That’s right boys and girls, it’s party time! Brian left for a week at the beach with the family so good or bad it’s all Chad all week long! Woo Hoo! Who’s up for burnouts in the driveway and a kegger while the parents are out of town? If we can’t get ourselves in trouble this week I’m going to consider it a complete failure. I’m probably going to have a few Chadmouth blog items up this week, but this one is a highlight reel of my summer which includes me being Ordained and performing a wedding, Bonneville, Drag Week, Camping, Goodguys Shows galore, and more. As usual I’ve been doing the marathon travel all over the country announcing events, taking photos, and passing out the BangShift Kool-Aid, so it’s going to be nice to get back behind the keyboard. Make no mistake, travel starts again for me on Thursday this week as we head to Virginia International Raceway for an event this weekend, before coming back into town to prepare for the California Hot Rod Reunion.

It’s been a crazy summer of car shows and drag races, and it’s not going to slow down until Christmas at this point. But man it has been fun getting to see a bunch of you monkeys at different events. You have no idea how cool it is to look across a packed show field and see BangShift and Forum Freak shirts. It really does make Brian and I proud. Hell, there were like a billion of you on Drag Week this year.

Most of this year’s show and race season seems to be one big Goodguys show, as I’ve been traveling all over announcing at the Goodguys Autocrosses. If you haven’t made it out to one, you have a couple left to see this year as we head to Charlotte, Pleasanton, and Del Mar. Thanks to a great relationship with the Goodguys, I’m allowed to be Chad on about 8, which is better than I would have expected when I started working with them a couple years ago. Next year there are going to be 18 Goodguys Autocross events, and they want me to do all of them. Uugghhhh. We’re looking at schedules now so I’ll keep you posted. A ton of you have come to say hi at the events, and know that my goal is always to have fun and poke fun. With great Vendor participants like Bret from Ridetech, Kyle and Stacy from Detroit Speed, Kurt Ukasik from RPM, Jason Childress from Gateway Classic Mustang, and all the others, it’s hard not to have a good time. They put on a killer show and on occasion let me get behind the wheel and prove I can operate more than my mouth. Come see me in Charlotte, Pleasanton, or Del Mar before 2011 is over. You won’t regret it. 

Bonneville sucked. Well, not really, but damn it is hard to be on the salt and not race. I love spectating certain events, and this place defies description on the cool meter, but it sucks balls watching everyone else get to race. Fear not, BangShift has a land speed car. Yep, I’ve had it for a couple of years and Freiburger and I have talked about running it together, but next August it will be on the salt or I’m going to cry in public. Not that I haven’t done that before, but you know what I mean. It’s a 1975 Monza, and has history running on the dry lake at El Mirage. It’s been decades since it ran under its own power so it needs a fair amount of stuff, but we’ll make it happen. Anyway, back to Bonneville. I was lucky enough to take Mike Copeland around the salt this year as he had never been. He was supposed to drive Turk and Freiburger’s Camaro, but DF blew that junk up early so Copeland was shit out of luck. Alll was not lost as he got to see what it’s all about and meet all the cool people I could find, but man it is hard watching cars race rather than being the one doing the racing. Still it was cool to hang out with our boys from Spectre, as well as make Freiburger’s broke big block run on two cylinders for a 32mph record. Next year it’s racing time. I still want to get into the 200 mph club behind the wheel of the Camaro, but I’m not sure it’s going to happen. I want it to, but we’ll just have to see. I’ve had offers to drive a few other cars over the past two years and have turned it down because I really wanted to do it in the Camaro since I’ve worked on it so much, but we’ll just have to see. The Monza is not going to be a 200 mph car. At least not yet.

Drag Week was great from a participation stand point. There were like a billion of you competing who were running BangShift decals, and we appreciate it greatly. I’m not sure the hot rod staff loves having BangShift decals in their photos, but that doesn’t bother us a bit. Ha ha ha. Major thanks to BangShifter Michael Moore aka “the crazy Canadian” who decided that since he couldn’t make it he’d send beer money on Drag Week. He sent us $200 and there were a big group of you drinking all his beer on Thursday night in Topeka. Corona, Bud Light, Miller Light, and Coors Light were flowing like mad and it was all because of Michael, so we owe him a huge thanks. Free beer is the best beer, and although we would have rather seen him there in his big bad Ford, the beer was a “fair” replacement. Congrats of course to our good friend Larry Larson on yet another win, and to all the rest of you who made it, won your class, or both. Daphne and I were running around like crazy people all week trying to take a million photos and get all the scoop. Sorry we weren’t as vocal and out there as usual, but we kinda got told to be good. So, we were good. Next year I’m competing in Drag Week, so I’ll be as loud as I want to be, and nobody can stop me. Major thanks to Todd Berry and Joe Barry, who gave us their scooter and golf cart respectively for the week. It made life much easier on us getting from one place to the next. 

Camping. Yep, Daphne and I loaded up the kiddos and headed camping. This doesn’t sound like a big deal, except that at 10 and 14 the two of them had never been camping before. Blame Daphne. Anyway, after a day long cruise around the Angeles National Forest while the kids were out of town, Daphne and I decided that we needed to come camping with them. Killer idea I thought, as I went camping a lot as a child, but there was still a part of me thinking hmmmmm “Is this a good idea?” It turns out it was once we got over the siblings having to share a tent thing. So we camped by a creek, watched the deer run around, heard a story about a bear one campground up from us, and played with fire. Ahhhhh the site, smell, and sound of a campfire. The kids had a great time, and so did Daphne and I. It was a short trip, but a good one, and we’re going to do more in the spring I’m sure. Of course there is a photo of me playing with fire, and one of the kids and I in the creek. The creek ruled and we walked up it a couple of times. Cold mountain water feels good.

I’ve saved the funniest for last. It is official. I’m a member of the clergy. Yep, Reverend “BangShift” Chad Reynolds here. I have neen ordained as the leader of the Church of What’s Happenin Now, a branch of the Universal Life Church. Why you ask? Well, it all started when my buddy Sean, who I’ve known since high school, decided to get married. This came as a shock to all that know Sean because he has been anti-wedlock forever. But Cynthia is a cool chick, and they are a match made in heaven so he pulled the trigger. 

Anyway, he announced that they were getting married, and then asked if I would perform the ceremony. So i did what any good friend would do and said “Hells yeah bitches!” and got ordained online. And so it was that on September 24th I performed my first wedding ceremony. It ruled. Video will be available soon, and I’ll post it here. Until then a photo below of my getup will have to suffice. Let me just tell you that Prince lyrics and the words “You have the right to remain silent” were included in the ceremony along with several other funny things. And yes, I was wearing shorts and flip flops. So was the groom. 

Okay gang, now it’s time to decide what we are going to do to get ourselves into trouble this week. Any topics you want me to discuss? Any questions you have for me? Almost anything is fair game, so let’s have it. I have a couple Chadmouth rants in mind, including NASCAR, Traveling for dumbies, Whiny bitches, etc. Suggestions? Oh, and I might do one or two with video rather than text. What do you think?