DICK BRANNAN'S
SOUTHERN AUTO CLASSIC CAR SHOW
2007
DVD #153
This 64-minute video covers all the activities at the 2007 Southern Classic Car Show held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway on May 4-6, 2007. Ford racing legend Dick Brannan and Romy Hammes Inc promoted this show. Last year Dick Brannan staged an All Ford show in Atlanta but this year he has opened the show up to all brands of automobiles. A terrific group of original drag race cars came out to the show and they were housed in one of the Nextel Cup garages at the Speedway. Representing Plymouth was: Bill Flynn Yankee Peddler '65 AWB and his 1968 Pro Stock Hemi Dart, a replica of Bill Jenkins Black Arrow Plymouth and several Sox and Martin Plymouth's. Mercury: Jack Chrisman's 1965 Fuel Comet, Chrisman's 1967 flip top Comet, Haden Profits '65 AWB Comet. Ford: Dyno Don's 1970 Pro Stock Maverick, Tasca Ford '62 Fairlane, Tasca Ford '63 Fairlane and Ohio George Montgomery's flip top Mustang Funny Car. Dodge: Dick Landy Pro Stock Challenger.
There were also a great bunch of muscle show cars in attendance representing all three of the major manufacturers. You will see: 427 Camaro's; 390, 406 and 427 Ford/Mercury's; Hemi Mopars. Also a second Nextel garage had a group of high quality show cars on display. They also had several vintage NASCAR race cars at the show including: #22 Ford of Fireball Roberts, #1 Ford Tbird of Jeff Gordon, #21 Mercury of the Woods Brothers and #43 Plymouth of Richard Petty.
They had several stars of the era in attendance including: Hubert Platt, Al Joniac, Linda Vaughn, Earl Wade, Tommy Grove, Sam Auxier, Jr, Phil Bonner, David Pearson and Butch Leal. Dick Brannan had three of his old racecars at the show including: '62 406 Ford, '63 ½ Galaxie (#824), and his '64 Ford TBolt. Phil Bonner also had his '64 TBolt at the show. In addition to these two TBolts there were another four original Fairlane's at the show.
Outside there was a cruise-in style event going on and it was packed with great looking cars. All brands, both cars and trucks.
Of course my favorite part was the exhibition drag racing program taking place on pit road at the Speedway. This was a non-competitive race and was intended to break up the day with a little drag racing action. The cars were started by hand signals and there were no clocks to record time. Lots of exciting side-by-side racing took place in four sessions on Friday and Saturday. I really enjoyed the match up of father and son George and Jody Abert. Jody had a '66 FE powered Fairlane and his dad had a '67 427 Comet. The 422 Motorsports Team headed up by Rich LaMont were also in attendance and they had two cars on the track. Rich drove his original '64 Tbolt and they also ran a Dyno Don Injected '64 Mercury Comet. Dean Sox was matched up against LaMont and it was just like it was back in the day when LaMont used to race against Dean's dad Ronnie Sox. The Carolina Thunder '62 409 Chevy did some impressive wheelies for the crowd and they loved it. Dick Estevez also put on a great show with his 1965 Ford Falcon drag car called Daddy Warbucks. Another special attraction was Jim Barillaro running the 1965 Fuel burning Chrisman Comet. This racing was nothing but fun, fun, fun.
On Sunday they lined up ten 1963 427 Ford Galaxies outside the Nextel Garage area and it was a site to behold. The long distance award went to John Richmond who towed all the way from California for the show. John's car was a big hit both in the show and on the track.
The attached YouTube video clip is a low resolution sequence from the Southern Auto Classic Car Show/Drag race. Keep in mind the full 64 minute video is in broadcast quality digital video. The full length video is fully narrated unlike this promo clip which only includes car sounds.
