2001 High Performance Pontiac Show & Go

May 12, 2001--what a beautiful day to hold the 21st Annual All Pontiac Show & Go at Englishtown, New Jersey. And yes, we really mean it.

Since Mother Nature has harbored a personal vendetta against Pontiac car shows at Raceway Park the last few years, we were ecstatic about the, dare we say it, nice weather as we pulled up. We were also impressed with the amazing diversity of this year's entrants. Raceway Park's gates were flooded with new Pontiacs, old Pontiacs and tons of cars in between. If numbers-matching was your bag, numerous Goats, Birds and "Cats" were on hand to satisfy your cravings. But there weren't any dogs present--the Pontiac owners who headed for the drag strip knew how quick Englishtown's prepped surface can be. The following weekend, May 17-20, would see some record-setting Pro Stock and Pro Stock Bike performances at the NHRA national event on this very track. Obviously, the copious amounts of rubber the powerful Ponchos were laying down the week before contributed to these records. To Mark Pawuk and Antron Brown, you're welcome.

And if you cared to seek out the eclectic, the Show & Go had you covered (When was the last time you saw a fish tank in a Firebird?). A GTP sporting an in-car DVD player with a wafer-thin screen caught our attention, as did a '69 Firebird ragtop with a three-speed manual and a Ram Air IV '70 GTO. It didn't matter if they were old, new, stock or wildly modified, they were there, and this year's event used up a good portion of Raceway Park's pit area. The official tally was 87 showers, 173 goers and 33 who did both on Saturday. Raceway Park admitted over 1000 spectators--the HPP booth was rockin' with subscriptions and T-shirts, and things were looking up.

Of course, it couldn't last. After HPP minion Jay Heath rambled on about "good vibes for next year" during coverage of the 2000 event, we knew we were in trouble. And feature editor Jim Dietzler had offered up chicken bones to the dark forces--and as we all know, voodoo and Pontiacs just don't mix. The sentences were severe--Dietzler is now serving time at Hemmings, and Heath was banished to the fourth level of Consumer Reports (Gasp!). Our punishment appeared right before the Fiero drag racing finals. A thunderstorm with rain so heavy you could see it coming materialized and swept over the track, and racers, track officials and photographers booked for the grandstands to avoid being drenched. Thankfully, it quickly passed, and winners were crowned in both the show and the drag race soon after. For those of you willing to brave the elements next year, we'll keep you posted as to a definite date. For questions about the show, contact Raceway Park directly at 732-446-7800. And don't worry--we'll keep our lucky underwear on.

BEST OF SHOWFrank Scholl emerged from Raceway Park's stiff competition with a Best of Show trophy for his gorgeous 1961 Catalina convertible. Look for a full-blown feature on this 24,000-mile beauty in future issues.	The Fiero final pitted Richard Gage's orange '86 against Jon Titus' '85. Both had good reaction times, but Gage ran within three hundredths of his 16.8 dial to take the class. Titus went 18.6 on an 18.08 for runner-up honors.
In the old versus new P5 final, Jeff DiBiagio represented late-model muscle by wheeling his 2001 GP past Mickey Easse's '66 Ventura. A stellar .505 light put Jeff at the advantage immediately, and he finished with a 16.37 on a 16.24 dial. Easse's 15.51 wasn't good enough to win on a 15.4 dial-in.	Mark Erney took Jim Taylor's 1963 Grand Prix to the finals in P3 with super-consistent ETs. Sam Bianco did the same with his 1967 LeMans, and it looked to be an exciting race before Erney redlighted. Bianco's free run netted him a 14.1 on a 13.91 dial--and the winner's trophy.
Russell Jack's 1967 Firebird took P1 with a 10.96 on his 10.91 dial-in. He got out ahead of Eddie Peoples' '65 GTO with a .518 light to take the class. Peoples slowed to a 10.4 on a 10.19 dial to take second place.