If you have to pick the one crown jewel in of the 2021 Holley Hot Rod Reunion, it has to be the action on Beech Bend Raceway's 1,320 feet of twin-track. From the first pass until the last car in the Cacklefest shuts down on Saturday night, the drag racing is front and center. How could it not be? Hot rodding's roots trace directly back to the drag racing action that started to crop up in Southern California after World War II. There is just something about violent acceleration that keeps drivers and fans coming back, over and over, again and again. But look at the cars that are on the property this weekend...there are muscle cars that are thumping with the engines that have names heralded for years, like the Rat motor, the Hemi, and the Cobra Jet. There are the Altereds, machines that are notorious for putting on a sideways, tire-smoking show that gets the crowd howling. The Straight-Axle Mafia are on the property, and it's actually in their rules that once your car meets a certain speed criteria, it has to pull the wheels off the ground...and not just a little bit, either.

Then there are the heavy hitters...the Top Fuel dragsters, the Funny Cars. Nitromethane will thicken the air, mix with tire smoke, and create magic for every true gearhead on the property, like the "Ohio George" Montgomery twin-turbocharged Ford Mustang funny car, complete with it's Boss 429 engine, Bendix fuel injection, and twin Switzer turbochargers hanging out front. In modern times, twin turbochargers on an engine that can handle the pressure is a winning formula. In 1972, this was bona-fide witchcraft. That's just one of the big dogs on the property, and just one story out of many this weekend!