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So what are you doing on Sunday, May 24th? If you live in the northeastern U.S. and love muscle cars, check out Lebanon Valley Dragway in upstate New York.
Each spring, our friends at Hemmings Motor News sponsor a muscle car extravaganza called "Musclepalooza". If you're a little rusty on your Roman numerals, this spring's event is number 9 (IX). Musclepalooza X (10) is scheduled for the end of summer (September 5 and 6) at the Old Bridge Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey.
American Muscle
Musclepalooza is an all-American event. It's open to all domestic street-legal cars in sound working order. As the folks from Hemmings explain, "we love trucks, imports, street rods and classic cars, but this is an American muscle car show." So bring your AMC AMX, Chevy Chevlle, Dodge Charger, Ford Torino, Mercury Montego, Oldsmobile 442, Plymouth Road Runner, or Pontiac GTO. (Or just come to watch 'em race.) There are first and second place awards for the fastest Buick, too.
NHRA and NASCAR
The track at Lebanon Valley Dragway is a quarter-mile, NHRA-sanctioned, asphalt dragstrip. If you're new to motorsports, the NHRA is the National Hot Rod Association, the world's largest auto racing organization. With 80,000 members and more than 35,000 licensed competitors, NHRA is second only to the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) in terms of attendance and sponsorships. Today, over 140 tracks across North America host NHRA competitions.
FAST Cars
At last September's Musclepalooza VIII, Dave Dudek smashed a long-standing FAST record in his Hemi-powered Road Runner. Then he broke his own record on that very same day. FAST, an acronym for "factory muscle car drag racing" is a type of racing at Musclepalooza in which high-performance cars appear "showroom stock". As the FAST web site explains, this includes "the body, interior and all external components and manifolds, even the wheels and original 1960s skinny bias ply tires." Not surprisingly, FAST cars sound stock even at idle.
With 1/4-mile drag racing, a muscle car show, and the FAST shootout, Musclepalooza IX is the place to be this Memorial Day weekend. For more information about this exciting event, click here to visit to the Hemmings web site. You can also click here to learn more about upcoming Hemmings events this summer.
Resources:
http://www.nhra.com/nhra101/about.aspx
http://www.hemmings.com/events/musclepalooza.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_car
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