2023 RPM Barona Drags
Photos by Primo
Year 3 of the RPM Barona Drags is in the books, and once again it was a great time at the track. Barona Dragstrip is located in north east San Diego county, a rural drive through some twisty tree draped roads leads you to the entrance. Once you arrive you realize Barona is a special place, no other structures in sight, nestled between some hills, the track is a throwback to the simpler race venues from the 50’s, perfect for a vintage event.
Entries came in from all over the south west states, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and of course California were all well represented and a few entries even came from over seas to compete. The racing is broken down into 9 classes, with all vehicles being 1940 and earlier. Early overheads, 1963 and older style parts, everything from small block chevy’s, nailheads, caddy’s, olds, pontiacs, studebaker, and early Hemi’s were all going for the win. Flathead V8, everything from the basic 2 carb’d street engine to blown Arduns. The Bangers, vintage Ford 4 cylinders, from the stocker to the injected Gemsa headed monster all have a place. Each of the 3 engine styles is then broken into 3 classes, street, modified street (overhead conversion or blower) and full race ( anything goes, blown, overhead conversion, injection, nitro, etc) . Competition was great with some fresh builds and repowered cars adding to the mix.
If you weren’t racing there’s a vintage parts swap meet area full of goodies as well as a car show area sponsored by the Lifters car club who helped out with parking and bbq’d for everyone in the evening. All in attendance are welcome to camp out and stay the night, live music goes till late in the evening and hanging around the stage bs’ing about the days events are always a good way to cap off the day.
Class winners all went home with some great prizes as well as cast bronze trophies, the winners were, overhead street- Charles Chaves, modified overhead street- Louis Stands, full race overhead-Tommy Osborn, flathead street-Rob Sepe, modified flathead street-Dustin Scalpo, full race flathead-Rick Palagyi, 4cyl street-Johnny Martinez, modified 4cyl street-George Yandolino, full race 4cyl-Bill Lattin.
The guys that put on the rpm events, Russ and Justin, would like to thank the sponsors that really make these races possible, and at an affordable price for spectators and race entrant’s, only way to keep this hobby we love going is to get new people interested and that’s hard to do when some events can cost as much as a day at Disneyland or more. Please check out these brands by visiting their sites and consider supporting those that support the hobby with your next purchase. Hop Up Magazine, Lee’s iron and metal, American Hot Rod Foundation, CW Moss, Reds headers, Biltwell, Madson sunglasses, Maxima oil, and Baron racing equipment.
Next RPM event is the RPM Nationals flathead drags, car show and swap meet coming up on September 23rd at Santa Margarita Ranch for more info check out https://www.rpmnationals.com/
