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Here's a couple of photos from the Nostalgia Drags held on Sunday.


Greg Ford,s new toy, ran low 11's on half throttle


What would nostalgia drags be with out a Willys


Holden 6 powered Austin Ute from Mildura, was a big giant killer over the day.


Yes it really was that wide


very healthy little Torana, driver had to back off twice to get thing back on the ground and it still ran 10's


More photos at http://photobucket.com/albums/y141/gregwapling/Nostalgia%20Drags%202005/

No, I'm still pulling up stumps.
But I have an obligation to my clients/friends not to leave them in the lurch.
For DLRA this means completing the coverage of the 2005 Speed Trials, which is almost done now and producing my last DLRA newsletter, which will be the special Speed Trials edition (and that's almost done as well).
I understand there is an equally capable person taking over in the role of DLRA Webmaster and Newsletter Editor.

As previously explained, the recent threat of legal action brought against me has had a profound effect, in many, many ways. To protect and ensure that my family and our home is secure, I must eliminate any and all exposure to the potential for litigation. (If I don't "do" anything, I can't be sued)

You know who to thank for all of this.

Go to http://www.dlra.org.au for the skinny and a heap of photos from the 2005 Dry Lakes Racers Australia Annual Speed Trials.

here's a link to some more photos, kindly taken by one of our sponsors.
Saturday Morning -
http://www.creativesweat.com.au/rods1/index.htm

Saturday Afternoon -
http://www.creativesweat.com.au/rods2/index.htm

Just got off the phone from Rick Chandler, big shock as I had just talked to Ian at the 2 Bays last weekend, doing what he loved to do.

This guy was a founding father of hot rodding in Australia and one of life's true gentleman, he was a shining example of everything that was fun about this little past-time of ours. Thanks for the goodtimes Shawry.

I would also just take this opportunity to pass on my condolances to Helen, Anthony, and Nicole.

Every bone in my body aches. I'm sunburnt to a crisp. I was fast asleep on the couch by 8 o'clock last night. But I still had a great big smile on my face.

3 days of the best hot rod fun anybody could ever have! If you weren't there, you missed out big time.

The bench session on Friday night was huge! The new venue was working a treat and with a very balmy night there was lots of talking and drinking and eating into the small hours. The Bay Rodders memorabilia display was had a crowd around it all weekend with many older rodders coming up to remember the "good old days" and lots of newer rodders interested in their heritage. Thanks very much to Heather Slater for the fantastic job in getting it all together.

Rodders are notoriously early starters and Saturday morning was to be no different. The girls at registration were being kept very busy with many new entrants turning up, many remarking on the fantastic goodies bags and a 2 Bay tradition, a bag of beautiful Red Hill apples from the Edwards family. Our good friends the Vietnam Veterans Association was cooking up a storm with hundreds of pancakes served to hungry rodders. Then it was time to cruise down to Moorooduc to the historic Mornington railway station to catch the steam train ride. On their return many entrants raved about the train ride and the entertainment as they travelled along. Once back at the station all entrants received a lunch bag with a fresh ham and cheese roll, cake, Mars bar, apple and a box juice. Thanks to Jeff and Heather Cook from the Local Bakery for the rolls and cake and Nestle for the Mars Bars.

Then it was time for the most hotly contested competition of the afternoon, the observation run, this took about an hour for most entrants to complete, I said MOST entrants. Yes, there were some who took a little while longer and their amazing excuses for taking so long are safe with us, honest. At this time we would also like to thank some those entrants for the very creative, but very wrong answers they gave, it had Mark rolling around the floor for hours.

The observation run finished at the Old Aircraft Company, a museum for war planes with many operational planes and even more under going restoration. There is a lot in common with hot rodders and the guys who work on these fantastic pieces machinery, only their pockets have to be a lot deeper. Thanks to Judy Pay and the boys for putting on such a wonderful display. From the airport it was a short drive down the road to the Tyabb Packing House which is now 5 acres of antiques and collectables. Many of the rodders spent the rest of the afternoon keeping out of the heat in the cafes and pubs around Mornington or back at the rod run.

Saturday night and Mornington was alive with hot rods. They were everywhere around town with many rodders making the most of the sizeable discounts that we were able to secure for entrants. The dance at the hall was very well supported and all that attended were entertained by that great little rock and roll band Shadoogie, complete with an Elvis floor show. Half way through the night we held a charity raffle with all of the items donated. The bidding was very lively and there were plenty of bargains to be had. Thanks to all those generous sponsors who donated items and the rodders for bidding and making it all worthwhile. Our main beneficiary is Ronald McDonald House at Monash. We also had on display the special 30th anniversary commemorative cake, which looked too good to eat.

Sunday exceeded all our expectations, there were rods, customs and classics everywhere. The boys on the gates were kept extra busy with many new entrants just coming down for the day and the general public just pouring in to see the spectacle. The Vets were flat out again preparing egg and bacon breakfasts for the entrants. By 10 o'clock the place was really packed, heaps of people looking at the rods, the band pumping out some cool tunes, and a good variety of trade stands to look at and buy from. We even had a shuttle bus to taking entrants out the Mornington Craft Market and the shops in Main Street. Many rodders just looked for a bit of cover from the hot, hot sun and the chance to share a drink and some stories with some buddies. And so it went on for the rest of the morning.
With the weather turning nasty early, presentations were brought forward and with a bit of luck we had them finished just before the next downpour. Many rodders stayed on regardless and even when we had finally finished packing up there were still a few stragglers enjoying what was left of a great day. On the way home I though I cruise Main Street one more time and to my amazement there were still lots of rods up and down the street. This was a truly great weekend.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all the Bay Rodders their wives and families for the truly great effort put in over the weekend, especially under such hot and difficult conditions. I'd also like to make special mention of the members of the organising Committee, who did such a fantastic job, not only over the weekend but also in the last 12 months in the lead up to the run. Many members received offers of thanks and congratulations over the weekend for what the entrants considered to be one of the best value and best organised events that they have attended.

To Ron and Cheryl Mills, thanks for the trophies and for opening your house for all the committee meetings and putting up with such a rowdy bunch.
Our illustrious President Ed and Michelle Narkiewicz for liaison with council and organising so many things and catering.
Bill and Kerin Duyvestyn organisation and catering.
Nick and Kaye Duyvestyn for organising the Air Museum and the terrific job on the lanyards.
Ian and Lyn Cornish our Rod Run bean counter.
Anne Selmo for pre-entries and registration.
Mark and Debbie Pullen for the observation run and registration.
Julie Kendall on registration.
Jeff and Heather Cook for the fantastic commemorative cake and catering.
Bob and Silvia Armitage for T-Shirts and catering.
Ian and Jenni Maddicks for organisation and catering
Heather Slater for the memorabilia display and catering.
thank you for your tremendous, tireless efforts.
And lastly but certainly not least, to Alan and Chris Newton for Main Street Promotion, sponsorships and taking over many of the tasks when I had a change of priorities.

Results and a * load of photos to come.

Been out driving the Chev in the rain. Gets even more looks of amazement from other drivers than when it's dry.
On Saturday, I was offically the coldest I have ever been. (Standing out in the cold wind and rain at a football match will do that).
Sunday was the Dry lakes Racers Australia general meeting. Great to catch up with everyone again. Told about about a months worth of lies in just a couple of hours, and had a ball doing it! Great bunch of blokes.
There has been a group of fellow club members (Bay Rodders) on tour in the US for the last couple of weeks, they come back at the end of this week. Looking forward to some stories.
Today is the shortest day of the year, which means it's only gunna get better from here.

Hey guys, great to see the BBQ trailer under way and lots of simularity to the design I did for the Bay Rodders BBQ trailer. You won't regret a moment of it.
The hard part will be trying to keep track of where it is as it get loaned out for various events.

Of course I expect on of the first sausages to come off the grill, just put it in an envelope with a bit of bread and send it to Greg Wapling, PO Box 5317, Mordialloc VIC Australia 3195 If you send it normal post it should only take about 12 weeks to get here. Mmmm Mmmm, I can almost smell it now...........

Another vote for Thumbs+
I've stuck with version 3.3 (it's up to 6 or 7 now) 'casue it does all I want it to do.

It can create thumbnails to your spec's and the html files to go with them.
It will also do some batch work
Has image modification capabilities
And is also a very good browser for your images (lots of different file types) Only overhead is a database file, mine is about 32Mb, but I have all of my images indexed.

Best of all it's free.
Can send install file if you want.

[3UKY662]

Don I just noticed the number plate on the back of the coupe. Don't think I've ever seen the back before...
3UKY662

OK, what's it mean, no really I want to know.
I tried reading it backwards, upside down, I've tried every abreviation and all I come up with is "YUCKY".
Tell me there's more to it than just a number plate!!!!

I'll be 49 on the 15th of March. My offical title is Geospatial Systems Architect. But if I said that I play with computer mapping systems it would probably make a lot more sense. Started out as a surveyors assistant in 1974 and after one particularly wet winter swore I'd never work outside again. Been playing with 'puters ever since. To my mind they were the good old days as I was involved with many systems implementations where you were going from paper to digital made you feel like you were really doing something.

Only ever had 3 employers, the second one was a large regional water board and now I work for the Victorian State Government in the Statutory Land Planning area. Don't do much hands on coding these days all project and contract management so having my own sites and learning HTML etc was good therapy for an old programer.

Lucky to have access to lots of "toys" and interesting work and so long as it remains that way I'll stay. Much prefer the development side of the business than the mundane operational side. I am never short of something to do and if it wasn't for my discipline of keeping "to do" lists I'd be in real trouble.

Started with a site for the Australian Street Rod Federation I have since built many sites for friends and hot rodding businesses, also do a site for Dry Lakes Racers Australia and created by own little piece of cyberspace at Hot Rod Internet

Went to an industry function last year and there were no less than 7 proteges that I had previously introduced to the wonderful world of geographic information systems who were now out developing / managing systems for a range of organisations. Made me feel real proud, more so than any systems launch.

The Bay Rodders BBQ trailer is now 10 years old and has been to hundreds of functions. We have found it to be a very good designa nd have had many compliments on service groups that have borrowed it from time to time. We have used it for club runs as well as fund raising where we many cook over 1000 sausages in a morning.

It's based on a 4' x 4' tray with 24" sides. The top is split in 2 down the middle and is hinged to the sides. When open the tops are supported by props from the top corners to the base of the sides. The base is 2" x 1" box tube and the sides and top is 1" box tube. Cladding is steel sheet, with the insides of the tops in stainless, so that when they fold out the form bench tops.

The front half is esky and the back half is BBQ plate. The esky was made out of coolstore wall cladding and has a drain hole (bath plug) and a hinged (from the back) top. It can be taken out if required.

The plate was purchased as an insert type 4 burner BBQ there is a second floor about mid way across the back, the BBQ sits on top of this and this gives a handy storage area underneath for cooking tools etc. The gas bottle sits on the the draw bar at the front. The two 3" box tube sections that make up the draw bar are much closer together than normal do that it's easier to get to the esky.

The good thing about this BBQ trailer is that it's relatively small, is light and is totally self contained. I'll try and dig up some pics. It'll probably make more sense then.

Knew I'd have a photo somewhere. This is from our Christmas party for 2003. Note that there is a fold down door to access the burner knobs at the top and then another fold down door to access the storage area underneath.

I'm sure some of the guys here from the original Rodders Round Table will remember me. But for those that don't and those that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet.
I'm a Hot Rodder from Melbourne Victoria Australia. Had the sickness for more years than I can remember, even as a kid I was reading Australian Hot Rodding Review and Australian Hot Rod and drawing rods I'd like to build or own. It wasn't until 1984 that I finally got my first project after having spent more dollars than I care to let my better half become aware of on tricked up Holden panel vans and Datsun rally cars.
It was a 1934 Chev Master sedan and I bought it as an unfinished project thnking that this would allow me to get on the road quicker. How wrong can a guy be. Took 4 years to get it on the road, but I've done a hell of a lot of miles since then and had a blast doing it.
In 1995 I could see that this thing called the internet had the chance of becoming something big, so I offered to set up a web site for the Australian Street Rod Federation. I could see this as a great way of getting information out to the rodders. The rest as they say is history, since then I have gone on the build many more hot rod oriented sites for Australian clubs and businesses. And have built what I believe to be the premier hot rod portal for Australian hot rods.
So I look forward to the new forum and seeing what some of you guys have to say.