If you have never been to Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green, it’s going to be difficult to explain just how surprising it was to see cars parked from the entrance at the main gate to past the timing clocks on the pit side of the track and just about everywhere in-between. So I’ll put it like this: by the time the rains set in late in the afternoon, I had walked from one extreme to the other four times and could easily find new cars everytime, would meet someone with interesting stories to tell about their cars, and in a couple of cases was greeted with “Oh, honey, get in the shade for a minute. Do you need a water or something?” In the finest Kentucky tradition, it was sunny, hot and humid, and the second the weather relented and cooled off, the rains struck, and nobody seemed to mind too much.
Wherever you looked, there was some kind of party. Out on the autocross course, you could find Blake Wilkey (the guy infamous for ripping up San Diego in a V8-swapped desert Bug like Ken Block’s stunt double) turning in entertaining, three-wheeled laps around the course. On the dragstrip, you could find 1950s trucks sending late-model Corvettes back to school after a half-track burnout. And in the car show, you could find just about anything your heart desired, be it a perfect 1990s Viper, a ProCharged 1974 Chevelle that oozed cool, or the GMC Diablo that looked sinister as a mild Pro Street ute!
Can’t wait till it makes the trek to Raleigh!
Check out the 60s Rambler “RAT ROD” engine and engineering.
Original 196 OHV with modern updates.
Nick