Antique Nationals at Irwindale Speedway in Irwindale, CA was a fantastic event organized by the Four Ever Four club. Antique Nationals is open to vehicles 1959 and earlier. Along with the drag race event, some fantastic cars were at the car show. The car show is open to vehicles 1974 and earlier.

The Antique Nationals and the Four Ever Four Club have lots of history in Southern California. Hot-rodding and Drag Racing events go hand in hand in SoCal. It started back when they would race, hopped-up Model T's, A's, and B's on the streets in Southern California. And then out on the dry lake beds in Southern California at places like El Mirage, the home of El Mirage Land Speed Races still running strong today.

As hot rodding became more popular and organized, they headed to less-used airstrips or abandoned military airfields. Around that time, Four Ever Four was established in 1954 to support, preserve, and promote early four-banger fords.

In the '60s and early '70s when four-bangers and hotrods, in-general, were getting pushed out of drag race events. Because of the new, more powerful v-8's and the new generation of "muscle" cars, organizers started having race events strictly for hot rods.

Four Ever Four took over the honors of one of the events. The event was called Antique Nationals that got its start in 1970. Antique Nationals eventually opened the race for vehicles 1959 and earlier as we have today.

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There was a wide variety of cars at this year's event, early hotrods, gassers, trucks, and even an antique motorcycle. One of my favorites is the Woolly Bear '36 Chevy Truck; the '36 was a class winner at this year's event.

Antique Nationals 1936 Chevy Truck — *1936 Chevy Truck, class winner at Antique Nationals*

Some of the cars that raced at Antique Nationals also ran at events like RPM Nationals. Like the yellow Boat Tail driven by Four Ever Four Member Art Moore, Art took 2 class wins at this year's event, and John Martinez in his Model A Roadster with the win in the banger Heads Up race.

Boat Tail hotrod at Antique Nationals — *Art Moore in his Boat Tail, two class winning runs at Antique Nationals*

Model A Roadster at Antique Nationals — *John Marinez in his Model A Roadster, class winner at Antique Nationals*

It is great to see father and son teams at these race events, like Max Herman IV racing the four-banger T. In Max's case, it was three generations, and all three are into the hotrod racing, which makes it that much more special Max took the win in the four-banger non-street legal class.

Model T class winner at Antique Nationals — *Max Herman, class winner at Antique Nationals*

The view of the drag race event is excellent, and the stands are close to the track near the starting line. In addition, there is a food truck area where you can grab a bite to eat or drink. The pits are nearby as well, and as a spectator, you will have excellent access to the pits to check out and talk to the owners and builders of these cars.

This year's Antique Nationals was their 49th annual event. I'm already looking forward to the 50th Antique Nationals in May of next year.

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Antique Nationals on Old Custom Cars