(Words and photos by Joe Grippo) – Well the leaves are falling, the temps are dropping, race tracks are shutting down, everyone is slowly putting away their hot rods and the holidays are roaring towards us. Time to recharge the batteries and the wallets and hunker down for the long winter. Bummer, right? At least for us in northeast part of the country, it is. But wait there’s more…the 21^st Annual USA-1 Dragfest hosted by ’89 NHRA Funny Car Champion Bruce Larson at his Stoney Creek Barn outside of Harrisburg, PA is the always the second Saturday of November. This deal is a great way to wind down a busy season of automotive fun and a last chance to get some quality bullshitting time in with your like-minded buddies. Part car show and part bench racing, Bruce and his pals through this yearly shindig and raise a few bucks for local charities in the process.

Larson’s barn houses his lifetime collection of racing memorabilia and some of his older and current nitro funny cars and hot rods. The upstairs is full of trophies, photos and chachkies from his drag racing career, it’s pretty amazing but the shop space in the bottom level is coolest to me. Walking through the rooms and corridors downstairs, everywhere you look is a example of Larson’s lifetime of burning nitro. Blower cases, pulleys, clutches, piles of Lexan, boxes of cams, pistons, cylinder heads and other used up offerings to the Speed Gods are everywhere. Lining the walls are vintage tools, lathes and machining equipment. I am always fascinated by the well-worn vintage t-shirts on display. It is like a real working museum, as well. No less than three funny cars were either under construction or apart for maintenance in preparation for more fuel burning action in 2019. No slowing down for Bruce.

Outside in the chilly weather was a killer assortment of drag strip warriors to drool over, everything from the restored Jim and Allison Lee’s Great Expectations II slingshot dragster to Lew Arrington’s barn find hydrogen-peroxide rocket Mustang funny car, the All-American. Being we are in Division 1, a few doorslammers were of course on the property, including gassers and a Grumpy’s Toy Camaro. A bunch of really sweet hot rods and muscle cars filled in the gaps. But enough of my blathering, just dig on the pictures. And maybe we will see you there next November…