MOONEYES X’MAS Party Show & Drag 2008

According to the planned schedule, everything fit perfectly and in a perfect world, made for a flawless day. However, the unexpected was about to happen, the edge of utter chaos, but in such a good way. It has all the ingredients to formulate one of the largest, if not the most grand daddy of them all, catastrophic events all of southern California. This isn’t a reference to a natural disaster or some kind of weapon. This is none other than the MOONEYES X’MAS Party Show & Drag!

Destination: Southern California’s own Toyota Speedway in Irwindale

Ingredients for the mass: Hot Rods, Kustoms, bone stock, barn finds, and just about everything in between on two or four wheels. Show vehicles were limited to pre-65 makes and models, drag cars were limited to a pre-72 year with bikes being unlimited. When you summon the likes of these cars in southern California, you bring with it an exodus from all across the lands and that is the power ingredient behind the mass. People from all over ascend to Irwindale Speedway for the show. This year seemed to easily double the amount of last year. One would question where and how this sudden spike in attendance was generated. Lots of talk about gas pricing, economy, etc. but let us not ask why, the most incredible car show was all that mattered and everyone was on the same page. It was actually rumored that by 9AM, the gate had to be literally closed for a while because the maximum allowed capacity was already breached, there just wasn’t enough room to allow more cars in.

Drag Races featured a bunch of different types and classes, from stock to mild, to wild and beyond. The FX Stock and Comp Gassers were a major hit and a crowd pleaser were a hand full of Altereds with one even trying to climb a wall during a burnout. The Irwindale Dragstrip is a short track but allows anything that passes safety inspection to take a shot. The bleachers quickly filled up with spectators and people gathered the entire length of the course.

As the first heat of drag racing came to an end, the DYNOTONES were already playing on stage. I made it just in time to catch drum-standing action and a couple songs before having to move on and capture more activity.

The charity auction began after lunch at 1:30PM. Hosting the auction was Beatniks Car Club member Jack Rudy. The auction got off to a slow start which made people showing up for the pin-up contest later on a bit impatient. But we still managed to finish all the items on the list.

With the crowd about to take over the stage, the Pin-up Girl Contest began. Hosting the content was last year’s MOONEYES Pin-up winner. The girls had been waiting on the side for a while and it wasn’t exactly a summer’s day. Causing a bit more confusion whether it was technical or because the amount of people squeezing the stage, the microphone stopped working. Last year’s winner had to shout from the stage to announce contestants. It really didn’t matter as the crowd was so loud cheering anyway but she did well. With the mic working, then not working, they went on, bring all of this year’s lovely ladies up to the stage. The first elimination brought the number down to the top five. From there, the two runner-ups were called and finally, the 2008 MOONEYES X’MAS PARTY SHOW & DRAG Pin-up Girl was announced! Congratulations!

For me, I’m truly grateful just to have been here and having the opportunity to be among all the people and cars. I got to meet up with new friends made at the Yokohama Hot Rod Show and met a bunch of people at this event. While I wish I had the ability to get every possible thing covered, I’m sure I missed a lot of cool features. The photos I manage to record, I believe, capture the core and essence of the day’s events. The day held off on raining just for us and although it was slightly cold, especially for the Pin-up Girls, it didn’t rain. But as they say, it just don’t rain in Southern California.