(Words and photos by Bad Brad Klaassen) – Long time hot rodder and all around good guy Hot Rod Tod Barker knows a thing or two about building great hot rods for himself and customers too. Barker has been in business at his current location for the past seven years churning out seventy to eighty customer cars in his one and sometimes two man shop.

For example, just take a look at his stunning 48 Angela Gasser known as America’s Lil Bit. This low 8 second blown big block Chevy powered screamer gets it done all the way out west at the famed Famoso Raceway’s March Meet and California Hot Rod Reunion in Bakersfield, California and back east to the legendary Metldown Drags at Bryon Dragway in Byron, Illinois. Tod and his trusty crew chief and son Alex also hit the Holly Hotrod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky annually, while still mixing it up close to home at races all over Oklahoma and North Texas. To say the Barker Boys are living the dream would be an understatement, especially with they get the blessing from the main boss, wife and mother Pamela.

Attitude Rods by Tod is a full service hot rod shop building and painting custom creations for any type application from street to strip and anything in between. For example, Tod’s Angela began life with a flat black paint job and some tastefully done hand laid pin striping. But, after making the gasser begin to run well enough to make others take notice Barker knew it was time to lay on the massive candy metal flake colors you see today creating an overnight sensation as America’s Lil Bit. I’d say he’s doing his part at making gasser drag racing great again everywhere he goes.

So what’s in the water in Marlow, Oklahoma (pop. 4,642) that required guys like Hot Rod Tod Barker and Independent Top Fuel owner/driver and Top Fuel Hydro owner Scott Palmer, a lifelong Okie who still refers to Marlow as home, to reach for the pinnacle in a form of motorsports that’s not exactly conducive to rural Oklahoma where cattle and cotton fields outnumber humans and for sure hot rodding drag racers? Well, according to both Tod and Scott it’s quite simple, their dads. Actually, neither Barker nor Palmer ever really had a chance to grow up any other way. They were immersed into the hot rodding culture as youngsters before they could even peak over a steering wheel by two badass hot rodding legends from the windswept plains of Oklahoma. Their fathers Verl Palmer and Jerrol Barker, who’ve already gone on to that great hot rodder garage in the sky, left lasting impressions on both men that strongly pulse through their racing fuel filled veins today. Hot Rod Tod proudly proclaimed he still has trophies both their fathers won in the 50’s before Barker or Palmer were ever born. So, it all makes sense that Tod and Scott had no choice to compete in today’s hot rodding and drag racing scene at maximum force.

So, let’s fast forward to the upcoming 2017 racing season as quickly as possible, which will once again reenact the Okie pilgrimage of trekking to California to burn rubber and racing fuel at the historic March Meet. And that’s just what Hot Rod Tod and America’s Lil Bit Gasser will be doing with BUG duties being expertly carried out by California’s lil bit Elizabeth Mayree. To say Hot Rod Tod and his trusty side kick and crew chief Alex are excited about the upcoming season would be a gross understatement. But, rest assured these Okies always come to have fun and race hard too.

Okay, enough of my rambling. Go check out the cool stuff you can see for yourself if you ever amble across the dusty plains of Oklahoma and stop in Outlaw Country, Marlow, Oklahoma, the birthplace of badass hot rodders both past and present.

See you at the drags,

-Bad Brad