THE 38th NSRA WESTERN NATIONALS+, April 25-27, 2014, Bakersfield, CA
Was it the late April shower that made Bakersfield so colorful this week-end? No, we think it was the annual infusion of over 1,600 brightly colored hot rods making their way to the Kern County Fairgrounds for the 38th Street Rod Nationals that put a rolling flash of color on the streets of Bakersfield.
This is the 28th year the Western Nats have been held at the Kern County Fairgrounds and it is a great place for a car show offering plenty of parking on the grass, a good route for cruising, a bandstand with seating for the awards, buildings for the vendors and lots of food and beer booths. NSRA will be back to the fairgrounds for the Western Nationals+ again next year on April 24, 25 and 26. Registration was down a little this year with 1,646 registered – in part due to the Friday rain. Saturday morning was cloudy but by Saturday afternoon the sun came out and Sunday was a perfect day.
The Bakersfield firemen were back selling beer and food and this year they had a particularly interesting way of filling beer cups. Each glass has a round magnetic disc in the bottom that seals off a hole. The cup is pressed down over the round spigot that fills the cup from the bottom to a pre-set 16 ounces. When the cup is full it’s removed from the spigot and the round magnetic disc seals off the hole. Works pretty slick – no beer gets spilled and no foam runs over.
There was a lot going on all week-end. The event started on Thursday evening with a Bar B Que sponsored by the Bakersfield Convention & Visitors Bureau. More than 1,000 meals were served that night. Friday when the fairgrounds opened the Selohssa Car Club was on hand with a Continental Breakfast where 600 cups of coffee were served along with 63 dozen donuts. As always Sanderson Headers sponsored a Ladies Tea on Friday and 150 ladies took part. Included with Women’s World was a quilt display with a raffle. The “best” quilt was chosen by people’s choice and was given to the lucky raffle winner.
Wings Callahan played tunes all day every day with live bands on both Saturday afternoon and evening. Ride Tech sponsored a tech seminar on Saturday morning and the safety inspectors worked both Friday and Saturday. This week-end the safety inspectors inspected 145 cars, 124 passed and 117 received the safety 23 sticker. Last year throughout the U.S. 69 teams comprised of 900 NSRA safety inspectors inspected 14,415 cars. A lot of time and energy goes into the safety program and all we can say is “THANK YOU”!!!
Saturday special parking was set aside for the Streets of Rods. This parking was divided up into four sections – 29 Below for street rods owned and registered by participants under the age of 29; Forever Four for all hot rods built in a year ending with a 4; Nostalgia Lane open to all years and makes but reflecting a nostalgia build; Hot Rod Haulers – for all trucks from pick-ups to car haulers. A lot of nice cars could be found in the Streets of Rod Saturday afternoon.
Trucks entered in the Streets of Rods
Sunday morning offered a church service and a chance to see all the award winners parked in the Winners’ Circle. This year 37 awards were given but with the number of nice cars in the fairgrounds this week-end that number could have been 1,646. Here are photos of the award winners.
Additional photos of the award winners are posted on our SmugMug site www.timingtower.smugmug.com. You can order photos directly from SmugMug or contact us at timingtower@gmail.com.
The awards ceremony started at 2:00 pm, followed by the Super Prize drawings with three lucky guys taking home $3,000 each.
The first $3,000 cash winner was Stennett Bell from Stockton, then Ryan Davidson from Bakersfield won and finally Jerry England from Kernville received his $3,000.
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- Stennett Bell
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- Ryan Davidson
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- Jerry England
This year more than $69,000 in cash and merchandise was given out. In addition to the prizes given after the awards, Wings Callahan handed out prizes all week-end.
The winner of the timingtower.com award is a 1950 Oldsmobile 88 owned by Haskell and Liz Cowan of Porterville, CA. This nicely restored car is painted cypress pearl and black, the upholstery is gray with cypress accents, and it sports a Pontiac GTO 400 engine. Below are a few photos of the Olds but more are posted under our Feature Car section.
This week-end we learned about a new organization called American Warrior Customs (AWC) whose mission is to get the classic cars of service members and veterans on the road. AWC’s first project was a 1970 Ford Torino owned by U.S. Navy Chief Jason Saffa. Chief Saffa found his completely restored Torino sitting in his garage waiting for him when got home from deployment. American Warrior Customs is a California based non-profit organization operated by Tracy Harrelson and Jon Hall and many volunteers and friends. AWC’s next project is a 1957 T-Bird which will be ready for a warrior upon his return from a current deployment. All labor and all parts are donated. AMW also hopes to obtain cars which it will rebuild/restore and give to an individual who is either now serving or is a veteran. Donating to this group provides a way for everyone to give back to those who keep us safe. If you want to help, log on to American Custom Warriors. The photo below is of Chief Jason Saffa’s Torino.
The ’57 T-Bird which is the next car to be restored by AWC.
Here are some of the nice cars at the fairgrounds this week-end.
But when its over, its over and everyone heads home.
Looks like everyone had fun.
Mark your calendar for next year so you can make your way to the Kern County Fairgrounds April 24-26 for the 39th Western Street Rod Nationals+. The Western Nats are always fun.
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www.timingtower.smugmug.com You can order photos directly from SmugMug or contact us at timingtower@gmail.com.
Check back this evening.
SATURDAY
After a Friday night rain, Saturday started out cloudy and cool with a few drizzles. By noon the sun started shining through the clouds and the rest of the day was nice. Tomorrow promises to be sunny and warm. Below are some of the cars in the fairgrounds today.
The photo below shows some of the cars that parked in the Streets of Rods section.
Tomorrow morning all the award winners will be parked in the winners’ circle. Take a look here Monday evening to see which cars took home a coveted NSRA trophy.
FRIDAY
The Western Nats kicked off today at the Kern County Fairgrounds in Bakersfield. The sky was cloudy all day, and there was a breeze, but it was still a nice day. Any day that finds several hundred hot rods all in the one place is a nice day.
By 2:00 pm on Friday about 1,600 cars had registered for the event and more will come tomorrow. Below are a few of the cars in the fairgrounds today.
The overview photo above was made possible by firemen from the City of Bakersfield who kindly let us climb up into their firetruck to take the photo. This is the firetruck they brought to the show.
These firemen man one of the beer booths at the fairgrounds and they have a very unique way of filling a beer glass. Tomorrow, we hope to be able to post a few photos this glass filling technique.
Check back here tomorrow night for more on the Western Nats.
