This was the second year of the “RPM Barona Drags” at a little rural strip in San Diego county and a day at the drags strip couldn’t get much better than this. Classes were broken down into 8 categories, 4cyl street, 4cyl modified street (overhead conversions) 4cyl full race, flathead v8 street, flathead v8 modified street (overhead conversion or blower), flathead v8 full race and 2 “late” classes for those running overhead valve engines built prior to 1963 a street and full race class. Competitors came from several states and even a few from out of the country with Greg Stokes making the trek from New Zealand to compete in his A pickup and Stefan Immke who came over from Germany to compete in the flathead v8 full race class.

Racing was competitive all day, with a few fresh builds showing up as well as a bunch of old favorites. In between rounds Tommy Osborn put on a tire smoking display in his vintage drag-master rail, there was a swap meet by the track filled with lots of vintage goodies, a show area, and great weather, it’s hard to beat San Diego county in late spring. For those unfamiliar with the track, Barona is located on a Reservation in north east San Diego county, a beautiful rural drive out of suburbia leads you to the strip that while only built 20-ish years ago has the feel of something that dates back half a century or more, the lack of any strip malls or track homes within miles of the track really helps the old timey feel.

Class winners included John Martinez, Vic Garcia of reds headers, Max Herman of H&H’s four banger side, Bobby Gordon, Lou Stands, Brian Mackey, Jay Dean, Brett Miller, and lastly Stefan Immke who we mentioned earlier had came all the ways from Germany ended up taking out the win in the flathead full race class. The boys at RPM want to give a shout out to their sponsors as they couldn’t pull off these events without the support, sponsors include reds headers ( reds-headers.com ) , CW MOSS ( cwmoss.com ) , American Hot Rod Foundation ( ahrf.com ), Madson sunglasses ( madsonofamerica.com) , Offenhauser ( offenhauser.com ) Baron Racing Equipment as well as HOP UP MAGAZINE. These sponsors allow the class winners to go home with some great prizes.

If you like what you see here the RPM guys are at it again with the RPM NATIONALS coming up on September 24th at Santa Margarita Ranch in central California, this is the big one and if you’re anywhere near the west coast it’s a good idea to head to the ranch and check it out in person. https://www.rpmnationals.com/