I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: what could be more American than a strip full of thundering V8 muscle cars?! The war on cars may have come to our doorstep, but that doesn’t mean we have to comply! Sure I’m just doing it in miniature, but I’m doing what I can, and turning back the clock on my tabletop to 1985 brings us back to a time when people actually celebrated this holiday and were proud of it!
The crowd at the track was massive for the race consisting of 32 ground-pounding classics comprising “GROUP B” of my T-Jet muscle car collection, and while there was thunder on the track, there was also thunder outside, as the holiday in 2023 was almost drowned out-literally-by a torrential downpour that threatened my local fireworks displays. As if a divine hand parted the clouds, the rain stopped shortly before “zero hour” and we had a fireworks show to remember, and immediately after the last rocket was fired, it started raining again!
Of course, that was Colorado in 2023; in 1985 there wasn’t a rain drop to dampen the spirits of the race fans at Drag City, and a 32 car elimination challenge went down fast and furious! I started racing around noon and was wrapping it up by the time the fireworks were being primed, and what a ruckus it was, with cars and drivers getting a bigger chance at the winner’s circle than in the days of the 64 car races!
After several extensive rebuilds, Nick “Nitro” Norris finally got the bugs worked out of “The Punisher,” his mean orange ’70 Mach 1, because this former “also ran” took the tournament win, just edging out “The Sultan”, multiple trophy winner Brody “Big Beat” Banner’s ’67 Chevelle SS396. Coming in a very respectable 3rd was another multi-time winner, Coloradan Walter “Buddy” Breckenridge with his ’68 Firebird “Leviathan.” Getting to this result was quite an accomplishment, as he nearly burned up his engine during last year’s “Secret Oktober” muscle car race, but a full rebuild just before the race managed to return that hot performance, at least for a while.
On this date 247 years ago, some of the bravest and wisest men who ever lived made history and created the conditions for the world that I grew up in. All things run their course and all empires must fall, but I’ll be damned if I’m going quietly into the night: I’ll do whatever it takes to keep my V8’s running for as long as I can hold a wrench, and I know there’s hundreds of thousands of people like me in this country that will be right beside me; when our numbers are up, we’re driving through those pearly gates! If this has to be a war, bring it on! Bang a shift, fellow gearheads; eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may have to fight for independence again!
