UPDATE-2019 West Coast 348-409 Reunion **CANCELLED**

jbschneeweis

Well Known Member
WOW, that's depressing, I was hoping for a good turnout. Don't know why we can't seem to get anyone to participate. Guess it must be the distance. I thought there were more 409 racers within travel distance but I guess not. Will Johnny R. be there? I will have to give this some serious thought. It is over 900 miles for me, I love this track & the people but not sure if I want to travel that far for only a total of 3 racers. I will let you know.
 

nomad59NZ

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 2
NOOOOO, for the love of GAV, please don’t cancel next years race. This is on my 2020 travel bucket list.

We are arriving in LA this Aug 24th late afternoon and as much as I would love to make a 10 hour drive to see you guys it just wouldn’t be possible (and I would probably be flying home alone )

This would be sad to cancel, but you have to do what is appropriate.

Gav
 

jbschneeweis

Well Known Member
Well guys it looks as if I will not be attending also. That is just too far for me to travel when there will only be 3 of us there. Paul & Pat I apologize, I really wanted to go there & race. Paul I understand you cancelling for next year, frustrating when we don't get many participants. I am thinking of contacting Firebird Raceway in Boise and seeing if maybe they would be interesting in doing something with us next year. It is a great track & they have some great events to include an Oldies event. Maybe that would be a little easier to get to & draw some more participants who can't get to the event at Eureka. Let me know if anyone is interested & I will contact them & see what they say for next year. Thanks.

Joel
 
So sorry to hear it has been cancelled. Thanks Paul for working so hard to organize these events. I think all of us 'regulars' that have attended all of these events enjoyed each other's company and of course, the racing. Several had to travel great distances to get there, but the good times made it worth the trip. The Eureka site is decent and they treat us well. Any ideas on what needs to change to get better western states participation?

Kim
 

Garbageman

 
Supporting Member 1
Thanks for the kind words Kim.
I don't know what needs to change. A lot of us have discussed this issue and really never came up with an answer. The distances here is the West are pretty long to get a lot of people to attend no matter if it is at any of the tracks in CA, OR, WA and ID.
We had a lot of good times in Eureka (Samoa Dragstrip) and we will always have those memories.

Paul
 

boxerdog

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
Paul, we all appreciate your efforts and I wish I had a solution. The venue has been terrific every time, and the area has everything we could want. I think that the distances are part of it, and the relatively small number of cars leaves us on the edge every year.

I had hoped that we would see some new folks gradually join the group. I can't believe the lack of CA cars, I know they are out there somewhere. I have noticed around here that most of the W cars I see are car show types, and they don't abuse them much.

Go figure?
 

1964SuperStocker

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
Paul, we all appreciate your efforts and I wish I had a solution. The venue has been terrific every time, and the area has everything we could want. I think that the distances are part of it, and the relatively small number of cars leaves us on the edge every year.

I had hoped that we would see some new folks gradually join the group. I can't believe the lack of CA cars, I know they are out there somewhere. I have noticed around here that most of the W cars I see are car show types, and they don't abuse them much.

Go figure?
Sounds like we need to breed more 348-409 powered cars and release them into the wild to breed others. I have a catch and release system of my own but I need everyone's help spread the 348-409 love!
 

boxerdog

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 5
Maybe your screen name is a clue! Something like a somewhat looser vintage/nostalgia Super Stock event. Most of the rules I have seen are too strict for our crowd (JMO) but if we opened it up to full-size Detroit cars, 60-65 or so, period correct V8s etc. maybe it could happen. I know adding Fords, Pontiacs and Mopars might be a tough pill to swallow, but those guys might have some interest. Rules would always be problematic, but we could always start out by breaking up street cars and race cars, just to see how it goes. Not an original thought, just groping.
 

1964SuperStocker

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
Maybe your screen name is a clue! Something like a somewhat looser vintage/nostalgia Super Stock event. Most of the rules I have seen are too strict for our crowd (JMO) but if we opened it up to full-size Detroit cars, 60-65 or so, period correct V8s etc. maybe it could happen. I know adding Fords, Pontiacs and Mopars might be a tough pill to swallow, but those guys might have some interest. Rules would always be problematic, but we could always start out by breaking up street cars and race cars, just to see how it goes. Not an original thought, just groping.
Why not 58-65 for years to include. Seems fitting with the number of 348s made back then.
 

1964SuperStocker

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
Sure, that makes sense. "Big Car Brawl" . I am sure the "other guys" are struggling to do the same thing to some extent, although those pesky Mopars always seem to pull in cars.
Just remember the mopars are trying to re-live the glory days they finally had after chevy pulled out of racing. I always like to remind the mopar guys that if chevy wouldn't have gotten bored with racing there would have been 600ci big blocks back in 1963 and the HEMI's would be another cute little motor that no one remembers. You can only run circles around the competition for so long then it gets boring. Even today people buy a car simply because the plastic badge on the side says HEMI. That's nice but my 1997 Toyota then would also have a 4 cylinder HEMI in it. Chrysler Corp didn't even invent the HEMI the Welch Brothers did and they were bought by non-other than GM and discontinued in 1910. LOL! All mopar guys will say how great their cars were "back in the day" but that day was after chevy already had their day. I've heard so many people say a 409 or Z11 show up to race and the competition would simply go home. The mopar community is obsessed with 1964 and later but in my opinion the muscle car wars were over with and the pony wars were just getting kicked off.
 

Don Jacks

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 3
Yes Randy,but the Nascar market was far more lucrative at the time and they had a limit of 430 cubic inches back then.I hated the fact that GM bowed to political pressure like they did back then and pulled out of racing.I loved the advent of the Hemi simply because it made the Ford guys cry so much.:crazy
 

Blk61409

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 9
Dave Colbert told me he was racing the Z-11 somewhere and Chrysler had the Ramchargers there. It was the student troubleshooting contest.

The guy in charge came over to him and asked if he would race the Ramchargers.

Of course he said, lined up and he beat them immediately!!

That was all, they went home.
 

1964SuperStocker

Well Known Member
Supporting Member 3
Yes Randy,but the Nascar market was far more lucrative at the time and they had a limit of 430 cubic inches back then.I hated the fact that GM bowed to political pressure like they did back then and pulled out of racing.I loved the advent of the Hemi simply because it made the Ford guys cry so much.:crazy
If I remember right though... The crowds at drag racing were 10 times that of Nascar back then. I still think to many people had their collective head up their butt at GM and didn't consider what the history books would say about them walking away from "Race on Sunday and Sell on Monday". Plus if Gm was really interested in "keeping up with the Jones's", they could have simply taken on the Hemi design heads themselves and continued. They had to many irons in the fire and no way to keep up with all of the changes going on at that time. Completely new chevy body styles and design of engines means they had their hands full. Thankfully they waited to change much on the Vettes at that time.
 
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