MATS….. which is now “muscle cars at the strip”: roll call!

MARCH 18-20

Ok some people HATE the fact it’s not “mopar only”, but I have to side with the promoter here. This crowd isn’t getting any younger and I’d hope that most would take off ye blinders and realize a mopar/chevy/ford event can be worth attending. That aside, I’ll be rolling in thurs sometime and obviously will be participating on the “racing” side.

Man back in the day this event created some amazing memories. I met Phil (Godspeed buddy) there many years ago as he hauled his barracuda all the way from NY on an open trailer with a single cab dually. Iirc the cab was full of empty mountain dews and Marlboro packs .

The “moparts breakfast” where a popular vendor split and left the bill with unsuspecting members….

I know it’s rough in the times of C-Note fuel stops but hope a few still make the trek.


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I'm in. Driving the Valiant

i'm in

I’m not going to make it again this year.

There will also be a NHRA style Stock and Super Stock race at this event.

Girlfriend and I are making the haul from south Florida. Two 69 GTXs behind my Mega Cab. We have had second thoughts with diesel at or above $5.00 a gallon so let's do some math... 5000 miles round trip. Optimistic 10 MPG = $2500.00 in fuel to show up. Add hotels, meals, entry fee for 3 classes x2 cars and race fuel for 3 days of each car racing and .... oh well we're not getting any younger so it's a go!
Stop by and introduce your selves. We will be pitted with the AFX crowd.

You sound like me with monster Mopars

Haven't attended since 2014

Here is another, better poster for the Stock / Super Stock Combo

My wallet still hurts from that breakfast deal

There is a $10,000 bracket race, a $5,000 quick race and S/Pro pays $2500 on top of all the other money up for grabs in the other various classes on top of the $10,000 Stock/SS combo race. No reason to not come at least to the race portion of the event. Its still a very very heavy Mopar contingent. Yes there are other makes there but they are greatly out numbered by the Mopar entries.

Ill be there in some capacity helping with the event. We will not be racing at all. But many here know me so feel free to ask for any help that is needed.

Four Speed Johnny is bringing the road chicken down from NoDak for the S / SS combo.

How is the car corral at this event? I was there in 2013 and there was a fair share there that year. I’m possibly heading to California to look at a drag car and forgot this was going on. It’s about 8 hours from my destination so thought might go here first if it would be worth the extra drive time.

I'll be there Thursday. Just spectating but looking forward to it. I hope its successful for Phil so it keeps happening.

Is there a live feed on the internet?

Well we had “fun”, but certainly not the success of going rounds you hope for….. got to stop and chat with Mercman as he was pitted by another racer I knew that ended up being an acquaintance of his through a great story.
Friday night we roll to the lanes for one of the first races and low and behold guess who I roll up against…. Mercman. Well in his southern hospitality ways he handed me the gift of a very bad reaction time, but he’d traveled a long ways and I was having nothing to do with that. Looking at the slip I think I must have waited for green, looked both ways and proceeded with caution ….he advanced. Pretty frustrating after ripping a .003/.009 in the prior test passes.

CKessel…. Thanks for swinging by. Would have been more hospitable but we were in our running around like a chicken with its head cut off stage.

Correctdirection…. nice meeting up with you too Lance! We have many “friends by association” from our SoDak roots.

Overall had a good time as I was pitted with a bunch of my Central Valley / SoCal mopar guys. We only see each other 1 maybe 2 times a year and it’s always a fun group to hang out with.

Will they have another one?? I can’t say…. The current economic climate sure isn’t working in anyones favor for travel right now. I’d have to say the attendance was “mediocre”…. Lots of empty room in the show spaces, matter of fact a friend that lives in Vegas brought is Chevelle out for the GM section and their were like five other cars there. Obviously quite a few more Mopars, but still a lot of open space.
Swap area pretty small. Another friend of mine from SoDak who restores Mopars said the prices were quite high, but he still managed to find a few items he deemed worthy of purchasing.
The “stock/ss” combo race was a GREAT addition to the racing program…. It’s like a car show, with wheelies!

Hey, at least you were making passes, and the car came home in one piece Jay. Nothing wrong with that.

It was nice to meet you and no biggie on not being talkative. You had things to do and places to be. I got to talk to John Irving some, same deal. I was pretty stoked to see such a good racer turnout.The auto cross was great and well attended with Mopar brethren. Wish the show participation had been better. I'm sure the cost kept many out, but look at the couple who pulled their black and white b-bodies from Florida and met up with west coast friends and family. Very inspiring. Did you see the orange Daytona down in the tent area? He DROVE IT FROM COLORADO. Had pictures of snow around him during his drive. He put clear bra on portions of the front end for protection. There was also a young gent who drove out from South Dakota with a 70 Monaco woody wagon, turbo'd 400. Way cool.

I arrived on Friday...
Great weather, crowd was light. Drag races were good but mixed, I did enjoy watching the (3) West Coast SS Hemi-cudas from Ogburn run.
I spent 15 minutes walking the midway, and talking to Bob Riggle and wife Nanci, and Drag-On-Lady Shirley Shahan. They made so many contributions to Mopar drag racing history. If interested both had some classey books along with photos.. Riggle gave me a large signed poster that will get framed and installed on on my garage wall.
Also went to concert @ GateWay Motors off the 215, solid 2 hours and food trucks, did talk with Randy, publisher of Mopar Collector guide for a few minutes.
I hope Painter continues the show...

Just my $0.02...

One of the guys from Wyoming was there car showing as well as participating in the auto cross. I’m not sure where his open trailer was parked but someone decided they needed it worse than he did. Was stolen early Sunday morning. He had to purchase a newer trailer to pull his car back to Wyoming.

Vegas must be a thief’s haven.

Only Wyo plate I saw was a trailer with a white chev ii drag car and I believe they broke it…. Very nice car.

Vegas is a s**t cupcake with pretty frosting…. and N Vegas takes that up a notch.

Would be interesting where they left the trailer…. The gate is manned 24hrs at the track so someone would have to actually pay entry (race class, car show) to get a vehicle on property to even go trailer browsing. Guess nothing would surprise me anymore.

The thieves were probably one of those dam SO CA street racers
We use to catch them and take them out to the low desert and tie them up to Joshua Trees and use them for Coyote bait
Society should do that to all thief's and outlaws That will help make America a lot better

I haven’t talked to him. I know this because he posted something on his business Facebook page.

The white Chevy II I think you are speaking of is Lance Kniggie. He is from Casper. One of the couple of Street Outlaws No Prep want a be’s from Casper/Wyoming. He had a fire in the engine area. Messed up some stuff.

I remember the inaugural NHRA National event. We were helping the Hool brothers with their TAFC. We got called for first round. Kris(driver) changed clothes in the trailer. We left the trailer unlocked(bad idea) when we returned his wallet was missing from his pants. It had $300 in cash plus the normal things.

The theifs are still going strong 20 plus years later.

Girl friend and I had a blast. While we didn't make any money, I know we are not the first fools to contribute to the Las Vegas economy.
It was such an awesome experince on so many levels. My brother and family from San Diego attended and my girlfriend surprised me by flying my sister up from Panama.
The So Cal racers that we pitted with are old friends I made 50 years ago in the Canal Zone Panama. George asked me last November to come out and race his Roadrunner. GF and I decide "lets haul Thelma and Louise out and race are own cars"! cars ran good my GTX while .008 slower in Vegas ran over 1.5 MPH faster than its Florida best.
The old Mega Cab did its job along with the two car trailer. We loaded both cars in Vegas with no broken parts and or issues. The 5400 mile trip was a bit rough. Rain storms in Florida on the way out and snow and hail on the way back. The only major down side was the price of diesel fuel. Florida was the worse as we never found it under $5.00 a gallon. Out west we found several places under $4.50. We averaged right at 11 MPG.... yup! right at $2500 for fuel.
Met a bunch of really nice people including "J_Body"...Thanks for stopping by.
Special thanks to "Al Alguire" who recommendations for jetting changes were spot on .005 les jet was perfect. Both cars ran with in a tenth of what they run at sea level.
Yes, I will probably do it again, talking about taking two Challengers next time.

It was nice talking to you on Friday plus your friends from my old stomping grounds. Pretty awesome that you made the trek west.