There was no surprise whatsoever seeing Uncle Tony and Kathy at the NDRL Fall Classic. It felt like their kind of scene…laid back, older iron, lots of home-brewed items. It seemed to be a fine fit event-wise. Tony has a thing for gasser builds…I got to see a bit of that at the Hot Rod Reunion earlier this year when he went absolutely bonkers for Mike Bilina’s 1956 Chevy. You know the car…the green beast that hangs the wheels higher than my head just on the dry hop? Yep, that car.

How do you make sense of the gasser community if you missed the era by decades? The cars are all unique, from screaming little American compacts to tall-standing Tri-Fives to utter freakshows that have more grunt than good ideas going on. I see a throwback to the Stone/Woods/Cook era of racing, when you had to force as much weight as possible onto the rear tires to have a hope in hell of getting off of the line in a hurry. But I also see a bit of theatre with these cars. Bright colors, unique paint, names, and all sorts of tricks combine to rewind the clock in the heads of the crowd. Blowers, screaming small-blocks being zinged like nothing’s wrong, and even six-cylinders like you would have still found back then sing their tunes. You either get it or you don’t.

Check out the Straight-Axle Mafia from Uncle Tony’s viewpoint: