Bakersfield, CA – April 27-29, 2012

Although this year was a bust for wildflowers, Bakersfield blossomed with color as nearly 2,000 hotrods took over the streets for the NSRA Western Streetrod Nationals+ on April 27-29, 2012.

The license plate reads “HYBRID32”; the frame reads “Burns both Gas and Rubber”. The right kind of hybrid.

The Kern County Fairgrounds was home to 1,896 hotrods and more than 50 vendors for the three day week-end. The Western Nats was a good way to spend the week-end whether you were looking for ideas for that next hotrod rebuild, picking up some needed parts, getting your rod striped, talking with friends, old and new, or just kicking back under the California sun watching the cars go by.

For those arriving on Thursday night the Bakersfield Convention & Visitors Bureau sponsored a free Bar B Que. This Bar B Que provided not only good food but a great way to get together with friends. The early birds on Friday could help themselves to a free continental breakfast hosted by the Selohssa Car Club. On Sunday morning Praise, Inc. conducted a church a service for those wishing to attend.

Last year NSRA started including seminars at the event and did so again this year. Friday there was a tech seminar by Gotta Show on fluid lines. Saturday two seminars were held; the Association of California Car Clubs held a seminar about legislation affecting the car hobby in California; and, AMSOIL held a seminar on lubricants. Also on Saturday there was a model “make-and-take” area hosted by Revell for the kids. For ladies only Sanderson Headers sponsored a Ladies Tea.

This year the Streets of Rods included rows for 29 below (for those under the age of 29), Deuces Way, Custom Corner and Luxury Lane. Some pretty impressive cars were parked in this area but the best in each row came away with a trophy.

One fantastic service provided by NSRA is the safety inspection. The inspections took place Friday and Saturday. Thirty-nine inspectors from seven states were on hand. An inspection team swarmed over each car giving it a 23- point inspection. These inspections help keep the cars safe and on the road. These guys inspected 181 vehicles of which 126 were pre-1949 and 55 were post-1948. Thank you to each inspector who gave his time at the show to help the rest of us.

Sunday morning between 8:30 and 10:00 am, 39 cars rolled into the winners’ circle. Each one of these magnificent hotrods took home a coveted NSRA award. Throughout the day, the circle was filled with people looking at the winners until 2:00 pm when the award show started. Show attendees surrounded the bandstand area as each award winner drove through to accept an award. Narrowing 1,896 of the finest hotrods around down to the 39 winners is never an easy task, but the winners were representative of the fine hotrods that attended this event. Below are some of the award winners.

To purchase photos of any of the winners, click on the SmugMug logo. It’s the little green face at the bottom.

After the awards were over the super prize drawings started. Many great prizes were given away; frame rails, air conditioning, Auto Meter gauges were a few of the many. The prize drawing was capped when three $3,000 cash prizes were given away. At this event alone, NSRA gave away over $72,000 worth of super prizes. The odds of winning at an NSRA event are far, far greater than winning the lottery, and who wouldn’t rather have a set of ’34 frame rails than $4 million?

Timingtower.com was pleased to select Doug Edwards and his 1932 Ford roadster to receive the Timingtower.com Pick. Doug’s dad, Chuck Edwards, was the owner of this roadster in 1956 when it became the first roadster to go over 200 mph at Bonneville, Tony Waters was the driver of the car and supplied the blown DeSoto Hemi, Jerry Smith was the mechanic and Jim Sughrue put up the funds. Chuck Edwards bought the car from Ernie Hashim in 1953. The car was parked after setting the Bonneville record. Chuck gave the car to Doug in 1996 and Doug has done a remarkable job of restoring the car to maintain its original look while making it streetable and safe. Although it now sports a blown Chevy 350, the Bonneville era is evident on the grille which has never been cleaned. The car is Smoker’s purple which was sprayed by Tony Waters in his garage in East Bakersfield in 1956. The original pinstriping was applied by Slimbo.

Hard to believe that the Western Nats are over again. Now it’s time to start looking forward to next year when the event will be held April 26-28, 2013. Next year bring a friend and the Western Nats may top 2,000 cars.