This stretched Nash Metropolitan is definitely an interesting combination. From what I gathered, it was the first time out with the car.

Unfortunately, the second pass down the track didn’t turn out very good. The car got a bit out of the groove and scrubbed the wall.

Surprisingly, the damage was not severe….couple new wheels and a bit of bodywork.

Chuck Welch is a local photographer who runs Kickstand Up! magazine, but he spent the day thrashing on his Chevy pickup!

Friends doing battle…Steven Swafford in the far lane, driving his 5.0 Mustang. Josh Dillon in the near lane with his ’73 Maverick sleeper.

Josh had a good day of testing with his turbo Maverick. It needs a few more tweaks, but he ran a best of 7.13 at 101mph. It was running 14 pounds of boost on pump gas.

Vintage Japanese motorcycles are really picking up steam in the collector market and this trials bike was way cool. It was in great shape and had a price tag of $825. Very cool piece.

This guy had a pile of Drag Mag wheels, but this one was an odd ball. The filled-in spokes are pretty cool, but I couldn’t find any markings on this particular wheel. If they had bee 15′s, I probably would’ve bought all of them.

I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a Mickey Thompson valve cover and timing chain cover for a Ford four-cylinder. These looked like brand new…I was afraid to ask for a price…

I couldn’t afford it, but I really liked this vintage Ansen two-piece bell housing.

And here is our score! A pair of 15×4 magnesium Motor Wheel Fly front runners. Complete with the hard to find plastic center caps!

Small block, stock suspension car doing its thing. Shot at the Bounty Race at I-40 Dragway.

Killer Mopar yanking the wheels at the March Bounty Race.

Wheels up in the near lane, and a sneeze in the far lane. SGMP in February.

LOTS of wheelies at SGMP!

Awesome 4.70 heads up racing at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip. Two ’57 Chevys line up to do battle.

Crazy sky…couldn’t pass this up.

Biggest wheelie of the year! Shot at Draggin’ for Toys at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip.

Awesome stock suspension Malibu carrying the wheels at Knoxville Drag Strip.

No action here, but it’s a cool shot with a couple of BAD Mustangs!

Marcus Wooden gets aggressive with his leaf spring, small block Chevy II at the August Bounty Race.

I know it’s not the fastest way down the track, but it sure looks cool.

Achooo!

More wheelstanding action at Brainerd Optimist Drag Strip.

Awesome burnout at Knoxville Drag Strip. I need to go to this track again in 2013!

You guessed it….another wheelstand!

Almost dragging the motor on this pass! Brainerd has provided lots of great wheelies this year, and I’m looking forward to 2013!

My dad’s longtime friend, Bill Sims is the owner of this ’59 El Camino. He’s owned it for many years, but my dad freshened it up this fall.

This one required a lot of work. It was a rusty car, and they swapped to an S-10 frame, so they did lots of fabrication to make it all work.

This ’55 Chevy came in the shop in July and my dad and Wally stripped it down for a custom paint job.

After a few months of rubbing, they laid down the paint and gave it a wild flamed paint job. The owner loved it and is putting the finishing touches on the car now.

Okay, this isn’t my cup of tea, but it’s one of the nicest Dodge A-100 vans I’ve ever seen. Most of the bodywork was already done, but my dad and Wally gave it a slick coat of paint.

Here’s another one they worked over for dad’s friend Bill.

Since this terrible cell phone picture was taken, the driveway has been poured to connect with our house driveway. Wiring and gutters are next on the list.

The first show of the year was just down the road in Graysville, TN. Here, my car is parked with Bill Sims’ roadster, which had just been finished at my dad’s shop.

For the first time since 1988, the Corvette made the trip to Pigeon Forge for the Grand Run. It was definitely cool to have a spot at the Sevier County Bank, which is always known to have a bunch of cool cars.

The first Chattanooga Cruise In of 2012 was held in April. That’s my wife’s Bite Size Bakery tent in the background…she did really well!

Next was the NSRA Street Rod Nationals South in Knoxville, TN. Also pictured is Gerry Burger’s ’40 Ford pickup.

My wife and I will sometimes drive separately to events. After all, she has a ’67 Camaro RS/SS of her own, so it makes sense. This photo is from the Strawberry Festival Cruise In here in Dayton.

The longest trip of the year was to Somerset, Kentucky for the Somernites Power Cruise. Coker Tire sponsored one leg of the cruise, so I gladly took part in it. What a great event!

Although it isn’t a long drive, I always drive the Corvette to the Chattanooga Cruise In, held at Coker Tire and Honest Charley Speed Shop. I had a great time after hours doing a cool photo shoot with a great bunch of new friends.

To finish off the year, we went on the Hot Rod Dragon Run, which consisted of approximately 40 cars this year. It was too cool to pass up, and I’ll definitely be doing it again next year!

One of several legendary Hemi cars in attendance. It’s incredible how simple the engines were…Hemi with two big ol’ carburetors.

The show featured lots of great nostalgia drag cars…and we’re talkin’ real deal cars, not recreations.

How ’bout an altered wheelbase Mercury Comet with a mechanically injected 427 cammer?

The 427 SOHC engines are so big. And so awesome…

Here’s a crazy barn find before barn finds were cool!

More nostalgia drag car goodness in the form of a Dodge Daytona. So cool.

And then there were ZL1′s….lots of em. I particularly liked this one because it was Hugger Orange and had some super wide rear wheels and tires.

A lineup of pristine 1969 Camaro ZL1 cars. Only 69 were built and there were nearly a dozen in attendance.

Here’s a shot of an aluminum 427ci big block in one of the many ZL1 Camaros at The Forge Muscle Car show.

Another awesome Pro Stock Mopar…this time, it’s Dick Landy’s amazing Dodge Challenger.

A lovely display of Hemi horsepower.

Yet another amazing vintage drag car!

I saved the best for last. This might be the only time I will ever see a hemi-headed small block Chevy. It was a very special engine developed by Smokey Yunick. Here’s all you need to know: 302ci, aluminum hemispherical heads, 600hp.

Ernie Lankford’s ’55 Chevy sets the standard for the black-on-black-on-black look. FYI, it’s a big block, four-speed car.

Another good example of black goodness. Light conditions were not ideal with this shoot, but it still turnout out pretty good.

Black cars require sunrise or sunset lighting for the right look. It’s all about the horizon line and reflections so I try to find clean areas with no distractions.

I’m always careful with white balance because it can sometimes ruin a good photo shoot. Warm light is always best for black cars.

GM didn’t have a very good black in the ’80s, but it looks good on this ’86 Monte Carlo.

I’m not really into Buicks, but this one is amazing. Gary Steele had the right idea with building a bare bones sleeper out of his ’72 Skylark.

I had cloudy conditions for this photo shoot, but the gray reflections offered a cool look. It was almost completely dark when I shot this one.

One of my favorite Mustangs that I’ve shot…hard to get much lower than this and still be drivable.

This ’68 Camaro was my introduction to Day 2 restorations. Period correct from front to back, this Camaro has all sorts of great details from the early 70′s era.

Billy Smith’s outlaw Mustang is another one of my victims.

Great conditions make for great photos…

Mark Turner’s slammed ’67 Chevy II undergoing a sunset photo shoot at the Nashville Airport.