Steve Gibbs looked at the full parking lot of Irwindale Dragstrip and the crowded pits full of fans, and he couldn't help but be both happy and sad. He was happy that drag racing fans still cling to the history of the straight-line sport and sad that he had to create his own event to ensure the pioneers of the sport were never forgotten.

"This whole thing wouldn't have come about had my relationship with NHRA kind of come to a crossroads, all around the hot rod reunion events that we were doing at the time," Gibbs admitted. "I did retire from NHRA. I was a consultant working on an annual contract basis, and we came to the 25th anniversary of the Hot Rod Reunion at Bakersfield. And just the way the corporate folks decided they needed to run things differently. It finally got to the point that I just said, 'I can't do this anymore."

"I couldn't sign the contract they offered me. I refused to sign the contract they offered me. I had no clue what would happen next."

What happened next was Ron Johnson, one of the regular Cacklefest participants at the California Hot Rod Reunion [CHRR], stepped up with the funding to do an event exactly as the CHRR was intended to be... a social gathering.

Before the October 2016 CHRR, at any given time, there could be as many as 100 classic dragsters created to push start and idle while burning nitro, a process known as a cackle, participating as a tribute to the days gone by and entertaining the fans. At the last minute, new rules from NHRA limited the traditional Cacklefest to only 40 cars allowed to fire up and only in the distance of the shutdown area and not on the return road.

Johnson, who had three cars participating in the Cacklefest, bankrolled the inaugural Nitro Revival at Barona Dragway in Barona, Ca.

"It wasn't a huge deal, but it kind of got this ball rolling," Gibbs said.

While the event at Barona was a success, it became clear the facility couldn't handle another event that showed the potential of growing well beyond what the host could provide.

Gibbs moved the event to Laguna Seca in 2018 before settling on the Irwindale Dragstrip location in 2019. After surviving a pandemic, and a rumored closing of the track, Gibbs has found the fit he sought for drag racing fans and himself.

Gibbs had as many as 75 pre-entries for this season's cackle event, roughly 59 more than the CHRR had.

"I'd have to say there's 65 on the grounds, and a few of those may not have gotten fired up," Gibbs said. "They're works in progress, but we burn up a lot of nitro this weekend with those cars and some really historic cars. That's that. This is all about the history preserving those cars and, a lot of times, the actual people that race them."

Gibbs takes no joy in seeing his creation outdo his previous project because, as he sees it, drag racing history loses since the event is said to be primarily tied to the Wally Parks Drag Racing Museum.

"When you get at the end of the event and you realize there was nobody complaining. Nobody had a complaint; they had a great time," Gibbs explained. "They were around friends. They saw people they hadn't seen in a lot of years, and it's just a feel-good event. I think that's probably what drives us to keep it going. We're not making a living off this. It's a once-a-year deal, probably considering the time we put into it. Probably a minimum wage thing, but it's just satisfying to see people enjoying it, getting old friends back together and pretty simple.

"We're running cars down the track, but we're selling it mostly on a reunion atmosphere, a celebration of history. It's more like a museum, almost walking here and seeing some of these things with noise. And it is for a certain crowd, I think. And trying to get people that respect the history of the sport and pay honor. We do each year honor folks in this area that contributed to drag racing."

What Gibbs finds most intriguing about the event in its present location is just on the outside of the powerlines on the back end of Irwindale is the property that once held the old San Gabriel Drag Strip, the track where he got his first opportunity to work in the sport back in 1961.

Never could Gibbs have imagined a glorious career as he's experienced and winding down at a place where he got his start as a teenager.

"That would've been impossible for me to even imagine," Gibbs admitted. "I was a 21-year-old guy, working a man's job, just been married, had no kids yet. I just wanted to be out there at the drags and lucky enough to get a part-time job."

Now Gibbs enjoys a full-time reputation as a steward of drag racing's history, no matter what hoops he must jump through to preserve it.