The Secret Oktober fall racing season roared back to life last weekend as the Banzai Runner V Sports Car Championship advanced to the second stage—Group B. Thirty-two contenders rolled onto the Drag City straightaway under the deep amber light of a late-October sun, engines echoing off the grandstands and the desert hills beyond Wardglenn.
Early on it looked like another Ford-heavy show, but that illusion didn’t last long. The Ferraris came to fight, the Jaguars found their stride, and a few unexpected faces muscled their way into the mix. Cobras and GT-40’s made respectable runs through the first heats, while several mid-engined newcomers from Italy showed startling pace. A pair of British entries bowed out early with mechanical issues, and one unlucky driver—Jude “Sailor” Sandusky in the white MBZ 300SL roadster “Six Shooter” #92—suffered a catastrophic gearbox failure before even hitting Turn 1, a harsh reminder that Banzai Runner never forgives the fragile.
The Group B Lineup, ready to rock!
The 32-pack grid looked picture-perfect lined up across the front of the table—polished paintwork flashing like jewelry under the overhead lights as the heats came and went. Three rounds later, the attrition was real and the air in the paddock was thick with fuel vapor and speculation. The balance of power kept shifting: Sleek Euros traded wins with American V8 bruisers, and a fast newcomer, Pierce “Pyro” Powell, showed the crowd just what he and his white Cheetah chop-top “Kraken” are made of by sneaking into the quarter-finals!
“Frosty” Frank Snow’s Cheetah “Troublemaker” gets shut down by “Glacier” Guiliani’s “Aegean”
By the time the dust settled on the evening session, the scoreboard told only half the story. Fabian “Flood” Foster and “Jolly” Roger Jacoby put on a duel for the ages between the #53 DeTomaso Mangusta “Mystique” and the #54 badass black Corvette Grand Sport clone “Overlord”, crossing the line barely a blink apart. A stunned crowd rose to its feet as another shocker unfolded in the next bracket, where Gino “Glacier” Guiliani’s blue #317 250GTO “Aegean” knocked out one of the early favorites, Warwick “Wolf” Wagner, in “Ragnar,” the ever-fast #11 Porsche 904.
“Wolf” Wagner’s small bore 904 Carrera GTS “Ragnar” stays one step ahead of big bore “Spirit” Sokolov’s #6 Corvette hardtop roaster “Bada-Bing” through Dead Man’s Curve
The crowd had already seen some of the closest finishes in the five-year history of Banzai Runner, but the outcome is far from decided! And that’s the bad news, dear readers: your bumble blogger’s insane 4th quarter work schedule is wrecking the fun again, as for the next week I will be occupied with one of the highest profile, highest stress jobs of my career, doing an install on a sprawling city network that I not only built the hardware for, but also engineered from the paper up. No pressure or anything! And so, the two fastest brackets—the “big dogs” of Group B—still have yet to run, and I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay tuned for the last weekend of the month to see outcome! It’s anyone’s guess which machine will emerge on top once the last green light flashes!
Jaguar VS Jaguar as “Momentum” Milligan’s “olive green” #14 E-Type “Bulldog” holds off “Hurricane” Houston’s #20 tan version “Guardian” coming around the paddock!
For now, the engines are cooling, the pit crews are packing up, and the anticipation is electric. Stay tuned: the final two heats of the Banzai Runner V Sports Car Challenge are still to come, and the winner remains unknown! So be sure to tune again the weekend of the 27th and catch up with me and all your favorite gentleman racers here at DRAG CITY!
THIS is the field for the final 2 heats! One of these cars will take the crown! Tune in the weekend after next to find out who won the gold, who took 2nd and 3rd, and who left with a “Nice Try!”
Dropping this post on Monday when it was supposed to be for Sunday-but I couldn’t quite get it done in time! I worked 55 hours just last week and the next couple of weeks are going to be even rougher, but that’s not even the main reason this post took me so long…it was mainly because I couldn’t find my Hot Wheels news helicopter!
This here post is a more in-depth look that revisits a topic that I brought up in a much more limited way in a previous post here… namely, a turn by turn look at drag city Raceway!
An archive photo show Drag City Mark IV shortly after its grand opening
But this is a much deeper dive, and it’s one that’s going to involve an aerial flyover followed by walking the track during a quiet moment at midday when it was closed for necessary maintenance between the running of the Group A and Group B sports car fleets for Banzai Runner V! Roxy, Jason, and I, your humble blogger, took advantage of this break in the action to bring you a boots-on-the-ground report showcasing the sights, sounds, and smells of what the track really feels like when you’re there!
Jason wasn’t able to join us for the first part of the trip, which was our flyover, where we scored a seat in the local HW “Newscopter” thanks to the generosity of both the track management, and the whirlybird’s intrepid pilot Albert Vasquez, a retired Imperial County sheriff who now works part-time flying the copter when called for!
In reality, our helicopter ride is in a hot wheels mainline made mostly of plastic, and identified only as “Proper Chopper,” so it’s a given that it’s an amalgam, likely based on a general impression of what small light duty helicopters generally look like. For our purposes, however, we’re going to say it’s a Bell 206 JetRanger. It may or may not be that, but it’s not real either, so it is what I say it is… Isn’t it cool how imagination works? 😄
In truth, up until preparing for this post, I had never given much thought to a helipad anywhere near the track. There are several places on the diorama where one could theoretically exist, but it seems to me like the most logical-which is to say most realistic-place that a helipad might be located would be the roof of the CHP building! That makes sense to me: does it to you?
And so, to the “CHiP stand” it was that Roxy and I arrived on a Wednesday morning at 6 AM sharp, to meet our pilot Al Vasquez, who has no trouble hanging around at the station since his own son Robert is a MC patrolman; service in law-enforcement runs in the family. Now, I don’t mind telling you that I’m not the best with heights, and while I’ve been in numerous small airplanes, I had never been in a chopper before, and I was a little bit nervous, but Roxy helped to keep me calm as we lifted straight up into the air from the helipad on top of the station and zoomed over the track, cameras in hand!
What we’re doing with this whirrly-bird’s eye view is capturing-both in fast color and high-speed panchromatic-everything that we know from the ground to give us a greater understanding of how it all works together: the depth, the distance, the true geometry of the track.
A race track isn’t just a band of asphalt; it’s a living, breathing organism. Its curves inhale the roar of engines and exhale the heat of their passing. The surface remembers — every patch, every groove, every streak of rubber is a scar. In the mornings it wakes slow, pale and cool, and by noon it’s pulsing with light and fury, sunbaked and restless. At dusk, it sighs; the ghosts of old races stir in the cooling air, whispering in the guardrails. From Brooklands to Riverside, from Monza’s banking to Drag City’s scorching straights, the great circuits all share this same pulse — something human built, but somehow alive, a creature made of speed, noise, and memory.
Unfortunately, helicopter airtime is expensive, so our flyover was brief, but we got what we needed, and we were back on the ground in time for the two of us to grab a late breakfast at the diner with Albert before running across Bear Valley Road to the track to meet Jason who was arriving with his own gear. Cameras and video on hand, we went out onto the track in his trusty Land Rover, frequently stopping and walking it, sometimes even touching the walls and guard rails and the asphalt to get a true feel for the beast that is Drag City Raceway!
Every stretch has a story, and every turn has a nickname: whether it’s an official term used by advertising literature in the track or by sports writers, or merely nicknames that longtime fans have bestowed, there’s hardly a foot of this coil of concrete and asphalt that doesn’t have an identity! So, foot by foot and turn by turn, here is this blog’s up-closest and most-personal look yet at the place where it all goes down!
Drag City Turn By Turn: Boots On The Ground!
LEGEND:
TURN 1: Banked Turn 1
High-speed commitment off the start/finish. Banking pulls cars in, but walls and traffic stack tight. Outside, the camping zone rises — fans perched on RV roofs cheer the chaos.
TURN2: Banked Turn 2
Mirror bank, entry narrows. Carnage if someone dives too late. The hospital skyline looms just beyond, a grim reminder of what happens if you blow it here.
TURN 3: Beginning of Chicane
Entry kink before the carnival wall. Spectators in the lot lean against cars to watch this one — always dusty, always dicey.
TURN4: Middle of Chicane Between the Ferris wheel and the drop tower, cars twitch through the snap. Sparks in twilight look dramatic here, lighting up the midway.
TURN5: End of Chicane
Slings you back toward the paddock side. Clean exit carries speed; a messy one leaves you slow and vulnerable into Paddock Pass.
TURN6: Paddock Pass
The unofficial “fan name” for the wide and fast turn that skirts the track’s most exciting area for staff and spectators alike: crowded with crew leaning on fences yelling advice on one side, and kids with carnival ice cream cones on the other. Dirt runoff outside loves to catch the greedy. Great passing spot if you do it tight, but you’re vulnerable if you run wide.
TURN 7: Gentle Bend
Into the straightaway to pit row! On paper, harmless. At race speed, cars drift outward into the palm-lined fence. Pitlane exit merges nearby, making traffic unpredictable.
TURN8: Beginning of S-bend
The flick right begins just past the VIP grandstand’s shadow. Fans in the costly seats and the special guests on the rooftop get the best view of the first cut.
TURN 9: Middle of S-bend
The line narrows between barriers. Weight transfer unsettles cars — small mistakes balloon here.
TURN 10: End of S-bend
Blind throttle-on exit with late-day sun shining from the west (left side). Glare catches windshields and makes this more treacherous than it looks.
TURN 11: Station East
First of the inspection station’s three flanking turns. Smooth but deceptively tight — engines strain under load here, often overheating in summer heat.
TURN 12: Station West
Tighter, with the sun in drivers’ eyes late in the day. Small grandstands on the nearby straight drown it in noise, but no runoff makes this dangerous.
Scott “SHOWTIME” Sanderson drifts through “Station West” in “Most Wanted,” the #99 Cheetah
TURN 13: Station North
The funnel leading into the hairpins. Momentum through here sets the tone — go in wrong and you’re cooked for both hairpins.
TURN 14: Hairpin 1
Around the campground! The braking zone screams — tires howl, bumpers tap. Spectators line the fences here, loving the smoke and accordion effect.
“Jolly” Roger Jacoby shows nice form winding “Overlord,” the wicked black #54 Corvette, through the campground hairpin
TURN 15: Hairpin 2
Under the 1st pedestrian gantry! Even tighter, immediately following 14. Exit bumps shake suspensions; a place where tempers often boil over.
Be careful with that artwork! Mike “MUSCLES” Morelli lives up to his name with a wild drift into Hairpin 2 in “Belladonna,” the #36 Ferrari 250GTO
TURN 16: Truss Trap
Another unofficial “fan name,” the 2nd pedestrian gantry looms overhead. Tight exit pinches cars together, and carnage under the bridge is common. Vintage Chevrolet Corvair signage on the truss gives it a gritty postcard look.
TURN17: The Corkscrew
No longer a true corkscrew, but still an off-camber dive with a lurch. Cars lift wheels and photographers pack the water tower mound to catch it.
“No problem, right?” Hudson “HOLLYWOOD” Hoag makes it look easy taking his 300SL “Scene Stealer” into the corkscrew
TURN 18: Sweeper Turn
Fast, flowing left beside the carnival strip. Drivers feather throttle here — the brave carry full speed, the timid lift and lose ground.
TURN 19: End of Sweeper Turn
James “MOMENTUM” Milligan takes his #14 Jaguar “Bulldog” wide and fast out of the Sweeper turn
Speed trap area — long strain on engines, often the place where mechanical failures end a race.
TURN 20: Dead Man’s Curve
The Legend! Aptly named, this innocuous looking turn claims more crashes than any other! A flat, sharp right before the main straightaway: no banking, no mercy! Wrecks here are brutal, especially as dusk shadows creep across.
Just barely keeping control, Skyler “SAVAGE” Stockwell has his hands full keeping #85 Pantera “Solaris” off the fence in the infamous “DMC!”
Long after the engines fade and the dust settles over Wardglenn, Drag City still hums — a low, steady pulse under the desert wind. The track is never really empty. It remembers the weight of every car that ever tore across it, the echo of every cheer, the hiss of cooling brakes in the dark. Each turn has its own voice now, carved by years of triumph and ruin — Banked One whispering of speed, the Corkscrew sighing like a ghost in the hills, Dead Man’s Curve forever holding its breath. Walk it at dusk and you can feel the temperature shift where the sun once hit the asphalt; smell the faint trace of fuel that never quite leaves. It’s alive, somehow — a living thing made of metal and memory, waiting for the next race to bring it back to life.
And as the Secret Oktober sun climbs again over Wardglenn, each turn will wake in its own way — ready for another day of noise, dust, and the beautiful, reckless business of speed!
So there I was a week ago rummaging through the 50¢ bin at Colorado Diecast. That bin is a lot lower and leaner now than it’s been the last few times I was there, so I didn’t really find much that interested me, but I did find one thing that I jumped on right away, something that I didn’t expect: a Thunderjet! A real vintage one! And not only that, a variation that I didn’t have! There it was, thrown in with all the Hot Wheels and Matchboxes! What are the chances?
Decapitation! The Horror! 😱
I can’t know for sure, of course, and I hate to think of it, but I know it’s possible that this might actually have been decent condition before it was tossed into that bin with all those diecasts, where it then had its windshield, driver’s head and back bumper broken off from all the kids sifting through the piles. But then again, it might’ve been a parts car from the beginning, because I could tell when I picked it up that it was a non-runner: it had the chassis and axles and all four wheels (only one tire), but even without taking it apart, I could tell it had no motor or guts. Even so, I tossed it into my basket, and when it was time for me to check out, I took it up to the front counter, and the guys that run the place-not knowing what to make of this little plastic car-gave it to me for free, which didn’t seem like a bad deal! So I took it home and a few days later, unscrewed it to see what I had. I was surprised to find that the screw posts were both good! I didn’t expect that!
What I did expect was that it had no motor, magnets, or brushes, but the chassis pan was good! No sign of cracking or warping, easily savable! And so, considering I now had a tan ’63 “Bullet-bird,” one of the few colors that I do not already have this body in, I set out to do just that: save it!
One of the reasons this find seemed like providence is because I was convinced that I had bought a reproduction rear bumper for a ‘63 ‘boid a few years ago and never used it. I’m still convinced of that, but either I’m wrong, or I’m disorganized, because I looked through my whole stash of parts for a good long time and never located it. That diluted the excitement of the find quite a bit, because, while the reproduction parts are available and not unreasonably priced, they’re not terribly cheap either, and once you add in today’s postage prices to have them shipped, you’re looking at some real money. But, I had to order a replacement windshield anyway, so I threw a rear bumper in with that order, and it’s now on its way, and I do have to bear in mind that I got the car for free, so a little extra investment in parts isn’t so bad.
Runs “decent” implies not “great:” the little card stock label I placed in the bag with this completed rebuilt motor and gear plate when I did it up 2+ years ago says it all! Will it be “decent” enough?
I knew I had the chassis parts, so after cleaning off the electrodes with a brush of Tarn-X and a warm water rinse, I went digging through the parts bins, and was fortunate to find a motor and gear plate that I had cobbled together from random parts some time ago and only tested with a 9V battery; the motor was a “tri color” (red, green, gold windings), and I decided I’d take a chance on that. I installed a brand-new set of brushes and a brand-new set of springs, but opted for a used set of pick-up shoes, partly because I have so many of them, which are the original copper items from the ‘60s. Most of them are worn and grooved badly enough that they probably shouldn’t be reused, but I went through my whole stash and matched a pair that looked decent enough. After all, that’s what spare parts stashes are all about, right? I also opted to pull all 4 of the original wheels, which were structurally undamaged but delaminating fairlly badly and looking yellowish and ugly, replacing them with a new set from a bag of “pull offs” I bought on ePay at great expense a few years ago.
It took the usual amount of patience and a lot of oil, but eventually I had it running and breaking in, and after quieting down the squalling with some adjustments, it started running like a song!
My next thought was what to do with the headless driver. I have some reproduction drivers that came with removable heads, and I thought that I could take one of the heads and cut the neck off and try to glue it on to the existing headless driver. I’ve done that before with some success, but here I decided against that, because I wanted the durability and uniformity of a complete piece, and as much as we all love originality, I did opt to pry the green-jacketed driver off of the seat. Doing so tore the vinyl on the seat, but when my recently ordered shipment of reproduction drivers arrives, no one will be any of the wiser!
In preparation for the reproduction windshield install, I carefully drilled out the broken pegs from the original windshield, leaving the mounting holes ready to receive the new one.
Headless driver on the road! And its not even Halloween yet!
I ran it around the track a few times with no windshield, no rear bumper, and with the headless driver, just to see what it would do, and I was very happy with the performance that I got out of my chassis cobbled together from spare parts! So, in another week or so, this baby should be finished, and ready to join my lineup of original ‘63 “Bullet-boids,” and then I’ll have a new member of The Road Crew on a budget!
A repro rear bumper and windshield are ordered and on their way! These are excellent quality parts almost indistinguishable from the originals. Be wary, fellow collectors: history shows the supply of these won’t last forever!
Lemmetellya, nothing satisfies like saving an original…especially when you find one in the unlikeliest of places, and when you get it for FREE!
One of the colors that’s missing from this lineup is about to get added!
Stay tuned for the update, since you just know I’ll finish this project as soon as parts arrive, and I’ll make sure to post the progress!
Everyone loves an underdog, and what greater underdog is there than a rookie? When the starting flag went down for the opening race of the Group A Sports team, Banzai Runner V was ON! What happened as the results came in stunned spectators and veteran drivers alike, as a newcomer who made no bones about having a chip on his shoulder made good on months of threats and insinuations! There was probably as many boos as there were cheers for Zagan “RAMPAGE” Rhinebach as he piloted his long-suffering blue Cheetah to victory, but seasoned fans who have been following the action at Drag City for years know this win was justice served: the battered and abused little Cheetah finally got her moment in the sun!
Driver’s eye view: on board with Lazarus “LOCKJAW” LeGRAND in Cobra 289 roadster “Avalanche”
The sad story of my original Aurora blue Cheetah is laid out in all its gory details here, but for those who don’t want to read the full recap, this car has been bounced around my fleet for nearly 5 years, being mounted and remounted on chassis after chassis; its been in the sports car fleet 3x under different owners and different numbers, and also did a long spell with The Road Crew, but every time it seemed she’d found her place, she got used as a parts car and discarded. When Zagan Rhinebach first acquired the car late in 1985 with the intention to turn it into a winner, he settled for racing number 71 but lobbied hard for the number 4, the number already assigned to “Tropicana,” the flourescent green and black Chaparral 2F raced by Brighton (UK) native Lester “Hairpin” Hummel. Although negotiations were not complete, Rhineback showed up with his #71 replaced by a number 4, and while in many cases that would have disqualified him, someone on the rules committee apparently felt that Rhineback’s car had suffered enough setbacks, so for 1st time-and probably the last time!-in known DC history, a tournament was run with a duplicate number! It turned out not to be an accounting nightmare, as “Hairpin” Hummel barely showed despite some fine driving; Rhinebach, on the other hand, was out for blood!
Driver’s eye view: on board with Lester “HAIRPIN” HUMMEL in Chaparral 2F, “the other” #4!
There were some exciting moments but overall it was a very “by the book” race as the gentlemen of the sports car world are almost all exemplary racers, skilled drivers who know and respect the rules and are often unwilling to risk damage to what are, after all, extremely valuable classic cars! Perhaps there’s a new renegade in town, or perhaps he just intended to make a point, but another Cheetah driver at DC – in fact, the winningest driver in the track’s history, none other than Sherman “Throttlestop” Steele, must have watched the results of this race with some degree of consternation about the safety of his title, for Rhinebach posted some astonishing times, finishing well ahead of 2nd place Kenneth “Thriller” Diller’s #27 Ford GT 40. Rounding out the top 3 was another newer driver who is already racking up major victories, Cain “Thundercat” Thatcher, who brought his bright orange #83 Pantera GT5 “Warhammer” into a close 3rd place.
There were excellent showings all around, but the winner was the focus, as the car called “REVENGE” finally had hers; years of abuse were vindicated at the track last weekend, and everyone is now on notice that there’s a new threat to Mr. Steele and “King of the Hill!”
Will Rhinebach and his rejuvenated partner “Revenge” continue their winning streak in the future? We’ll know soon enough when we see what kind of times #18 posts when Group C takes to the track. Next up, however, is Group B, with 32 more vintage sports cars thundering across the California desert!
So stay tuned: the Secret Oktober racing series for Fall 1986 is just getting started, and there’s plenty more action to come here at DRAG CITY!
Yeah, I know… I rarely do an “Out of the Slot” on a weekend, and I know it might be a little disappointing, b/c I just know all you readers are chomping at the bit for the results from the first races of the “Secret Oktober” tournament series, namely the “Banzai Runner V – Group A” sports car challenge! It’s coming, I assure you, but you’ll have to check in with me next week, because I can’t post results while the races are still going on!
But honestly, that’s another little bit of “lore;” the reality is I had to work all weekend, and the only time I had was Saturday morning into the early afternoon, which I insisted on taking off to goto the first vinyl collector’s event I’ve been too in almost 30 years!
The terra-cotta front fascia of the Denver Sports Castle in better times, when the city was still clean and livable
Your HB used to be an avid collector of vinyl records, and as I mentioned several times before – including here and here, most notably – my collection is rather extensive. Lately, though, I feel like that old bug is biting me again, and while at today’s prices I can never go back to the kind of collecting I used to do in the early 1990’s, there are a lot of things I wanted back in those days but never got. In that way, seeking those pieces now is a little like “Whale Hunting” for rare Thunderjets: I’m after select pieces that are going to require high prices. I went out to this event with 3 in mind and I scored 2 of them…well, two and a half, kind of…and in addition I picked up a couple of other pretty nice pieces I came across as well as few “impulse buys” that I didn’t really need but couldn’t turn down!
The event was held at one of the few vintage buildings that has managed to survive the wrecking balls of the rapacious developers who have destroyed the city over the last 15 years, although for how much longer is anyone’s guess; it is a protected structure, however, being one of only 2 surviving buildings in Denver with a terra-cotta tile fascia. For decades this was a sporting goods store, originally Gart’s and then, later, Sports Authority, but after they went bankrupt in 2016, the building fell into disuse and seemed like the inevitable had arrived. At some point the usual suspects moved in and the building is now owned by some California developer (of course, what else!) who I’m sure can’t wait to demolish it to build condos, but at the moment it is has been turned it into an “event center” of sorts for swap meets and other such gatherings. The building looks very worse for wear, but despite all this, and despite the overall awful condition of the city as a whole these days, it was still kind of a kick to go to an event like this in a historic building, even if I did have to run the usual gauntlet of homeless people and lunatics in alleys and doorways to walk there from where I garaged by car. Ah, the “blue city” experience! Isn’t it great?
My “grail hunt” for this show was an original release of the excellent first album by The Chameleons, Script of the Bridge, from 1983: the original mix on the original label. This haunting, melodic masterwork of the New Wave era is (or was) a forgotten gem, and the original pressing has sonic qualities that hit that sweet spot: just the right balance of raw post-punk energy with that widescreen, atmospheric guitar sound that keeps it from ever feeling dated. Its an analog presence that subsequent represses could not match, and equally important is that this original release has the original version of the sleeve art. There are at least 4 different versions of the sleeve artwork created for the various releases over the years, but the original is the best, because it is the creepiest!
I GOT IT! Its not the most prized 1st printing: it is not the original gatefold sleeve issue with the inner sleeve with pictures, and it still wasn’t cheap, but it is an early printing in a single sleeve and it is the original mix on the original label with the original artwork! I was thrilled to have scored a copy of it!
I also nabbed a copy of the Samhain slab November Coming Fire (another one I’ve mentioned here on this blog). My third goal was to find an original copy of the 2nd (and IMHO best) album by LA punk band The Flesh Eaters, A Minute To Pray, A Second To Die, which I owned decades ago but traded for something and never stopped regretting it. On this one, I only half-scored: I was at the show for over 3 hours because I hit every vendor looking for it but no one had it; I did, however, find a recent repress; not what I really wanted, but it was factory sealed and the deal was sweetened by it being printed on cool swirlly colored vinyl. Its not the original I was seeking, but its a good “settle.”
I made up for it though, by getting an unusual early Australian pressing of the Banshee’s 1981 tour-de- force Juju, one of the band’s best albums: this early “south Britain” release on the original Polydor label is hard to find off that continent and is in superb condition with its original inner sleeve. Couple that with a British-made Wonderland label pressing of the 12” single of the same band’s 1987 cover of “The Passenger,” their version of the Iggy Pop classic from their inimitable covers project Through the Looking Glass, a single which features two superb B-sides, including the achingly beautiful “Something Blue,” a song so breathtaking that it has often moved me to tears. It is truly one of the band’s best songs, and for decades it was available nowhere but as the 2nd track of this 12″ single! This replaces the cheaper US-made pressing on Geffen Records I’ve owned since the ‘90s, which was OK, I guess, but always felt like an imposter in my collection. And this particular record deserves a spotlight for more than one reason, because if you look closely at the back cover photograph of the hood ornament and badge of a classic car that adorns it, you might see that that particular badge and hood ornament are ones that your HB is intimately familiar with! Can you identify it?
Added to this: a couple of interesting Depeche Mode 12”’s on Mute records – one English and one German – with rare and unusual B-sides, and rounding out today’s acquisitions is one for Drag City! Well, of course I didn’t forget to pick up some “Music for the Track,” and I scored a clean copy of a Liberty Records release of a 1964 album called Boss Drag by an outfit called The T-Bones, which includes their renditions of gearhead standbys including “Shut Down,” “Little Deuce Coupe,” “Hey Little Cobra,” aaaand — yep, there is — “DRAG CITY!” How could I possibly have turned that down?!
So yeah, I spent some money – this stuff was never cheap and like everything else its more expensive than ever nowadays – but I got some enjoyment out of it before I had to go into the office and spend the best of the day fighting with a network configuration late into the night, not making it home until 8:30!
So, I’d say it’s time to put Boss Drag by The T-Bones on the old-school Singer auto-changer downstairs next to the track, flip on the power, and warm up the sports car fleet! We have a tournament to race!
