For the last 48 years, the good folks at Eastside Speedway, in Waynesboro, Virginia, have celebrated Easter Sunday with a carnival of tire smoke and speed. And for most of those years, Bunny Burkett -- the legendary Bunny Burkett -- has been the main attraction.
Bunny has been drag racing since the mid-'60s. She was a true pioneer, competing head-to-head agains the men and, by beating them as often as not, blazing a trail that a surprising number of women have followed. Besides being one of the earliest great female race car drivers, she was the very first to win a Funny Car world championship (IHRA, 1986). Within the racing community in this part of the world, she's a true folk hero. (Or, more properly, folk heroine. But that doesn't sound right to my ears.)
Bunny Burkett and her Funny Car, Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013. [All images copyright John Edwin Mason, 2013. Click on any photo to see a larger version.]
This year's Easter Sunday show was postponed due to rain, so the actual race took place a week later. That cut down on the size of the crowds, but Bunny and the other Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds were as loud, fast, and entertaining as always.
Bunny Burkett inspects her machine. Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.
I try to make it over to the Easter Sunday show every year. (Here's my report and photos from 2011.) I missed last year's race, so it was especially great to get back last weekend and to reconnect with racing friends after what seemed to be a long, cold, and gloomy off-season.
Bunny's teammate, Lil' Bear (Gary Aaron Pritchett) backs his Funny Car past the grandstands after a burnout. Eastside Speedway, 7 April 3013.
It was also good to be back at work on my on-going, multi-year, probably never-to-be-completed project documenting the odder ins and outs of American car culture. I barely got to a single event, in 2012, and, as a result, had a miserable summer. Don't ask me to explain, but I'm rarely happier than when I'm walking around a racetrack with a camera in my hand.
For 2013, so far, so good. It's only mid-April, and I've been to two races already (with, God willing, many more, in many places to go).
Fans. Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.
Last Sunday, I didn't exactly have a camera in my hands. Or, rather, I did, but it was a camera, music player, audio recorder, tweeting, emailing, and internet surfing device, all in one. My iPhone.
I had a couple of "real" cameras with me, but I wanted to make a few iPhone pics so that I could annoy amuse my friends by posting them in real time on Twitter and Instagram. Once I got into the flow with the iPhone, however, I never had the urge to put it down.
Larry Bowles performs a burnout in his Super Pro car. Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.
There was more to the racing last Sunday than Bunny, of course. Several other Funny Cars and Fuel Altereds were on hand, and well over 100 local racers showed up to compete in the Super Pro, Footbrake, Trophy Street, and Motorcycle classes. They all added to the fun. That's my friend Larry Bowles above. Or, at least, that's his car.
Graphic on Bunny's Funny Car. Eastside Speedway, 7 April 2013.
But for me (and for a bunch of other folks, I'd bet), the day was really all about Bunny.
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