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Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

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  • Chassisman
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Originally posted by mrocketscience
    Too bad you didn't get to meet Mike Boyd as well... I know Mike and he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever run into... And he sure loves that old car. :D
    Mike is one special guy......for sure.......Great guy...NUT behind the wheel......never lifts....definately keeps the Winged Express like the days gone by.......

    Leave a comment:


  • mrocketscience
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Too bad you didn't get to meet Mike Boyd as well... I know Mike and he's one of the nicest guys you'll ever run into... And he sure loves that old car. :D

    Leave a comment:


  • dougg01
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    I don't know about the whole thing with the March Meet. Been reading about it for years and I am sure its great, but I am fairly attached to the little slice of heaven we have here in KY.

    Brian....excellent write up. One of the best since BS began. I tried some to catch you guys and shake your hand, but trying to duck the heat and catch all the action makes it hard to meet up with folks.

    After watching 2 previous runs from the Winged Express....Sunday afternoon was a different experience. We'd arrived at the track late and since the first Rd of TF was about to begin the kids wanted to sit in the stands near the starting line - spectator side. After the first pair fired and the nitro got up in their faces they wanted to go see what mommy was doing (finding some shade herself). They'd had a bad experience when a fueler was warming up on Saturday and didn't want to get another face full. So I park myself along the chain link just aft of the burnout box and commence to capturing some action with my camera. Roland Leong is spraying water in the box. Roland...wow. The sounds, vibrations and smells takes me to a place I've never been and the emotions of a young boy lost in the pages of HotRod mag back in the mid-70s come pouring in. This is the time where I've belonged for so long and the sensory overload is rushing to my brain. The winged express gets hooked up to the starter. A crew member shares a handshake and a moment with Mike before the signal is given to crank it up. Soon the car is rattling my internal organs as it rolls to the line and I become aware that my whole body shaking with 43 years-worth of emotion. Why this time...this run....this car...? The burnout is glorious in its thunder, violence, and at the same time.....there is a peacefulness to the whole scene. The car backs swiftly then lights the pre-stage......a quick rap of the throttle to clear the cylinders and the tree is ready. The car sprints off the line and about mid-track decides to get a little froggy....Mike burps the throttle and tries to get back in it resulting in a wicked bounce he smartly decides is just too much and clicks if off to a coasting 7.97. It was the coolest 7-second pass I have ever seen. When I could finally compose myself and catch up to the family my hands were still shaking and it seems I had been crying some...though I wasn't aware of it at the time. For a kid that never got to visit a drag strip until I was 20......as a boy I'd daydreamed myself into this scene years and years before and now it had become real. I have no idea why this particular run affected me so.

    Later we were preparing to leave and I wanted to get one more T-shirt - one from winged express. Al Marcellus wasn't at the trailer so we mulled around for a while and almost decided it was too hot for the kids to stay any longer when he returned. He asked which shirt I wanted and I told him it didn't matter. He came back out and we struck up a conversation. I asked if he still enjoyed the traveling, the racing, the work, the hassles, and the successes. He asked me if I wanted my shirt signed and I answered 'if its not too much trouble'. My youngest was tugging at my pant leg asking if he could have a shirt too. 'Mousie' Marcellus had charged me $15 for a $20 shirt because he didn't have the one he thought was the nicest in my size. Cool. He asked for my son's size and as I pulled cash from my pocket he told me if I tried to pay for it he'd whip my butt. He then asked what size my other son wore and told me if my kids weren't present he'd 'kick my ass' if I tried to pay for that one too. He said its fans like us that make the whole deal worth it. He told me the money was still tight, but that a wheel over at Holley had been talking to him and really enjoyed the car, the crew, and the show they put on. The Holley exec told 'mousie' he'd like to see what he could do to help them out and gave Marcellus his card. He signed the boys' t-shirts too and shook our hands. Whether he knew it or not he'd made our day and the day was already pretty special.

    Lots of things stand out about the weekend, but the moments watching and with the legend of the winged express will always stand out as the best for me.

    Now I ponder the dormant race car sitting in my fahter-in-law's garage that we've let sit for over six years. My oldest doens't remember us running it and the youngest has never even heard the car run. The memories I had to imagine as a kid I can give my sons if only I'd take some time to button things up and load it on the trailer. Life gets in the way of our dreams and for working stiff like most of us and it can lead to cheating our kids out of an experience they will never forget. Cole Quinell ran into that when his 9-year-old daughter pulled up the corner of a tarp covering the Pavement Pounder for the past ten years and asked 'daddy, what is this...?'. It happens to me every time the kids and I step into the garage and see that black car and they ask 'when are we going to work on the race car..?'. I gotta get out there and quick...I'm not getting any younger and neither are they.

    Leave a comment:


  • Chassisman
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Dang Brian...you would really go bat shit crazy at Famoso in March....LOL....32 car qualified funny car field....we loaded in on wed and didn't finish til monday......6 freaking days of Nostalgia bleeding your soul dry....I took a buddy to his first March Meet this year....his response as we were leaving the track...."DO we REALLY have to go home?"

    Brian...head west young man...head west........
    Out here it's RUM with no coke....... :o :o :o :o :o :o

    Leave a comment:


  • BOOOGHAR
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    seeing the winged express run twice over the weekend is prolly the coolest thing i have ever seen in drag racing hands down, being all the wall and having it belch tire smoke and raw nitro on me was a incredible expirence

    Leave a comment:


  • mrocketscience
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    I'm with ya 100%!!!... I'd love to race at that event, just too far for me to tow I do like running the March Meet tho..

    Leave a comment:


  • TheSilverBuick
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Originally posted by studemax
    Great piece of motorsports journalism, that.
    Agreed!

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  • studemax
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Great piece of motorsports journalism, that.

    Leave a comment:


  • A/Fuel
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Beach Bend is one of the coolest tracks in the country. I haven't been there the last two years because I've been in New Jersey and Maryland, but maybe this year. Is the amusment park still going?

    Leave a comment:


  • milner351
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Another line on the bucket list.

    Brian, Thanks for sharing your experience with us pimple faced booger eating morons that didn't make it.

    Leave a comment:


  • CherryDaddy
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    I agree 100% too all of this. I was there for the first time and its like nothing I have ever seen.

    Leave a comment:


  • Joe Grippo
    replied
    Re: Barnstormin': Heat, Sweat, and The Nitro Time Machine

    Goddamn, I love DRAG RACING.

    Leave a comment:


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