Wow! What a weekend it was! The Good Guy's March Meet in Bakersfield came off well - 27 Top Fuel dragsters competing for a 16 car field, with a $10,000 prize for the winner (for all the details go to Good Guy's) The fast time of the day, as well as the top speed, came on the last run for the big money, a 5.99 at
243 MPH!

This was the 42nd annual March Meet, started by the Bakersfield Smokers
in 1959. I was able to drive my 1932 Ford Coupe down on Friday March 9,
stay the weekend, participate in the Show and Shine and come home on
Monday March 12. This was a really big weekend for me, not only the fun
of taking the coupe for a little run (280 miles each way), but it was 50
years to the day since I purchased the car in Bakersfield.
(webmasters note: is this awesome?)

We had a great Bar B Que Saturday night with the Smokers. Many of my friends fromhigh school were there including Gary Guinn and Allan Swan as well as the Grand Marshal for the weekend, Jack Williams. Gary was one of the
people that gave early support to Bruce Sarver, another guy from Bakersfield, and the current points leader in the NHRA Funny car owned by Allan Johnson. Bruce was at the Smokers dinner with us Saturday night also, so it was a great get together.

The Smokers have a private tower at the starting line at the Fomosa Drag
Strip where we gather each year to have food, a few beers and Gin Fizz. This was especially great this year because Gary's son-in-law made
him a new blender (yes, the kitchen-type gadget) that powered by a weed eater engine! It has a twist grip throttle and revs up nicely to blend the drinks!

This event gets larger and larger each year. The newspaper reported
attendance at 40,000 people. The show and shine had over 400 cars, then
there was a great swap meet in the back, a midway with vendors for many
kinds of street rod and race car items and then of course the races.
Something for everybody, all the time!

Anyone wanting to escape the snow next spring could really have fun in
Bakersfield for the next March meet in 2001. We had a little rain on
Friday night but the track was dried off and ready for qualifying rounds
by 10:00 AM Saturday morning!

Bakersfield is really a town that supports racing. It's Rick Mears' home
town. They have two oval short tracks, one dirt and one paved, the Nascar trucks run regularly at Mesa Marin and the midgets are active at Bakersfield Speedway. So the town is really happy about Bruce Sarvers success with NHRA and the newspapers ran headlines this morning about another Bakersfield young man, Kevin Harvick, taking over Dale Earnhearts car and winning the Craker Barrel 500!

Even my Mother, who will turn 90 this month is following all the
racing activity and having a great time!

Charlie Caldwell
candpcal@flash.net