The L. A. Roadsters club is one of the older continuously operating car clubs in the United States, having been formed in 1957 by a young LA area rodder named Dick Scritchfield.. The member roster has included a very illustrious group of craftsmen and hot rod fanatics over the years. One of the requirements for membership is that the person own a Roadster. By description, this was originally limited to open cars built prior to 1934. The first year, members cars ranged from Norm Grabowski's 1922 Ford Touring car through the 32 Ford roadsters of Scritchfield, Bill Woodward, Tony La Mesa, Fred Yeager, Carlin Schroepfer and a 32 Cabriolet of B. C. Carlton.

Every Fathers Day weekend for 32 years the club has put on a car show at The L.A. County Fairgrounds focusing on, what else, Roadsters. The main fenced area is dedicated to the display of the open cars of the 20's and 30's with or without their tops. Outside the fence there is an area called "Preferred Parking". This is where the other types of show cars park, or else inside one of the huge buildings at the Fairplex located in Pomona.

On Saturday, right outside the main gate to the Roadster display, there is an area which accommodates about 10 dragsters, what we refer to as "Cackle Cars". Since they are technically roadsters (no top) some of the owners say, in jest, that they should be inside the fence. Be that as it may, the collection of these dragsters, all fully functional top fuelers from the 1960's, are lined up and on Saturday they are fired up two times for the crowd. It's a very popular part of the show and getting a little bigger each year.

All the fuelers were lined up side-by-side in a prominant spot outside the main building.             Nice shot of the Barnstormer.   Speaking of the Barnstromer, owner Ron Johnson had it and his ChiZler V ready for action.             The only non-dragster was the AA/FA of the Burkholder Bros.     Bobby Hanson was on hand with his Winns Spoiler.     The McCloud Bros. Dean Engineering Special is becoming one of the cacklel car staples.         The Ewell-Bell-Stricker car doesn't come out much but it is always a welcome addion to any show.       Making its debut was Jay Carpenters Woody copy. He built it over the Winter, Fred Hayhurst did the chassis and first body, Tom Jobe didn't like the cowl so he built a true "Woody" cowl for it a couple of months ago. It is not going to represent any old car, it's just a representative of a generic Woody. In a sense an RCE tribute car.       John Ewald was there with the most traveled pair of cacklecars- the Ewald Bros. BankAmericar and his Mastercar.     For safety and liability concerns Connie Braun made sure all the paperwork was done and the car ownes, like Tommy Allen, knew the procedures.         Down from Auburn, Ca. was another car that's seen sparingly is Tom Chastang's "Iron Horse".         First of Two Fire-up Sessions   First to lite was Bob Hirsch's tribute reproduction of the Marvin Schwartz "Anaconda".                   Dominic Cardoza got the first event fire-up in Carpenters new car.           Tommy "The Watchdog" Allen took the seat in his Woody Trick car.                             Long time drag racer Bill Schillings got to smell the nirto in the Winns Spoiler.                     Ron Johnson setting the barrel valve of the ChiZler with Ray Lake in the seat.             Johnson's Barnstormer had ??? in the seat.                 Reaching the end of the row Mario Garcia oversees the BankAmericar with ???? in the seat.         The last car was Ewald's Mastercar with ??? in the seat.         Between sessions the lane again turned into a car show.     Bob "MacGyver" Danly got the BankAmercar loaded up for round two.   Team Watchdog               Afternoon Fire-up   John Ewald held his pre-cackle show for the crowd.                       Bill Schilling was back in Hansen's car.           Carpenters old partner Mike Clancy was in his new car.                     In the seat was Robert Reel the cousin and partner on the restored Burkholder Bros AA/FA. cackle car Robert Reel. Robert.       For its second fire up Johnson's Barnstormer had Richard "Jesus" Vasquez in the seat. Richard is part of Johnsons normal crew at these events.                               The last fire up was close to dinner so Garcia whipped out the hot dogs       We'll close with some random rod shots.