Moldy Marvin's 8th Annual RFP 2k7

PALMDALE - To be a fan of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth is to love many things: hot rods, funny hats, fishnet stockings, skull motifs and, above all, the Rat Fink, Roth's infamous anti-Mickey Mouse character.

The green, veiny, bug-eyed, slobbering and otherwise grotesque rat, most often wearing a red tank top with the initials "RF" and driving some manner of mean-looking hot rod, went hand in hand with the Southern California hot rod and "Kustom Kulture" scene in the 1950s and '60s and was on display in myriad forms Saturday at the eighth annual Rat Fink Party at the Los Angeles County Raceway in East Palmdale.

The party, a tribute to Roth, Rat Fink and hot rods, included custom car and motorcycle showings, drag racing and sales booths with everything from Rat Fink dolls to Pabst Blue Ribbon-inspired pop art.

"We've having a little bit of nostalgia," said Bernie Longjohn, who runs the raceway, which has now been home to three of the eight annual Rat Fink parties.

ROTH DISCIPLES - Troy McQuade and Jason Wrona admire a '56 Chrysler Newport on Saturday during the Rat Fink Party at the Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale.

The party used to be just a car show and was held at parks and other venues, but three years ago, event organizer Jeff "Moldy" Hillinger decided he'd like to add drag racing to the festivities.

Dragsters of all kinds took to the quarter-mile, with muscle cars of the '70s, street rods of the '50s and jalopies of the 1930s all testing their limits on the strip.

While the event brought plenty of attendees and car owners - more than 300 autos, Hillinger said - Saturday was about more than Rat Fink and Ed Roth. The Rat Fink Party marked the second to last event, and the last novelty event, that will be held at the raceway. After Saturday, the raceway will host one more weekend of drag racing before closing its gates forever.

"I bought my LACR Last Drag Race T-shirt and a new decal," said Ron Miller of Simi Valley . He's been coming to the Rat Fink Party for several years and came Saturday to take his 1955 Chevy Nomad out on the 43-year-old drag strip. The back bumper of the light-blue and primer-gray Nomad had stickers from San Fernando , the Los Angeles harbor area and Irwindale, all of which have been closed or downsized.

The Los Angeles County Raceway, located off Avenue T, east of the Four Points swap meet, opened in 1964. It sits on property now being leased to Granite Construction company, which has a quarry in the area. That quarry has been encroaching on the drag strip for months and will engulf it completely later this summer.

"It's very sad that the Antelope Valley is losing a great landmark," said Mike Rodgers of Palmdale, who came Saturday to show off his 1931 Model A "Rat Rod."

"This is a venue for people to safely race their cars," Rodgers said. "On the street, there's no safety net."

Matt Mitchell of Green Valley , wearing a floppy Roth-inspired hat, used to race motorcycles at the raceway and said the facility's impending closure is "a shame." "It's terrible," he said. "You can't race on the streets, and now there's nowhere to do it." Mitchell came not only to see the raceway again, but also because he recently saw a documentary about Roth, called "Tales of the Rat Fink" on HBO. "After that, I had to come," he said.

Turnout at the annual event was good, but seemed more crowded than in previous years, Hillinger said, because the quarry has taken out large chunks of the raceway's parking space.

By 4:30 , more than 300 show and drag cars had come, and cars full of spectators were lined up for nearly a mile outside of the raceway's entrance.

Hillinger said he doesn't know what will happen to the Rat Fink party next year - whether it will be held at another raceway or revert back to it's drag-less format of years ago.

While Hillinger doesn't know what's next for his event, Longjohn knows exactly what he'll be doing when the raceway closed down after next weekend.

The raceway will be open for racing on Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then close as Longjohn takes down equipment and prepares for an auction on Aug. 10 and 11. He'll be selling off everything from scoreboards to vehicles as he prepares for his next gig.

When all is said and done at the Los Angeles County Raceway, Longjohn will head east to Birmingham , Ala. , where he will run another drag strip - the Bama Dragway. His wife is already there, setting up their new house and he will likely follow sometime around Labor Day. "I've spend 30 years of my life here," Longjohn said from the raceway tower, the roar of drag engines in the background. "My friends, my family, my community - it's tough to leave."

As he reminisced, drag racer Chris Morgan shot off the line with a perfect reaction time - a rare drag-racing feat, to say the very least. Every time a driver gets a perfect reaction time - accelerating off the line at just the right moment - he or she gets a special pin.

Holding one of the gold pins, which shows a drag strip's bank of starting lights, Longjohn said, "He'll probably get the last one at this race track."

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Rat Fink� name and device and Ed "Big Daddy" Roth
are trademarks of Ed Roth � 1999/2000/2001/2002/2003/2004 /2005/2006/2007 Rat Fink device � Ed Roth 1984/89

(Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Rat Fink, Yellow Fang, Beatnik Bandit, Road Agent, Outlaw, Mysterion, Tweedy Pie, Stealth 2000, Surfite, Wild Child, Race ?, Angel Fink, Robin Hood Fink, Mothers Worry, & Dragnut are all trademarks of Ed Roth (C) '99)

Last Up Date 07/25/07

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