Moldy Marvin's 8th Annual Rat Fink.Party & Kustom Kulture Extravaganza
It's a little ironic, isn't it? LACR Yesterday and Today.
by
Moldy Marvin
Palmdale International Raceway opened its 4,000' by 70' strip of asphalt for business in Oct. 1964.
The grand opening was held on June 12 & 13 1965 under the management of Scott Franklin. Around 1969 it closed for a short time, then opened and closed several more times up to about 1974. The mid 70's brought a new name, King's Antelope Valley Raceway.
In 1980 Bernie Longjohn took over
and that's when the track's name changed to
George and Ed were partners, George the driver and owner with Ed as his sponsor. I spoke with George just the other day; he had mentioned that even though L.A.C.R. could never be compared to some of the other larger tracks out there, because it has always had its issues with altitude the heat, wind and dirt, that still, L.A.C.R. was always one of his favorites and when ever he came up here to race that Ed would join him. George reminisced that how in the summers he and
Ed would come up and how all the racers would get together around |
The Bushmaster with "Roth's Yellow Fang" show muscle as they arm wrestle the track manager, Glen Easterling on June 13, 1965 Opening Day, Palmdale International Raceway A.K.A., (L.A.C.R.) |
For the past 3 years I've held our
annual Rat Fink Party and Kustom Kulture Extravaganza here at L.A.C.R. and
during that period I along with a small group of dedicated racers have tired to
save this landmark but to no avail, it looks like this year will be our last.
With this in mind I wanted to do
something special in regard to the theme of this years show so I started with
the show image and I called Ken "Mitch" Mitchroney long time friend
and art director for the Ed Roth estate. Ken's creative intuition pretty much
sums it up with Rat Fink Driving the infamous "Yellow Fang". Rat Fink
representing the general themes of the show the Yellow Fang representing
historical value of the race track and obviously Roth's influence with yours
truly hanging on for dear life while trying to stop the forward movement of
progress and the destruction of a beloved landmark, one of the last quarter mile
tracks in
A Drag strips "Standing" in history can be judged by the number of black stripes and the weight of the burnt rubber it has bared over the decades.
L.A.C.R.
has also served as home to a plethora of clubs such as, The Road Kings, The Bean
Bandits, The Early Riders, The Tyrants, The National and International
Brotherhood of Street Racers, The Mutilators, The Wheel Tramps, The Rod Tossers,
The Lordsmen, and associations like So Cal ProGas Assoc, So Cal Super Street
Assoc,. NDRA, WTA and the ANRA. L.A.C.R. has been host to events like The
Pontiac Drag Days, The Antique Nationals, American Nostalgia Racing Assoc, NMRA,
The World Jet Finals, The Annual Big Rigs 4 Kids Truck Drags and our own Rat
Fink Party and Kustom Kulture Extravaganza!
Like
George and Ed, I too have spent a lot of my time here at this track, maybe even
more, my father used to bring me here when I was a kid and here I am today, I
even moved less than 5 miles from this track 6 years ago in order to be closer
to it. L.A.C.R. is like Cheers it is a place to go where everyone knows your
name, I've made some great friends here, I've seen a lot of action, I've been
sideways, almost hit the wall a couple of times and so far I'm still here and
alive to talk about it.
Yup
and I think it is just a little ironic that Ed "Big Daddy" Roth and
the "Bushmaster" along with the "Yellow Fang" were here on
opening day and here we are today to say good bye to her.
Maybe
we can't save our beloved track, but there is a group of us who do have a dream
and we've made a promise to find a way to build a new complex in this community,
but we can't do it alone.
Won't you
join us to help find a solution? Please visit www.SaveLACR.org
for more information and please keep in touch.
If there is a will there is a way,
Until
next year Take care
Love,
the
Moldy one
Special
Thanx to Bernie, Tim and Crew along with Bob"Stormy"Byrd
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July 19, 1964 - February 10, 2006
Web Pages Dedicated to Randy Zaideman 1947 - May-04-2005
Ed, Jeanne, Randy and Jeramy Zaideman at the First Annual RF Party 2000
Rat Fink™ name and device and Ed "Big Daddy"
Roth Rat
Fink.Party and Kustom Kulture Extravaganza
TM Moldy Marvin TM Copyright 1999/2000/2001/2002/2003/2004/2005/2006/2007 |