I decided to go to Phoenix, Arizona by 6:45am American West flight on Friday 7th from the Orange County International Airport. There were a couple of reasons for visiting Phoenix Arizona. First, I had to take a picture of the Chopper which Scott was taking to YOKOHAMA HOT ROD Custom Show 2006(HCS) for HCS poster, and was building to attend this show. Second, I had to see Cole Foster and Indian Larry Legacy(ILL) for a meeting as they were joining this show as well.
Even though the flight was at 6:45am, this airport could not allow airplanes to take off until 7am. So there was 20 flights taking off by 6:45am. If one passenger is late to board, it would cause heavy traffic on the runway. The airplanes fly over City of Newport Beach which is the one of the most richest residence areas in USA. The pilot doesn’t want to take a risk of dropping in to this neighborhood, so the airplane engine is REV to full throttle before the brakes are released to run with max speed on the short runway. This G is some experience and to avoid noise to this residential area, the airplane makes a steep rise into the sky. This is a unique "take off" experience you can’t usually have on normal Airplane flights. So I like to take flights from this airport.
The Chopper Show, was hosted at a town called Cottonwood which was 2 hours drive through the cactuses from Phoenix, Arizona. This Event was hosted by Hose Magazine The Hose Back Street Choppers "Smoke Out West 1". It is famous event in east coast and this year was first time held at the west coast and many famous west coast builders joined this show.
There were builders and riders like, Chica who is famous amongst Japanese builders.The most appealed on TV in USA was there also, Chopper Dave, Katty from Movie & DVD "Choppertown" and member of the Sinners, Cole Foster, Keino and Paul Cox from ILL, popular "Dice Magazine", Easy Riders inc from Japan and TT & Company from Japan with booth. I had a chance to see Bill Mize who is coming to the HCS and had good meeting prior to his trip to Japan, but when I called Scott from there, he was still in LA, California and I couldn’t take his picture so his Motorcycle may not be on the HCS poster.
News!, we took that on Monday! so he will be in poster and finally we can make a poster! I hope he will make it to the HCS. As I was getting out of the gate to leave, the Sinners’ Danny Takahashi arrived with about 10 friends. I asked him how long it took from California and he told me 12 hours! That’s brave, amazing.
On Saturday 8th, The 15th California Hot Rod Reunion was hosted by NHRA at Bakersfield, California. So I took night flight back to California and drove to there. About 2 hours drive from shop. Gasser is getting popular in USA now. Every year it is increasing by a little.
70′s and 80′s Funny Car is increasing which is good news for me. Old Funny Car such, Hawaiian Charger and Pisano & Matsubara Vega we were able to see. Roland Leong, owner of Hawaiian has been elected as Grand Marshall this year. It felt like I was back in 70s when I was at Orange County Int’l Raceway and I found myself buying T shirts at the trailer, just like I did in 70′s. Each racer back then, had designed his own T-shirts. So, design was all different. It’s really "Reunion"! It was a great event for an Old Funny Car Fan like me. I always wanted to go too the Funny Car Reunion in East Coast, but I just could’nt make it. So nice for me too be able too see them in California.
On Sunday 9th, I went to the famous Swap Meet at Long Beach and I went to the VW Drag Day at the Irwindale Raceway after that, my busy weekend came to an end.
Oh, what a busy weekend.
