Nostalgia Nationals Saturday Afternoon Update!

It’s mid afternoon Saturday here at the 3rd Nostalgia Nationals and action has been hot & heavy on the drag strip all day. We just finished running the 1/8th mile Street Rod/ Hot Rod Shootout which featured a record 17 entries! The race is a special 1/8th mile heads up, run-what-ya-brung drag race for car show participants only – no race cars allowed!

The Street Rod Shootout featured heart break for Indy winner Roger Burman but sheer unadulterated joy for Sacramento, California’s Brian Basquez. Basquez’s journey to Kentucky began last Wednesday evening. “I was sitting at my home in Sacramento on the fence asking myself if I should go or not,” he said. “That’s when I just said – heck with it – I’m goin!” He went to Uhaul, rented a car dolly, hooked up his Brizio-Built black ’32 Ford roadster behind his pickup and drove straight through here to Bowling Green stopping for just a few hours at night to sleep in his truck. He arrived here just this morning!

At the onset of eliminations it appeared Burman and his wicked black ’32 5-window were going to Waltz to the victory. Burman was some 7/10th’s of a second faster than Basquez but as it turned out, Burman had to be shut off on the starting line due to a leak in his semi final race with Bill Reeves. That left a bye run for Basquez into his first-ever final. He’d run a career best 6.851 @ 103.41 in the semi’s but that wasn’t going to cut it against Burman but he caught his lucky break when Burman broke. The racing God’s indeed had smiled upon him! In the final, Basquez dispatched Reeves with a 7.255 @ 86.92 to the loser’s 8.719 @ 79.08. “That’s racin’ he said,” fists pumping in the air upon pulling into the winner’s circle to collect his first Goodguys hemi trophy. “This is the 3rd time I’ve competed in the event and have driven back to Indy twice and now to Kentucky. I’m so happy!”

He went on to thank Roy Brizio for building him the roadster, Roseville Rod & Custom for installing the 427-inch Smeding Performance small block Chevy and John “Action” Jackson for helping him with travel arrangements over the years to get back to the Midwest to compete in the Shootout. He then promptly accepted his first Goodguys hemi trophy, packed up his things and started the 2,248 mile journey back to Sacramento!

Brian Schimmel of New Berlin, WI again showed the world just how fast a ’55 Chevy Pickup could be. Competing in the Hot Rod Shootout, Schimmel flexed the muscles of his 496 inch, 1,000 horsepower big block and blew the doors off the competition by running a full 3 seconds quicker than some of them! Facing 6 others, he needed just three rounds to take his second title of the year having won at Indy as well. In the final against Tim Whitcomb, he clicked off a staggering 1/8th mile run of 5.826 @ 122.29! Schimmel’s patina covered truck, which he and his crew lovingly regard as “farmtastic”, sports a Turbo 400 transmission, 4 link rear end, coilovers, Mickey Thompson ET Street slicks and a heavy dose of Nitrous Oxide. Brian thanked C & S Performance for helping him thrash to get the transmission in order (he indicated he had three tranny’s in the car in the last 72 hours!), as well as Steve Balzer, Terry Reinders, Paul Tadin and everyone at Hillbilly Customs and Rod & Competition.

Both Top Fuel and Funny Car ran a solid session for the capacity crowd here today with Howard Haight retaining the pole in Top Fuel. Since there are 6 dragsters here and now 4 Funny Cars (after Troy Ray was unable to repair his rear end over night), Top Fuel will run their first round at approx 4pm Central while Funny Car will run another qualifier here this afternoon and start their final eliminations tomorrow morning. Here’s a look at some sheets and pictures from today’s action. We’ll be back later on tonight with the final qualifying sheets, round one top fuel results and the day’s photo highlights. Check back after dark!