NITRO-FUELED MEMORY LANE; Vintage cars, and drivers, shine at the NHRA's Hot Rod Reunion.(Competition)

Byline: STEVEN COLE SMITH

Once heard, Cacklefest will never be forgotten. "You will see grown men cry,'' says Marvin Noel, a grown man. "Tears in their eyes. It's an emotional experience.''

Veteran drag-racing announcer and promoter Noel has presided over multiple Cacklefests. These occur when a few dozen vintage race cars-Funny Cars, Top Fuelers, you name it-line the track, fire their engines and rev them simultaneously until they run out of nitro-methane, or they overheat, or Al Gore files an injunction. The best Cacklefests happen at dusk, so you can see the rainbow flames shooting out of the headers.

This particular Cacklefest occurred at the fifth-annual Holley NHRA National Hot Rod Reunion, at National Trail Raceway, a drag strip just east of Columbus, Ohio. The first four reunions were at Beech Bend, a drag strip in Bowling Green, Kentucky, but the NHRA moved the event to the underutilized National Trail, which happens to be owned by the NHRA.

The cars started arriving early in the week-more than 500 race cars, 1972 or older, but if a newer car looked as if it was from 1972 or earlier, well, no one was checking serial numbers. Another thousand or so show cars came for the Show & Shine concours. And there was a big flea market where you could find a triple-carb intake for pretty much any flathead you wanted. Don't know what a carb and a flathead are? Put the magazine down and get some sleep, because you probably have class in the morning.

Jeg Coughlin Sr., ex-racer, founder of the Jegs auto parts business and sire of racers Mike, Troy, John and three-time Pro Stock world champ Jeg Jr., was grand marshal. Other honorees were Fred Hurst, Don Cain, John Abbott, Frank Hawley, Ted Harbit and the team of Pat Dakin and Gary Rupp.

The reunion is run by genuine NHRA people just as if it were a real race, because for these people, it is. Certainly, there were cars here that were too old or too valuable to race, but a great many came for the competition. It was as fierce and as serious as any you'll see, and it was also pretty compelling from a historic point of view. You don't often see a pair of early-1960s Chevys twist up like pretzels from the torque of the 409s at the starting line. Tech-nology exists now to strengthen those frames and ...