Influential members of the motorsports community will be honored during the 14th annual Holley National Hot Rod Reunion® presented by AAA Insurance at Beech Bend Raceway Park, June 16-18. The grand marshal for this year’s event will be legendary promoter Bill Bader Sr. and event honorees include Ron and Steve Boggs, Austin Myers, Ed Rachanski, Roy Tuller, and Chip Woodall.    
 
In 1974 oval track promoter Bader, Sr. with no drag racing experience, bought Norwalk Dragway located between Cleveland and Toledo. After a rocky start he turned the track into one of the sport’s finest facilities. Bader’s “satisfaction quotient” includes providing a super experience to all guests including racers, fans, and sponsors. John Force has said, “The Baders have as much passion for the sport as I do”, and match raced for years at the famous Norwalk’s “Night of Fire” and honored Bader in 2005 with his portrait on the hood of his Funny Car.
 
In 1998 Bill, Jr. took over and continued the operation as before. In 2007 the track was renamed Summit Motorsports Park and became a NHRA sanction track where it has become the home of the June Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, part of the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Although Bader, Sr. no longer has a hand in day to day operations he is quick to credit the hard work and support of family and friends as the ingredients that made it all work.
 
Honoree’s Ron and Steve Boggs were part of elite group of racers from Ohio in the 1970s and ‘80s that dominated blown alcohol racing. Known for fast and immaculate race cars, they even extended the wheelbase of one of their Fuel Altereds and converted it to compete against Top Alcohol Dragsters to the fan’s delight.  Ron was a fearless driver who retired in 1990 and passed away in 2010. Steve continued as a tuner-for-hire winning championships in both Top Alcohol dragsters and Funny Cars and most recently has tuned Tony Bartone to dominant championship seasons in Nostalgia Top Fuel.
 
Kentucky native Austin Myers began his racing career in go karts moving up to drag race at all the area strips. In 1967 he acquired his first dragster in partnership with Billy Campbell and Walter Lavoie. In 1970 at Dallas he won the BB/Dragster class with his own Bill Stebbins-built entry. His speed and e.t. would have qualified him in the top eight of the Top Gas field. Later that year he won his class at the U.S. Nationals and the first National Dragster Invitational. In 1971 he began driving Butch Hummel’s twin engine Top Gas car and won the Dragster Invitational for a second time. He also won that year’s World Finals in Amarillo and set the Top Gas speed record of 209.58 mph. and became NHRA’s last Top Gas World Champion. In the early ‘70s he drove Jack Hart’s Top Fuel dragster and finished as runner-up to Don Garlits at the IHRA World Finals.
 
Driving his hopped up ’40 Ford sedan Ed Rachanski began his drag racing career at Half Day, Illinois in 1951. After years spent stock car racing and a tour in the Air Force he returned to drag racing with the Sedlak Motors ’62 Plymouth Super Stock of his buddies, John Farkonas and Pat Minnick of Chi Town Hustler fame. In 1964 he joined Gary Dyer on the factory backed Mercury Comet team and soon after received sponsorship for his own “Marauder” Comet. In 1965 he became president of the Midwest UDRA supervising hundreds of races throughout the Midwest and becoming the first to feature Wednesday night 8-car Funny Car shows. Since the late ‘60s he’s been involved in the anti-wear lubricant industry and in the late ‘90s owned an Indy Car team.
 
Growing up in Oklahoma Roy “Goob” Tuller moved to California and worked briefly for Scotty Fenn of Chassis Research fame. In the early ‘60s he went to work at Engle Cams and drove several dragsters including the beautiful Scrima-‘Liner and the Surfers Top Fueler. In 1965 he began driving the legendary “Freight Train” Top Gas dragster of fellow Engle employee John Peters. Together in 1967 they ran the first seven second clocking on gas and won the Bakersfield March Meet.
 
Beginning his drag racing career in gas dragsters, before turning to Jr. Fuel Chip Woodall is one of those Texas drivers that raced hard, played hard and drove lots of different race cars. Most famous for his time in Gene Snow’s Top Fueler in which he won the 1972 NHRA Springnationals he spent much of his career in Jackie Peebles and Dickie Williams gold plated fuel dragster in which he was runner-up to Don Garlits at the 1969 AHRA World Championships. After driving for Snow during which he set 21 track record at the 27 tracks he visited, he returned to Peebles and Williams and closed out his career driving both Top Fuel and Funny Cars into the late 1970s.
 
Former Beech Bend track manager and Safety Safari member, the late Morris Smith will be honored with the prestigious NHRA Motorsports Museum Board of Directors Award. Bader and all the honoree’s will be celebrated during the course of the weekend and new for 2016 will be a reception at Beech Bend Raceway Park on Friday, June 17th at the conclusion of racing. The gala will take place during a ceremony inside a new pavilion on the oval track. This star studded reception at Beech Bend Raceway will allow the growing number of racers, hot rodders, and enthusiasts who continue to support the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion take part in all of the festivities without having to leave the track.
 
The Holley National Hot Rod Reunion® presented by AAA Insurance kicks off with the Hot Rod Reunion Fan Fest taking place in historic Fountain Square Park from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on June 15th. The event kicks off at the scenic facility on Thursday, June 16 and runs through June 18. Gates open at 8 a.m. each day of the event.
 
The Holley National Hot Rod Reunion presented by AAA Insurance is produced by and benefits the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum located in Pomona, Calif. The Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum is a 501c(3) non-profit educational institution and collects, preserves, exhibits and interprets the vehicles, stories, and artifacts that represent the influence of, automotive speed and style in all its forms.
 
• SCHEDULE: The event begins at 8 a.m. each day with racing beginning at 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 16; Racing starts at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, June 17; and 9 a.m. on Saturday June 18.
• TICKETS: Single day tickets are only $25, $75 at the gate for a three-day ticket, and children 15 and under are free accompanied by paid adult.
 • ON THE WEB: For more information about the Holley National Hot Rod Reunion presented by AAA Insurance, please visit www.nhramuseum.org.