Former NHRA Pro Stock world champion Larry Lombardo is the 2018 Grand Marshal for the 16th annual Holley National Hot Rod Reunion® presented by AAA Insurance, leading a list of celebrated names that will be honored during the event, which takes place at Beech Bend Raceway Park on June 14-16.
Along with Lombardo, the 2018 honorees at the three-day gathering catered to car culture lovers include Jay Howell, Bo Laws, Ed Miller, Joe Williamson, and Greg Xakellis. The Holley National Hot Rod Reunion® presented by AAA Insurance Honoree Reception takes place at the National Corvette Museum on Friday, June 15. Admission is free.
Lombardo jumped onto the racing scene in a major way, winning the Stock eliminator title at the 1968 U.S. Nationals at age 19, beginning a career that included plenty of success. Driving for the legendary Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins, Lombardo won the first Pro Stock race he ever entered, driving Jenkins’ Vega to the winner’s circle at the 1974 Summernationals. Lombardo became Jenkins’ full-time driver in 1976, winning the Pro Stock world championship that same year. He won three races that season, knocking off Warren Johnson in the first round at the NHRA World Finals that year to clinch the championship. Lombardo retired from the sport in 1981 to start Larry Lombardo Racing Engines, an operation he has run for nearly 40 years.
Honoree Jay Howell, a Detroit native, built and drove many of the most famous race cars ever, including the legendary wheelstander the Little Red Wagon and mid-engine Dart Charger. In 1965, Howell opened Automotive Engineering, becoming the first to break the Funny Car 180-mph mark in Pete Seaton’s Shaker, a car Howell built. He also built and drove the Logghe Warhorse Mustang Funny Car, which won the AHRA Summer Nationals in Detroit in 1970. Howell was inducted in the Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Bo Laws, a 2018 honoree, carved his place in drag racing history in 1968 with his pair of Street eliminator victories at the Winternationals and Springnationals. That success continued in 1969 when he won five of the six Division 2 Modified eliminator events and was a runner-up at the World Finals. Laws ran Pro Stock in 1970 and 1971, also continuing his success on the local and Division 2 level, retiring from the sport in 1971 due to his growing business operations. Laws formed BLP Products in 1991, an operation that continues today.
Another 2018 honoree, Ed Miller, is often remembered for his underdog story at the 1967 NHRA World Finals. With $10,000 on the line for the new Super Stock category, Miller outperformed and outlasted an incredible group of competitors to win the race. Miller eventually moved to the Pro Stock ranks and currently drives today, competing in a replica version of his ’70 Plymouth Duster on the Southeastern Outlaw Nostalgia Pro Stock Circuit.
Honoree Joe Williamson enjoyed his first national event victory at the AHRA Gold Coast Nationals in 1971, winning the Competition eliminator national championship that same year. In 1972, he moved to the NHRA scene, winning in Columbus that year en route to the first of six NHRA Division 3 championships. Now in his mid-70s, Williamson continues to bracket race, while his overall success sent him to the Kentucky Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Greg Xakellis was a racer until he was hired as the part-time division tech director at U.S. 30 in 1965, and was named the first full-time assistant division director in 1974. He was appointed the Division 1 director in 1979, working on the first computerized timing and recording system in 1985 and working as the NHRA timing and scoring supervisor at national events before retiring in 2004 after an impressive 40-year career at NHRA.
The fan-favorite event has plenty more in store as well, including quarter-mile nostalgia nitro drag racing, cars of numerous makes and models on display, a sprawling vendor area, and the famous Cacklefest® that concludes the event. On the track, Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny Cars will put on an entertaining show with the smell of nitro filling the air.
Coming to the event for the first time is the 6.0 racing category and exhibition class. The class features front-engine dragsters, center-steer altered and ’65 to ’79 Funny Cars, offering more exciting injected and blown nitro racing.
The grounds of Beech Bend Raceway Park will also come to life with thousands of classic vehicles during the Axalta Show & Shine. It begins on Thursday, June 14, as hot rods, street rods and customs make their way into the scenic grounds of Beech Bend Raceway Park.
The events starts with a special Holley National Hot Rod Reunion® presented by AAA Insurance Fan Fest event at Bowling Green Ballpark on Wed., June 13 from 5-8 p.m.
Lastly, the weekend concludes with the famous Cacklefest® in front of a packed grandstand. With dozens of classic nitro-burning Top Fuel and Funny Cars roaring to life and flames filling the summer sky, it makes for a highly-dramatic and entertaining closing ceremony.
