(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – Best of is misleading. These are the favorites I chose. Most are mine and a handful or so are from the boys. These are in Chronological order due to my mild OCD. I will explain and describe some.
Starting off with John Gilligan’s SEGA-legal ’57 Chevy caught at the Cincinnati Cavalcade of Customs. 4th photo has its tail in there too. Down a bit is Jeff Mumford’s green ‘Snot Rocket’ day 2 Camaro in all its flawless glory. Nest to that is the best shot I have ever taken of Carl Casper’s ‘Ghost’ AMBR winner. I have included some non-automotive photos because….I wanted to. Two shots of dawn at Ponce Inlet, FL. This Tom was chasing tail in our backyard (the hen was stage left). The Nostalgia Tractor Pulling League made a stop just North of us and it was a trip down memory lane. A good shot of the legendary Wayne Sullivan sitting at the helm of the Kentuckian. We actually had a family of 4 foxes down in the bottom of our property this Spring. It is no big surprise you’d find several photos of the Straight-Axle Mafia and US-60 Dragway in here. I have asked the owner/driver of CometKaze to do a proper, photogenic burnout for a few years and he complied more than once on this day. Ryan Pope and Mike Lewis are some of the best folks around. In here you see Ryan wheeling Mike’s ‘Larkness Monster’ Stude in an outrageous burnout as Mike Lowhorn gives him the thumbs up. The Lark went through some changes and now sitting lower it did not have its wheelie bars attached. Oops. It survived.
I finally got to shoot a pull with a county fair in the background. I snapped several images of Jason Gibson’s new ‘Young Blood’ truck. MBR power in there. I was also on the receiving end of a burst panel blowout and dodged shrapnel. Parkette is always a good stop and this was the first time my son and I both took cars to an event. We celebrated later by stopping at Sonic for a treat. Scotty Richardson and crew have done an amazing job with Mountain Park Dragway. I did get some good photos of local Top Sportsman star Lester Johnson’s ’55 and his son Andy’s ’57. Lester’s might be the loudest door car I have ever heard. We went to the NSRA Nationals 3 days straight taking both cars without a hitch. The 70s-Style GTX….is. Detroit-area survivor. More on that down the road. Our Chevy II lost a flexplate shortly after the trips to Louisville and has sat on jackstands since. Trans is toast and I haven’t had time or funds to fool with it. Couldn’t pass up the SouthEast Gassers photos. SAM and SEGA racer Lee Vickery’s ‘Two-lane’ ’55 was parked on the starting line briefly allowing me to get this sunset image. The dark exposure image of my son’s ’65 Bel-air isn’t a failure on my settings. This image was taken at 1520hrs during the eclipse and well before peak. It was like walking around with dark sunglasses. Last three images are of some fall foliage on my commute. We didn’t hit as many events this year as in the previous few and we also didn’t make it to some venues on our list. Perhaps 2018 will see more diversity and perhaps I’ll get my car back together for more adventures.
Enjoy.
I approve!