Photo by Leslie Lovett / NHRA
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The legends of drag racing will be celebrated during the 24th annual California Hot Rod Reunion® presented by Automobile Club of Southern California, Oct. 23-25 as those who shaped the sport will be celebrated during the weekend. Grand Marshal Jim Dunn and honorees Paul Althouse, Cub Barnett, Don Gaide and Don Ratican, John Jodauga and Doug Kruse will all be honored during the course of the weekend.
They will take part in the Honoree Reception taking place at the DoubleTree hotel at 7:30 p.m. in Bakersfield, California. They will also be honored during the course of the day on Saturday in many functions including an autograph session at the Dynamat Legends tent at 2p.m. Also taking place will be the honoree presentation and twilight memorial at 5:30 p.m. on the starting line.
Grand Marshal Jim Dunn has been drag racing for well over sixty years. He was active as a driver for nearly forty of those years and was voted No. 27 on NHRA’s Top 50 Drivers list. He won in Altereds, dragsters and Funny Cars with a record of 10 wins and six runner-ups at NHRA national events. He won the Bakersfield March Meet once in Top Fuel and twice in Funny Car. He won the ’63 and 64 Winternationals with the Dunn, Merritt and Velasco Fiat Altered then raced fuel dragsters through the ‘60s before switching to Funny Cars. He was the subject of the 1972 movie Funny Car Summer exposing drag racing to millions. In 1991, he changed roles to car owner and tuner with a runner-up finish at the 1993 U.S. Nationals and the 1994 Budweiser Shootout, before winning the Shootout in 1997. His close friend, the late Bob Brooks said, “he was from the same era that spawned Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen. They were the quarterbacks, the pretty boys so to speak, and Dunn was the down-and-dirty lineman”.
Paul Althouse ran Paul’s Automotive in Monrovia and gained fame for tuning the fastest Chevys in Southern California. His shop was home to such entries as the Christie and Fisher Camaro, Geno Redd’s Chevelle, Bob Davis’s Impala and even served as West Coast headquarters for Bill Jenkins and Dave Strickler. Past Top Alcohol Champion Jay Payne, Super Stock and Comp racer Rick Houser and Pro Stock tuner Dave Butner all used Paul’s shop as a launching pad. It became the go-to shop for anyone who wanted a really fast doorslammer.
Cub Barnett- built engines have won and set records on drag strips, dirt tracks, and Bonneville and reliably covered hundreds of thousands of miles in street rods. In 1952, Cub made the trip to the Bonneville salt, met Charles “Scotty” Scott and went to work running his dyno in San Bernardino. In 1960, Cub opened Barnett’s Garage in Bloomington working alongside his father before moving north to accept an offer to go to work at Gotelli’s Speed Shop. That job lasted nearly a decade before he and close friend Andy Brizio became partners in Champion Speed Shop. Champion closed in the early ‘70s and Cub Barnett Engineering was born. His clients include Reggie Jackson, Dennis Varni, Jeff Beck and Tim Allen. The Cub Barnett Engineering Special roadster won the CHRR NE 1 class in 2007 and back-to-back 7.0 Pro titles in 2011 and 2012.
Don Gaide and Don Ratican became known as ‘The Sour Sisters’ when they teamed with past CHRR Honoree the late Kenny Safford. Gaide, a Road Kings member like Safford, teamed up with another past Honoree Bob Muravez in 1960 on a C/Gas dragster known as the Grey Ghost. After Gaide crashed it, their engine went in Ed Janke’s chassis and made it the winningest B/GD in California. Ratican first gained fame as an Oldsmobile tuner with the NHRA Nationals winning Ratican, Jackson and Stearns Fiat Altered. When Safford and Gaide planned to run nitro in their dragster, Ratican came aboard helping make it the World’s Fastest Oldsmobile. In the 1990’s Ratican completed a fine restoration of the legendary Albertson Olds dragster that is part of the NHRA Motorsports Museum permanent collection.
John Jodauga’s name is familiar to readers of publications such as National DRAGSTER, Hot Rod, and Car Craft. Jodauga calls himself an illustrator, but his work includes some of the most recognizable and innovative press kits in the history of the sport. Between stints in his forty-year career as a writer at National Dragster, John ran his own advertising agency with name clients such as Moroso, Simpson, the Summers Brothers, Duffy’s Performance, and many others. His first drag race was the 1964 Winternationals and he was hooked on drag racing forever. He eventually raced his own ’68 Camaro in a variety of classes including participation in the first ever Super Gas eliminations at the 1980 Winternationals. His relationships with racers and long career as a writer have made him an acknowledged drag racing historian.
Doug Kruse came to California for the 1960 U.S. Fuel and Gas Championships in Bakersfield and stayed. He was a mechanical engineer and once managed a drag strip in Manassas, Virginia. He went to work for “Jocko” Johnson and honed his skills in building race cars and aluminum bodies until opening Kruse Engineering. Samples of his work included bodies for the Yeakel Plymouth dragster, George Bolthoff’s Top Gas car, and the Assassin Top Fueler and the chassis and “tin work” on Joe Pisano’s first Funny Car (built from an actual Camaro). In late 1963, he joined with Tom “Mongoose” McEwen and others to form the United Drag Racers Association in hopes of improving prize money and safety for the racers. By February, they promoted their first event at Lions Drag Strip attracting nearly 100 dragsters and 15-20,000 fans. After the success of that meet UDRA chapters sprang up all over the country lasting through the 1981 season. When Funny Cars began stealing the limelight from dragsters, Kruse put together a series of events called the Professional Dragster Championships. Beginning in 1967 a twelve-year run of successful events was held up and down the West Coast.
The California Hot Rod Reunion presented by Automobile Club of Southern California is produced by the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum and benefits the facility located in Pomona, Calif. The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is a 501c(3) non-profit institution and collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets the vehicles, stories, and artifacts that represent the influence of, automotive speed and style in all its forms.
• SCHEDULE: The event begins at 8 a.m. each day with racing beginning at 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 23; Racing starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 24; And 8 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25.
• TICKETS: Single day tickets are only $25, $75 at the gate for a three-day ticket, and children 15 and under are free accompanied by paid adult. AAA members can receive a discount of $5 off a 3-day ticket or $2 off single day when you show your membership card
• ON THE WEB: For more information on the California Hot Rod Reunion presented by Automobile Club of Southern California, please visit www.nhramuseum.org.
