howard Koby, Jim McCraw, front row Dan Kaplan, Ken Sanders and Mendy Fry.

In the bottom shot Bob Brown swapped places with McCraw.

Following the dragster push starts the day was officially opened with an A Capella rendition of our National Anthem accompanied by color guards.