(Photos and words by Charles Wickam) – 2013 wasn’t kind to me in regard to shooting pictures. Work and/or weather hampered just about every weekend so I lacked ALOT at the beginning of the year but I was able to make it to the Goodguys event in Ft Worth in early March. The weather was a little cool but the turnout was huge. The turnout was so big that I was able to photograph just over half the show before people started leaving for the day. Of course I did manage to hang out alot at the autocross where Chad was announcing so that could  have been one of the reasons why I got half the stuff, but the show was huge.

The weekend did have some great highlights. Bret Voekel let me drive the 48 Hour Camaro from the Ridetech booth to the autocross then I proceeded to drive said car on the autocross track. After that I was walking thru the vendor area where Miller had a welder and torch display one of Miller Techs reconized me wearing my BS jacket. He told me that I took great pics and then cut my name out by free hand with a torch and gave me the really cool name plaque that is fixed to my toolbox at work. Could anything top those two things off ? Uh yea, I got the chance to spend some alone time with Richard Rawlings’  (Gas Monkey Garage fame) personal mustang. That day was a Trifecta of WIN.

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A couple weeks later it was time for one of my favorite car shows in all the country, The Lonestar Roundup. This behemoth is always held during the first weekend of April and it brings in tradtional styled kustoms and hot rods from all corners of the country and people from all over the world. If you’re a fan of the 50s and 60s styled cars, this show is a must attend.

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Work and weather again reared its ugly head in May and I missed a number of local shows that I wanted to attend but through those gloomy clouds was a ray of light from the fine folks of Bangshift who invited me to to Bowling Green KY with them to help cover the Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion. Since Chad was doing the live feed and Brian was in the tower announcing the event, I was the man with the plan and the camera. The event was amazing. I mean hell, I got to meet Jon Lundberg wednesday night before anything even kicked off. I was smart enough to mave my camera with me and got a few pics of Brian and Jon chatting in the lobby and to hear those two together was a highlight of the weekend (Thanks for capturing this Charles -ed). But along with all that is a overly huge car show in one of the most scenic settings that you could have a car show in and loads of non stop drag racing.

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The rest of the summer I spent in my neck of the woods attending various events covering the entire spectrum from the Mud Drags, to a car show that was less than 1/2 mile from my house, to the Saturday night roundy round racing and then one of my last outdoor shows held in the sleepy town of Victoria TX (another must attend if you’re with a couple hour drive of it).

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My friend Scott Brown and I hung out at the Lonestar Roundup met up once again to attend the Day of the Drags at the Little River – Academy drag strip for two days of racing goodness. But this time instead of parking lot pimping Scott brought out his grandma fresh looking turboed LS powered sleeper to make jaws drop all weekend with his whisper quiet 11 second runs. Every pass the car made it got quicker and the crowd got bigger around it after he returned to his pit. His buddy Franz with 55 chevy that is also LS powered ran in the 11s also and when these two ran together just about everyone was hugging the fence to witness one of the fastest side by side runs of the weekend. And yes, I’ve had my fair share of seat time in Scotts ’53 and it is hands down one of the most fun cars ive ever ridden in.

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The ADRL came to town for their final event of the year at Royal Purple Raceway and with some extra time on my hands being inbetween jobs, I was able to spend three full days at the track photographing test and tune and the event. Testing is ALOT more fun to photograph cause the officials let me get away with more than they would during a racing program.  The track had some incredible bite off the line and more Top Dragsters were pulling the front wheels than ever before.

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Then another one of my favorite shows, the Houston Autorama which takes place on the Thanksgiving holiday every year. It is one of the great all encompassing events I attend with the car show itself, swap meet, and collector car auction what else could you ask for? Another one of the great things about the show is that the staff allows me access to the show before the general public and I get to stay after hours as well to photograph. The big highlight was when Gene Winfield spotted me and asked me to come in and photograph, huh, what!? Yes, Gene remembered me from last years photos and liked them and wanted to make sure I took photos all weekend and along with being up and close Gene even told me a thing or two about metal working done his way.