Well, just got back from two weeks on the road. It started with the SEMA show up in Vegas and ended with the wrap-up of the '03 Asphalt Ego-Rama. That's a long time to be out of the office for any magazine guy or gal, and those deadlines don't budge and the magazine's got to be made no matter where we are or what we're doin'. But the long days and late nights to get ourselves caught up are going to be well worth it-the fun we had and the friends we made on the road are more than enough to make up for a few demerits and a nasty E-mail or two from the "page police."
Above and beyond the tremendous amount of fun we have hosting the event every year is the pleasure we derive from just witnessing not only the increase in growth, excitement, and involvement by you, the readers, and, of course, the contestants, but the interest being generated by the rodding industry as well. This year we enjoyed support and sponsorship from four major players in the hobby. Magnum Axle sponsored the driveability portion of the contest; Wilwood, the 60-0 braking test; Air Ride Technologies, the engineering portion of the competition; and Painless Performance Products, the 1/4-mile thrashing to which we subjected our contestants. It's interest and excitement like this that shows the "powers that be" that not only is this a fun time for those actually involved but one enjoyed and supported by you, the reader, and the industry, as well.
Rather than rehash everything that happened during the road trip (I'm gonna leave that to the guys writing the coverage elsewhere in this issue), I want to take this time to babble on a bit about the contestants, their co-pilots, and the folks that were kind enough to host the group during the trip.
First of all there are the participants. It's amazing how fate throws together a dozen or so folks who've never met but nearly immediately gel into a close-knit circle of friends-at Ego-Rama it happens every time. Like last year, this year's group started out by eyeballing each other's rides, kinda sizing up the competition. Within a few hours this progressed to good-natured ribbing, joke telling, and the beginnings of lasting friendships-you couldn't wish for anything better than that. To us, the staff of R&C, the most important part of Ego-Rama each year is making new friends. We all come away from the event richer for having another group of enthusiasts that we can, and really do, consider true friends. Heck, lucky for me, one of 'em was even a smoker-hey, us undesirables gotta stick together, right, Roger!
We did have one mishap, shortly after we started, that whittled the number of contestants down to five from six. Don Dillard found that it takes a bit more than a 2-foot running start to knock down a block wall with a Model A, and unfortunately, both Don and his coupe suffered a bit of body damage-though nothing that a bit of primer and bed rest can't handle.
Then, there are the folks that gave up their personal and workday time to play host to all of us while we were on our journey: George Barris and Tom "Itchy" Otis at Barris Kustom, Pete Eastwood (and the folks at the Petersen Museum), Randy and Peaches Clark at Hot Rods & Custom Stuff, the crew at the Speedworld Motorplex (a great dragstrip), the folks at Bondurant High-Performance Driving School, everyone at Hot Rods by Dean, Steve and the guys at Industrial Chassis, and the folks at Goodguys. Our thanks go out to everyone for a great time that we'll not soon forget.
So read on, check out the coverage from our trip, and keep in mind ya gotta enter if you want to join us for Asphalt Ego-Rama '04-we're sure it's about as much fun as a rodder can handle. -RIZ