(Words and photos by Brad Klaassen) – It was a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon with seventy degree weather in north Texas, so why not load up the hot rod, hit the track and knock a little winter rust off both the cars and drivers? As usual Northstar Dragway owner, Gene Nicodemus, and crew had his lil eighth mile gem prepped to the max, like racers from all over the country have come to expect. The right lane was prepped for drag radial cars and the left for slick tire cars. NSD official starter, Dave Strickland, was on hand to flip the switch and send them down a killer prepared track and also help make sure the racing surface stayed on point and safe for some fast cars including, John Hale’s, One Bad Texan, nostalgia nitro funny car.

Hale was at Northstar Dragway, just a short drive for his Dallas, Texas, based team testing his hot rod in preparation for the 59^th annual March Meet at Autoclub Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, California, March 2^nd through 5^th. Tod Barker from Marlow, Oklahoma, was also in the house with his blown forty eight Angela Gasser, America’s Lil Bit, doing the same thing. Tod will be running in the B/Gas class at the March Meet. Testing went well for both teams as they discovered issues they were able to correct. Hey, that’s why they call is testing. And once again both cars will make the trek out west to what many consider the biggest and best nostalgia race in the world.

Several track shooters were in the house at Northstar Dragway to do their own testing as well. Pull out their camera gear, knock off the winter rust and get everything dialed in for another great season of racing. Shooters, Steve Wilson and his son Dallas, won the long distance award for this test session, road tripping all the way down from Springfield, Missouri, a five and a half hour road trip one way. Yep, that’s dedication.  Texan’s Paul Caster, Steve Scott and Wes Ramsey were also in the house shooting away. Both Steve and Wes will be at the March Meet as well as yours truly. So, to say the excitement was already at a fevered pitch for us would be an understatement.

Okay, enough of my rambling. Please go check out my shots. And if you’re going to be at the 59^th Annual March Meet in Bakersfield, California, give me a shout! I love seeing all my west coast friends and meeting new friends for all over the world, literally. If you’re not able to attend this spectacular nitro filled event you can always tune in to the free live feed right here on Bangshift.com. However, since smell-a-vision doesn’t exist you’ll be on your own for huffing nitro and burnt rubber.

See you at the drags,

-Bad Brad