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Here are three very, very pretty 'street roadsters'. I know they are street roadsters because you sit in the center of an 'altered'. Kinda smart 'o me eh...uh huh, yup.

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Now speaking of pretty, I have been requested to leave this all ...together a special page for all the guys who couldn't be at this race. Needless to say, this may make you be here in '99. And I assure you that if the following beer commercial is just a tad to blatant I will remove it immediately...

DAY 3, Wednesday July 29, 1998 Woodburn Dragstrip's 9th Annual Pro Stock Invitational

We were good boys last night so the 7am wakeup call actually works.

By 8:20 we were back on I5, breakfast burittos at the ready, all set for the four hour drive back north to Woodburn. The temperature is at least ten degrees cooler than yesterday at this time, so unless it came in qualifying yesterday, Oregon's first six second and/or 200mph Pro Stock pass is a near certainty for today.

You have never experienced entering a drag strip like you do with Carlson. The kid at the gate did his best but once Rich mentioned ..."If I have to bring Jim over here one more time"...You get the picture.

We pull into the track about 12:30 and the first thing evident is the number of Pro Stock Trucks scattered about the pits. Jay told me earlier that they had booked in four, but there had to be at least double that amount here today. All you had to to do for the answer was to wait for one of Jim Livingston's many "Good News/bad News" announcements...that seemed to flow from the PA system at regular intervals all day and night. They were actually pretty comical...as long as you weren't anyone from Portland International Raceway. You see, P.I.R. had pretty heavily advertised that today would be their Pro Stock Truck race - the first quarter mile drag race there in years. Going head-to-head with the Woodburn show was bound to cause a stir, but obviously Livingston blew 'em into the weeds! "Don't bother going to the place up the road" he would shout. "I hear they only have one truck there." You could see the smile on his face clear through the tinted tower windows. I later learned that Nickens was supposidly the only one who signed to be there, and never heard anything else about that race. Livingston milked it for all it was worth...he had to, he had ten trucks here! His announcements often included the fact that he "didn't even know this would come together as early as this very morning". The trucks proved to be a major, unadvertised (or charged for) addition that made an already great show even better!

One other item that slipped out was the announcement that this race date may change in 1999. Sounded like a scoop to me, but the next week of Digger stated that there would be a weekend off between Denver and Seattle in '99 with Sonoma moving to the week after. "We may run this on a weekend, or it may stay on a weeknight" said Livingston. Stay tuned for further details.

Look who was here with the Scribners...Jerry Eckman.

 

Dester Cambron had this super kool mini Willys on hand.

Steve Schmidt's manifold.

Underhood scoop detail on Dave McConnel's Chevy

My first pit stop was at the Baily Trucking Sox & Martin camp. One of the sport's living legends Ronny Sox consented to a short interview. I was pumped! Later as I shot filler vid of the pit I noticed that most of the people going up to him for autographs were of the grey hair set. Sox has not been the force he was in the 60s and 70s, but the old guys certainly have not forgotten him. This was his first trip to Woodburn and one of his very rare Northwest appereances. We only got to see him run once before they pulled out for Seattle only to find no motor to run. Lousy deal!

I continued through the vast expanse that is the Woodburn pit area and ran into a few old friends.

Dave and Vicki Strell from Mission had their cool Super Pro Demon here running for fun. They were going to tow home tomorrow then maybe come back to Seattle Sunday. it was really nice to see them after three months. it was also nice that they were happy to see me too. Later I also ran into Mission's Justin Winton, Ray Grossmith of BCCCA and National Dragster's Wayne Scrabba from Victoria.

I moved on to check out everthing from a ten second Nissan six-cylinder turbo Toyota to 'Bad Bob's' mountain-motored El Camino.

We have dozens more photos, and all the results to bring you, so hang in there. The Northwest Nats are up after that! LP

One last message to that Turbo Buick dude Dave Loney who was NOT here...I said Hi to Buddy Ingersol fer ya!

CLICK HERE FOR WOODBURN PART 2

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