After our history lessons in Vicksburg it was time on Tuesday morning to continue our journey to Bowling Green, Kentucky and the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion. The showers of the previous afternoon were forgotten and Tuesday morning the weather was beautiful. Rick Love had laid out a perfect route for us. Our path took us along a two lane route that paralleled the mighty Mississippi River. It was smooth and flat and the traffic was light as we made our way through Mississippi toward our lunch time destination of Comp Cams in Memphis, Tennessee.
We were greeted at Comp Cams by Chris Douglas. It was lunch time and we were in Memphis. Of course it was time for some barbeque. We all enjoyed our fill and then broke into smaller groups for a tour of the Comp Cams facilities. It was an interesting hour as we were shown the research and development that goes into all the Comp Cam products. We had a detailed look at the actual manufacturing process that is involved in the making of their famous cams. Our tour ended with goodie bags and T-Shirts for all of us. It was a both fun and education visit at the Comp Cam facilities.
From Comp Cams we made the one hour trip south to the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. Anyone that has been a part of the street rodding scene for even a short period of time will recognize the name of George Poteet. For many years George has come up with some great concepts for vehicles and then sought out the best builders in the country to put his ideas into reality. Folks like Troy Trepanier, Roy Brizio, Bobby Alloway and Dave Lane are just a few of the many talented craftsmen that have worked with George on project vehicles. In the past few years George's interests have taken him to the Bonneville Salt Flats where he has driven vehicles over 300 miles per hour and this year has his sights set on the 400 MPH mark. Besides his cars and his Salt Flat adventures, George is one of the nicest folks in our hobby and loves to share his collection of incredible vehicles with all who are interested. On Tuesday evening the participants on the Vintage Air Tour were very privileged to to get a very up close and personal look at a part of George Poteet's collection on his beautiful farm in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Our food for the evening was some more great barbeque served to us by George's two granddaughter's and fellow cheerleaders from their school. It was an incredible evening of food and fun surrounded by unbelievable vehicles and a very very gracious host in George Poteet.On Wednesday morning George wanted to make sure we were well nourished before we left Holly Springs so we were all invited to breakfast at Ellie Mays Caf complements of George.
We were getting close to our final destination of Bowling Green, Kentucky and the NHRA Hot Rod Reunion. We stopped for lunch in Jackson, Tennessee and visited the Casey Jones Museum. By 5 PM we rolled into the Hilton Garden Inn directly across from the headquarters hotel of the Hot Rod Reunion. On Thursday we were given a special tour of the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green. We made a brief stop at the Corvette Museum and then traveled to Holley and got a look at their facilities.
Friday the action started at Beech Bend Dragstrip and our weekend was filled with vintage race cars and some vary cool hot rods and hot rodders that came to see the action. The folks from NHRA and the Wally Park's Museum treated us like royalty and we had a special parking area to enjoy the weekend's activities.
It was a great week on the road for all of us on the Vintage Air Tour. Many thanks to Rick Love, Jack Chisenhall and George Packard from Vintage Air for spending so much time to make it a memorable week. It is not official yet but there it looks like there may be a return visit by the Road Tour to the Hot Rod Reunion next year.
Next up is the Back to the 50's Weekend in St Paul. Check back here as we head north to the 50's and them way out west to the NSRA Rocky Mountain Nationals in Pueblo, Colorado.
I hope to see you on a Road Tour soon - Jerry Dixey