IFor Immediate Release

Cars and Stars Return to Irwindale Raceway to Comingle, Cackle and Converse
IRWINDALE, Calif. – The differences between drag racing as it is practiced today in the NHRA pro series and drag racing as it was practiced in what was considered the sport’s golden age will be on full display this November at tracks only 15 miles apart\

.A week before the NHRA’s 2023 Camping World Series races to a close at In-N-Out Raceway in Pomona, more than 75 current and future Hall of Famers and many of the vehicles in which they distinguished themselves will be reunited at Irwindale Raceway for the sixth renewal of Nitro Revival (Nov. 4-5).

Some of the sport’s first big stars including “TV Tommy” Ivo, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, “Big Jim” Dunn, Ed “the Ace” McCulloch and Tommy “Watchdog” Allen will be joined by a host of other notables who either drove, owned, tuned, photographed or wrote about vehicles like the “Dragmaster Dart,” the Ratican, Jackson and Stearns fuel altered and the legendary twin-engine “Freight Train” Top Gas dragster.

Created by a group of racing enthusiasts led by former NHRA VP of Competition Steve Gibbs and his daughter, Cindy, Nitro Revival is a celebration of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, an era in which drag racing came of age, attracting national attention as much for its personality as for its outrageous performance.

Will there be racing? Well, sure, although a lot of it will be bench racing. There won’t be the kind of zero-to-330 mph acceleration one would expect to experience a week later in the NHRA’s In-N-Out Finals, but the adrenaline will flow, nevertheless.

For one thing, a host of fuel altereds will make exhibition runs including the former Funny Car and Top Fuel driver Rodney Flournoy in his own “Godzilla”, plus you’ll see Bobby McLennan’s “Champion Speed Shop” Nostalgia Top Fueler and Luke Balough driving the fan favorite “Mooneyham and Sharp” Special.

Mainly, though, the event will pay homage to the push start ritual of the ‘60s, the distinctive cackle of V8 engines guzzling nitromethane and especially the personalities of those who propelled straight-line racing from a car club hobby sport to a national and international phenomenon.

In reality, Nitro Revival isn’t so much about the competition as it is about the camaraderie that linked a generation of Americans through a shared love of automobiles and the things that could be done to make them perform in a manner their designers never could have imagined.

In essence, in just six short years, the two-and-a-day extravaganza has established itself as a “must attend” on the bucket lists of race fans, old and new. It is a pilgrimage of sorts to the birthplace of modern drag racing, a step back in time to an era in which corporate sponsorships, political correctness and cookie cutter performance parts were not yet even a blip on the radar.

This year, there will be more than 60 cackle cars alone including the aforementioned threesome plus the “Jungle Jim” Camaro Funny Car, “Flamin’ Frank” Pedregon’s fuel coupe, the Kuhl and Olson, Dunn and Reath, Waterman and Hampshire and Brissette and Drake Top Fuel dragsters, the Custom Body Enterprises Funny Car, Marvin Schwartz’s “Anaconda” AA/FD, Frank Cannon’s “Hustler VI” dragster, the “Soapy Sales” Top Fueler and the resurrected front-motor dragster of the late Jimmy Nix cackled by “King Richard” Tharp.

The festivities begin on Friday, Nov. 3, with pre-registration and set-up followed by an initial meet-and-greet from 5-7 p.m. around the annual In-N-Out Cookout.

Gates open at 7 a.m. on Saturday with a full slate of activities anchored by an all-inclusive autograph session at 1 p.m. in the McLennan Foundation tent, introduction of 2023 Nitro Revival honorees including Dunn and Allen at 4 p.m. and the Nitro Overdose featuring the Rolling Thunder cackle at 6:30 followed by fireworks.

Although things will begin to wind down on Sunday, there will be one final adrenaline high: One O’Clock Thunder, the simultaneous cackle of every fuel car on the property promptly at 1 p.m. during a scheduled break in the on-track action.