Car Craft Anti-Tour 2007

These two characters drove in from Chandler, Arizona, to join the tour. That's Jim Buys on the right holding a Car Craft All Star Drag Racing Team sticker from 1977. This guy's been reading Car Craft longer than some of us have been alive. He and his buddy drove six hours from his home outside of Phoenix in the '70 Chevelle he's owned and been working on for the last 17 years. "It was a piece of crap when I bought it," he says. "It still wouldn't be done without the help of all my friends."

Midnight Mayhem happens twice a month at LVMS, and it's a typical "run what you brung" event. Here, Glad talks to John Garner, who almost won the last Real Street Eliminator in his '86 Mustang. He flew to Los Angeles and rented a Hertz Mustang for Anti-Tour. He ran a 14.1 second quarter-mile time thanks to a little help from an ECM reprogrammer he brought with him. Keen eyes will also recognize Mary Bourdy's red Nova in the next lane as the cover car for the August '06 issue.

Well fed and happy, we set out for Las Vegas. The River Run in Laughlin, Nevada, was the same weekend, so we shared the road with a lot of really cool bikes.

Either a really hungry guy or a glutton for punishment, Scott Ligget's friend Malkeet Harrian from Sacramento wolfed down some truck stop food at one of the freeway exits.

We arrived at the track as the temperatures were finally cooling down. Tech inspection consisted mostly of a driver's license and registration check.

Several regulars made the tour again this year. Here's Scott Ligget in his '65 Impala sporting a fresh black spray-can finish. Glad said, "That car looks better every time I see it."

We made an extended stop just past the Nevada state line to allow people to regroup. About 30 people made it this far.

"I think we were supposed to turn back there." We managed to get to the hotel with only one U-turn.

The long hauler this year was Andy Maass from Louisville, Colorado. He and friend Mike Larson from Des Moines, Iowa, drove to San Bernardino together in his '82 Malibu, a former police car with the 9C1 package. Andy picked it up for cheap at an auction a few years ago, dropped in a junkyard 350 in it, and went racing.

Glad didn't get to race the CC/Rambler because his upper radiator hose had swollen up to epic proportions on the way to Las Vegas. Same as with a train wreck, the curiosity factor was so great people would not stop poking at it despite the risk of dousing themselves with scalding coolant. We repaired it Saturday morning in the AutoZone parking lot, and it gave us no more problems the rest of the weekend.

And then there were four. We chose to leave early on Sunday to beat the heat and traffic. Only Scott Ligget and Doug and Tim Van Beek in their Gremlin made it up in time for our 7 a.m. departure.

Props . . . Thanks again to the guys from Global West for the food and hospitality Friday afternoon. END