Six members of the Geezer Gassers were at the 20th Annual Hot Rod Reunion at Famoso Raceway in October 2011. Watching these guys make exhibition passes was phenomenal. All of the cars came from the Midwest and are part of a group called the Geezer Gassers. This group has 36 members with about 16-18 active members. However, 28 of these magnificent “old” gassers showed up at the Reunion in Bowling Green, KY in June this year. What a sight that must have been. All these gassers are period correct in appearance with consideration given to safety. They all run on gas. The Geezer Gassers thrilled the crowd with their smoky burnouts and wheels up launches. The Geezers’ B gas cars run an ET of around 9.4 and their C gassers are running ETs in the 10.6 range. In the 1960’s when gassers were a normal part of the drag race scene, the C gassers were running between 12.8 and 13.4 ETs. The present day B gassers run on an 8.6 index and C gassers run an 9.6 index. Technology has come a long way since the 1960’s gassers ruled.
The six members of the Geezer Gassers that traveled to the California Hot Rod Reunion were: Chuck Lipka withh a ’41 Willys coupe, Jesse James with a ’40 Willys coupe, Ron Doran and his ’40 Willys coupe, Ron Normann with a ’41 Willys coupe, Randy Addington with his ’37 Chevy coupe, and Jim Peirick with a ’41 Willys pickup. They drove more than 1,500 miles. While at the Reunion, the Geezers were presented with the Pete Millar award. Pete Millar’s drag racing cartoons are legendary.
Chuck Lipka doing a fantastic burnout in his ’41 Willys coupe
This banner says it all
Thanks guys for putting on a fantastic show for us. We hope to see you next year at the California Hot Rod Reunion.
Chuck Lipka provided us with the following information about the group and its inception.
The group was a direct response to bracket racing. “Who ever heard of going to a drag race and losing because you went too fast?” A small number of us would always meet at Indy for the Goodguys program. The race/tech director at the time (Byron Edwards) was from the same generation as the rest of us, really liked our cars and our attitudes (or lack of attitude and ego). He told us he would separate us from the bracket race classes if we could put together a legitimate number of cars. We started with 4, then recruited a couple more, then a couple more. We got popular, and soon had guys wanting to join us when they found out about us NOT bracket racing. It took off from there. One evening after the races were over and we were sitting around having a beer, we were approached by a group of spectators who were ga ga over our cars. The B.S. session continued, and we continued to be applauded and commended. One of the original members kept trying to tell our new found fan club we weren’t anything special, just a bunch of old geezers who didn’t like bracket racing, with a bunch of old gassers……..it stuck. Our original focus of no to bracket (shoe polish) racing became our rallying point, with the idea of having FUN a close second. I always told any new prospects if they want real competition and racing, we aren’t for them. But if they wanted to show off their cars, make fun of each other, and have fun with their cars, come on down. If you are easily offended, or wear your feelings on your shirtsleeve, we aren’t for you.
Soon we were being contacted to make appearances at some of the smaller tracks in the midwest. Our popularity grew, Goodguys expanded their drag race involvement in the midwest, and we were contacted to be part of their exhibition program at their race events. Our popularity continued to grow, and we started making more small track appearances. With the popularity came requests from car owners to run with us. Seems like there were a lot of car owners who had similar feeling about drag racing as the original members. Soon, the group had grown to a point where a couple of things became apparent……..it needed a full time spokesman/director, and it needed some rules and operating guidelines. I stepped up and have been doing it since 1999. My wife had to step into the deal as the book keeper because I needed help.
The name and logo were trademark protected in 2003. The website was developed and posted about the same time.
Membership has been capped at 36. We’ve had some come, some go, but it’s capped at 36. Most of the members are midwesterners….Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin. We do have members from Florida, Mississippi, and Colorado. Nearly all of our events are in the midwest. We do about 10-12 events a year, though we have done as many as 16. I’m at EVERY event, and there are a couple of members who are at 90% of them.
Over the years, we’ve been not only fan favorites, but favorites of the print media/photographers, and of NHRA’s nostalgia movement. We got a big push from the late Bob Daniels when he recruited us for the first NHRA attempt at a Hot Rod Reunion in Columbus,OH in 1998 or was it ’99 (?) Steve Gibbs came to us for the first Bowling Green Reunion 10 years ago, and we’ve been at every one since then. The Bakersfield appearance was spearheaded by NHRA Museum Director Tony Thacker, with a blessing and push from Gibbs. I hope we made a good enough impression we are given the opportunity to return. We’ve been covered and featured (individually as well as the group) in countless magazine and newspaper articles.
Thanks for the info Chuck. The impression the Gassers made at the California Hot Rod Reunion will no doubt warrant a return invitation.