Some of the venue highlights that made last year’s Gasser Reunion at Beaver Springs Dragway a success included Lew Stitley’s win over Randy Campbell’s “Full Metal Jacket” Studebaker with his “Tijuana Taxi,” along with a win in the AA/Gas Supercharged category by Skip Coverdale in his Anglia over Rocky Pirrone’s Willys.
Chris “The Professor” Holley also taught the Beaver Springs, Pennsylvania crowd a valuable lesson in the art of straight-axle drags by winning the Hot Rod title over Mike Harpster in his Mustang, and local racer, Jim Stugart won two rounds in Hot Rod Eliminator with his ’56 Ford.
Among the most exciting action that went down at last year’s Gasser Reunion was during the epic wheelstand competition that gave Beaver Springs’ participants a chance to show-off their torque muscles, as seen in our featured video. By far one of the competition’s favorite entrees had to be Rusty Sampsel’s “Bad Banana” Bel Air, a Shoebox Chevy that first ran the track in 1971.
Sampsel’s Tri-Five Chevy and others are a sight to see as they create burnt rubber smoke clouds and pull their pizza cutters clean off of the Beaver Springs tarmac.
The two-tone, blue and silver ’56 Shoebox and primer black Willys coupe featured in today’s video give us some of our most epic wheelstands, but they are not undermined by an orange Nova post that also gets some awesome air action.
Straight-axle drag cars offer a time warp like no other kind of hot rods can, and Beaver Springs’ rich history of grassroots drag racing lives strong through the dragstrip’s annual Gasser Reunion and the wheelie-popping extravaganza that just makes it that much cooler!
All image credit: Beaver Springs Dragway
