The final big car show of the year always makes the Car Craft staff a bit melancholy. After this, it's back to the daily grind, which means hitting trade conventions and wrenching in the garage through the winter. The 14th Annual O'Reilly Auto Parts Fall Street Machine Nationals in Springfield, Missouri, ended the season with a bang. The fairgrounds were packed, the cars were outrageous, and even rain couldn't spoil the fun.
For info about the '03 Street Machine Nationals, Sept. 12-14, call 317/236-6522 or visit www.familyevents.com.
The Oklahoma FactorAs usual, we spent a great deal of time hanging out at the chassis dyno. The Oklahomans came and conquered all comers on the Werx Performance mobile chassis dynamometer. While the locals put up some stiff competition, in the end the Sooners owned the dyno.
Ozark MadnessCoinciding with the Street Machine Nationals is the yearly Street Machine Shootout at Ozark International Raceway located 15 miles east of Springfield, Missouri. Originally created to get the racers attending the Street Machine Nationals off the streets and onto the track, the race evolved into the final event of a four-race heads-up drag racing series featuring five classes ranging from Pro Mod to True Street. What we found at the small track located in the boonies was a field full of door-slammers hauling serious ass (never lifting no matter how out of shape), jet cars, standing-room-only crowds, and nonstop wheels-up action stretching well into the wee hours (we finally quit at 1:30 a.m.). Great show!