It was one of those mornings. The air clear and crisp like cool autumn days start out. A clear sky, a peaceful drive and even the sighting of three eagles along the way. The destination? The 27^th Annual USA-1 Dragfest at Bruce Larson’s barn which is so impressive, you’d almost swear anything to do with drag racing either originated or passed through it. Each year, this event marks the last or nearly last event on the racing calendars of most racers and fans in the area. It’s a lively gathering where old friends meet, new friends are made, and lost friends are remembered. It’s always a pleasure to listen to people remember who they raced where and talking about cars they had and those they used to have.

There are always legends present at this gathering, and this year was no different. Of course, since it’s his party, Bruce Larson is there and accompanying him were Herb McCandless and Mike Dunn along with many other drivers and cars who had their own claim to fame.

The cars that were on display covered about as wide a variety as imaginable, from very old to fairly new, from mostly stock to heavily modified, and of course, purpose-built race cars. One such car was the recent Bonneville record-breaking car of E.J. Kowalski. That thing had a cool factor all its’ own.

One guy commented to me he was used to waiting for people to move to take a good picture, but kids running around were the worst. I had to remind him while there were few little ones present, there were a lot of “big kids” running around. The cars here are definitely a fountain of youth, as there were many youthful “big kids” enjoying everything like they were young again. There were two guys who took it to another level. Jim Kramer, current owner of Bud Faubel’s famed Hemi Honker, and a noteworthy Mopar guy and Keith Strayer, who proudly states he drives a ‘73 Chevy Leguna 2-door sport coupe, staged a match race on the public (don’t tell any law enforcement officials about this) road by the barn. With Terry Bobb acting as flagman, the pair squared off in a race between Keith’s electric wheelchair and Jim’s electric scooter. Even though Keith pulled quite a holeshot, it was easy to see, his was the quickest ride.

Even with all the fun and good times, we can’t lose sight of where all the proceeds from this awesome event goes. It’s all done to benefit the kids at St. Jude’s and that just makes this special day all the more special. If you missed this one, it’s a shame. You really missed one of the most special nostalgia events in PA.