Nitro Revival 7 said a proper farewell to Irwindale Dragstrips’s eighth-mile racetrack the weekend of November 8-9. This year, for the first time Nitro Revival decided to make it a Friday-Saturday show rather than taking both weekend dates. That decision allowed racers to travel home in time for Veterans Day on November 11 and appeared to please just about everyone.
Another change to the proceedings was to end the gala with the Line of Fire and fireworks, the latter exhibition a traditional one but, after watching, listening and smelling the number of nitro-powered vehicles lining up and starting their engines for at least 8-10 minutes, one had to wonder why anyone needed fireworks?
The vast number of cars participating in this year’s tribute to the genesis of drag racing was, as expected, superlative. When Steve Gibbs puts on a show (always with the assistance of daughter Cindy), it’s going to be a success. There’s no question of that. As is customary, the stars of the show filled Irwindale Speedway’s parking lot, relegating fans to park in the oval’s lot and walk over to the Nitro Revival pits.
Friday was accented by an In-N-Out lunch spread that had lines at least 100 long when the two-hour break began. Fans of the California-based burger emporium were happy to wait their turns in line and, who knows, maybe some of the cars for sale at the venue found new homes during those conversations?
The pits were alive with dragsters, funny cars, altereds and a few select vehicles that showed up to be parking lot princes and princesses, not running on the dragstrip or participating in the Line of Fire. Vendors, too, packed the place, but the one thing that caught the entirety of the crowd was the Legends’ tables that allowed fans to get autographs from their heroes early Saturday afternoon. The lines were vast, the items brought by fans for signatures equally plentiful and the aura of the Legends tent was one of joy.
It was especially great to see 103-year-old Ed Iskenderian signing anything placed in front of him with his careful signature and Ed Pink adorning copies of his book, “The Old Master” for fans of his engineering skills. Don “The Snake” Prudhomme came out to enjoy the festivities, while Bruce Larson brought his Funny Car out for visuals and to run in the Line of Fire. As did three-time NHRA Top Fuel champ Larry Dixon, towing his dad’s dragster from Indianapolis to Irwindale just to be a part of these festivities. He was ready to haul back home on Sunday morning after joining the Line of Fire Saturday night.
This was the final big event on the Irwindale Speedway and Event Center dragstrip – aside from Thursday night test-and-tune dates that will extend through to the venue’s closure. The final trackside event, which will celebrate Irwindale’s 25 years of vehicular mayhem, is scheduled for December 21st. After that, the sole dragstrip operating in Southern California will be In-N-Out Burger Dragstrip at Pomona, where this weekend’s In-N-Out Burger NHRA Finals are scheduled to take place.
Leave a Reply