
For Immediate Release
NITRO REVIVAL CELEBRATES THE SOUL OF
THE SPORT Sixth Edition Features Fun, Fables, Fellowship
and Fervor at Irwindale Raceway
IRWINDALE, Calif. Nitro Revival isnt for everyone.
Its not, say, for those who think the automobile is just
another means of transportation. Nor is it for those who find
the smell of nitromethane somehow repugnant. Nor for those who
prefer the whisper of a Tesla to the throaty rumble of a Chrysler
hemi.
However, it IS for those who fancy themselves adventurers, historians,
shameless gearheads or just plain old adrenaline junkies. If
youre one of those, you might want to program your GPS
for Irwindale Dragstrip, highlight Nov. 4-5 on your calendar
and dial back your time machine to the 1960s an era in
which the race cars were as individual as the characters who
drove them.
The sixth edition of Nitro Revival,
like the five before it, is designed to celebrate drag racings
golden era with food, fun, fellowship, fables, fire and fervor.
It will feature more than 65 cackle cars, from Top Fuel dragsters
to Funny Cars to fuel altereds, and dozens of other nitro burners
that have opted to forsake the pits for a trip or two down the
concrete and asphalt racing surface.
Cackle cars include Jungle
Jim Libermans Camaro Funny Car, The Other Guys
Top Fuel dragster of Jim Brissette and Mike Drake, the Kuhl and
Olson dragster, the Dunn and Reath Rainbow dragster,
Larry Huffs Soapy Sales dragster, the Custom
Body Enterprises Funny Car, Ken Veneys Veneys
Vega A/Funny Car, the legendary Freight Train
twin engine gas dragster, Marvin Schwartzs Anaconda,
Frank Cannons Hustler VI as well as the original
Dragmaster.
Among the cars that will be in
full race trim for on-track exhibition runs are the Mooneyham
and Sharp 554 Coupe, Bobby McLennans Champion Speed
Shop Nostalgia Top Fueler, the Kazanjian and Lemon
AA/FC and the Godzilla AA/Fuel Altered, owned and
driven by one of the sports most popular drivers of color,
the inimitable Rodney Flournoy.
Nevertheless, the cars wont
be the only stars of the two-and-a-half day festival that begins
Friday with a 5-7 p.m. meet and greet and In-N-Out Cookout. More
than 50 drag racing Hall of Fame members have committed to attend
the event and participate in the always popular all-comers autograph
session at 1 p.m. Saturday in the McLennan Foundation tent that
serves as the events unofficial headquarters.
Notable drivers at the tables will be King Richard
Tharp, Don the Snake Prudhomme, Ed the Ace
McCulloch, TV Tommy Ivo, Big Jim Dunn,
Tommy Watchdog Allen, Carl Olson, Frank Bradley,
Marvin Graham, The Unsinkable Kelly Brown, Jimmy
Scott, Ronnie Hampshire, Bob Muravez, Darrell Gwynn, Gary Beck,
Dave Settles, Fast Jack Beckman, Dale Funk, Bob Noice,
Jim Walther, Don Hampton, Joe Schubeck and Ray Motes with more
to be confirmed.
Theyll be joined on the
sign line by Nitro Revival founder Steve Gibbs, by a host of
tuners, manufacturers and crew members including Roland Leong,
Ed Pink, Ed Iskenderian, J. Ed Horton, Don Long, Donnie Couch,
Bob Brandt and Waterbed Fred Miller, by Chic Cannon,
one of the members of the NHRAs original Safety Safari,
by the First Lady of Racing, Linda Vaughn and by
those who documented the era either in images or the printed
word including Bill Holland, Dave Wallace Jr. and Kenny Youngblood.
The Saturday autograph session
will precede 4 p.m. ceremonies recognizing 2023 Nitro Revival
honorees including Allen, Dunn, Henry Velasco, Bruce McDowell,
the late Art Carr and Dave Kempton, plus the Cal-Rods Car Club.
As if that isn't enough for you, you'll see dozens of old school
"push starts" throughout the day, leading up to our
6:00 p.m. "Nitro Overdose" cackle session finale and
fireworks!
Highlight of Sundays schedule will be "One OClock
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.
RETURN TO DRAG RACINGS
GOLDEN AGE AT NITRO REVIVAL 6
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 sports golden
age will be on full display this November at tracks only 15 miles
apart\
.A week before the NHRAs
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 sports 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 wont be
the kind of zero-to-330 mph acceleration one would expect to
experience a week later in the NHRAs 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 youll see Bobby McLennans 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 isnt
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 Pedregons 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
Schwartzs Anaconda AA/FD, Frank Cannons
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 OClock 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.

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