Once again, the event was attended by hardcore fans of Pro Stock’s glory days many of whom astonished the assembled teams by quoting  chapter and verse from the original Pro Stock rules and whom often knew more about the individual cars than those taking great pains to recreate or restore them. The 2014 crowd included an even larger percentage of drivers and crewmembers from teams which competed in the division’s earliest years including many who raced at the Sikeston track when it was a hotbed of Pro Stock match racing in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

With fantastic, gear-jamming racing conducted in a “Chicago style” round-robin format, the past has a bright future within the Nostalgia Pro Stock Association. Plans for the third annual “Black Arrow Cup” were announced at the 2014 event.

Markham, Illinois, Air Force veteran and technical wizard Ted Peters, (center), displays the spoils of victory with track owner Dominic Blasco, (left), and close friend/crewchief Fred Nunn, (right), who dominated midwest Pro Stock match race action in the early 1970s at the wheel of the “Tuff Rabbit” Camaro and Vega.

Poised on the starting line of Sikeston Raceway are Bill Jenkins’ “Grumpy’s Toy V” 1968 Nova and “Grumpy’s Toy IV” 1968 Camaro. The L78 396-powered Nova, which narrowly lost the 1968 NHRA Super Stock World Championship, was recently acquired by Sikeston Raceway owner Dom Blasco. The Nova was originally to be Jenkins’ primary entry into the growing heads-up Super Stock wars but “The Grump” elected to concentrate on the 1968 Camaro.