(Words and photos by Doug Gregory) – Now that I am caught up with newer events I am finishing up items from before my cancer treatment up to just after surgery (late June).  I didn’t do any car stuff (or much of anything) for about two months while recovering from that.  Yeah, I’m a slacker.

We try to attend as many of the Straight Axle Mafia events as possible.  They are a fun bunch and their rules are pretty lax to keep it that way.  Also, US60 is my favorite track, period.  Others are close, but this is my pick.  SAM runs at plenty of tracks with US60 being their ‘home’.  The Nostalgia Nationals are held twice a year and feature much more than just SAM.  This gallery includes the ‘Nostalgia’ class cars.  These are 1980 and older that do not fit the requirements to race with SAM (straight-axle, door cars) or folks that don’t want to run with the straight-axle cars.  Also in here are the NSS and NMC classes.

Lots of great stuff in this widely-varied class.  Being a fan of ’78-79 Ford pickups (and drag trucks in general) this step-side running plenty of spray was fun to watch.  The FEDs on hand are always a threat to win and the show they put on is worth finding a seat to witness.  Mikey Brown’s ‘Seam Ripper’ is the slowest and most-entertaining FED I’ve seen in a while.  Utilizing a fresh dragmaster chassis recreated by Mike Wagner of Cornfield Customs and a basic Chevy six this thing looks amazing and will yank the tires every time.  Mikey has a custom upholstery shop which explains the rail’s name.  This machine is a looker and Mikey has had a ton of fun wheeling it.

In previous coverage we’ve featured the ‘Six Shooter’ ‘Cuda and we don’t believe anyone could grow tired of seeing it.  It is accompanied by plenty of other Mopars at these gatherings.  Not sure why, but it seems Kentucky and Southern Indiana are flush with Mopar racers and fans.

Always been a fan of the Opel GT or ‘mini’ Corvette as some called it.  We don’t see many out at the Nostalgia events we attend.  I recall seeing a lot more of these back when I was bracket racing in the 90s so I’m hoping they are tucked away in a corner waiting for someone to bring them back out for fun.

This is the largest gallery of photos I’ve put together in a really long time.  I really didn’t see any I wanted to trim out and splitting didn’t seem to be an option for me mentally.  Perhaps Brian will show me how it’s done.

Come back and check out the other happenings at the US-60 Nostalgia Nationals.