If it's August, it must be time to load up the family and head off to the Colorado Rockies! That's the way it was in our household when I was young. My dad always chose to schedule his vacation time for August. He reasoned that sweating through most of the hot season, then taking a week or two to rest and cool off before the start of school and the fall-winter schedule, was preferable to vacationing early and leaving nothing to look forward to during the hottest month of the year.
A lot of families from Iowa to Texas to Arizona and Wyoming must feel the same way, and the Super Chevy Show in Colorado is scheduled at the right time to meet their needs. The weekend was August 18-20, and the location was again Bandimere Speedway, notched into the foothills of the Rockies just west of Denver. We couldn't help but note the many family connections while combing the race car pits and the car show for Editor's Top Ten picks. One of them was Don Brown, Sr. of Albuquerque, who came to race his black and gold '56 Bel Air hardtop. Don introduced his daughter, Santana, as his crewchief and said his wife would be driving in later, after she got off work. Heading the crew for David Stone of Amarillo, Texas, was his dad. David owns and drives the flamed red '67 Nova (to 9.80 e.t.'s at this mile-high track), but says, "I just do what Dad tells me!" We made a two-in-one pick over at the Nash Racing stall, where racing is a family affair. Butch Nash started competing 14 years ago and now runs a 406-inch small-block-powered Super Comp dragster. His dad, Pat, had so much fun helping that he built his own Super Comp 10 years ago with a 377-incher. Donna, wife and mother, Butch's girlfriend, Pam, and his sister, Dawn, are all on the pit crew. Who wins when Dad and son meet on the strip? "Butch does," said Pat. "My reaction time is terrible!"
Over in the car show area a twin pair of restored '66 short Fleetside pickups, one blue and white and the other red and white, stood out-and-above the surroundings with their four-wheel-drive chassis. Turns out they are owned by twin brothers Dave and Dan Thaler of Arvada, Colorado. A few rows over Jack Martin watched over a red '68 Camaro with bone leather interior that ended up as Best Camaro of the meet and an Outstanding Interior award winner. Jack explained that he was showing the car for his son, who wasn't able to make it from Chandler, Arizona, for the show. And so it went throughout the weekend-families enjoying themselves showing and racing Chevys in the relatively cool mountain air.
On the track, race cars don't run as fast at 5,800 feet above sea level, but the thinner air affects everyone the same, so competition was just as intense. The ladies in the stands had a lot to cheer about, as Jessica Willard took Danny Sullivan two out of three in the weekend's jet dragster exhibition match-up. Jessica ran 260 mph in 5.88 seconds on one run to record the second fastest jet run ever at Bandimere. Support of the local crowd wasn't enough to make Loveland, Colorado, resident John Reynolds a winner in this weekend's edition of the racesearch.com Nitro Coupe tour. The final run came down to points leader Bill Kuhlmann racing against No. 2 Jeff Brozovich. Kuhlmann had blown an engine while winning his semifinal round and quickly switched mills before the finals. The new engine wasn't quite dialed in, which may have helped Brozovich take the win with a 6.43 at 222 mph in his '38 Chevy, running a 526-inch Rodex block. Still, Kuhlmann was not far behind at 6.50 seconds.
On the show field, Joel Fisher of Colorado Springs won the ESPN II Award of Excellence on Saturday with his deep purple '57 Chevy pickup and came back to take the GR8RIDE Award on Sunday. The coveted Best of Gold Class honors went to Nick Czuczko and his black '70 Nova coupe from California. Show awards were distributed at 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and most of the show car families headed home early. The racing families, however, were still making thunder on the mountain as the evening shadows fell.