DATELINE: 2/25/08 “The Collector’s Show was a Gas!”

Ok, I’m sitting at my table at the “Night of the Champions” get together, at the NHRA museum, during this years Winternationals. My buddy Tm Pearl has just turned me on to the “Koolest” pic of Gas Ronda’s 69 Mustang I have seen…I have been looking for a great pic of Ronda’s sleek Stang, and this certainly was the image I was waiting for. It will be one of my next paintings…Anyway, I’m sitting at my table staring at this great image and planning on how to paint it, when I look up and see Cindy Gibbs (daughter of NHRA’s Steve Gibbs, and a great portrait artist herself) standing in front of me…”Hi Cindy” I say, she shakes my hand and says, “ Dave, have you met Gas Ronda?” I look up and low and behold, here is 82-year-old Gas Ronda standing in front of me…Well, I gasp, jump to my feet and shake his hand. Gas has been a lifelong hero of mine, and it was a tremendous honor to finally meet him. The NHRA museum was debuting his restored 68 Mustang, (which was beautiful, by the way!) and they did a little Q and A session with him during the festivities. It certainly was a highlight for me to meet Gas after all these years, and I can’t wait to start on the painting of his car…

The rest of the show was fun for me...I’m lucky enough to know some of the sports hottest photographers; I was giving some incredible images to paint. These are never before seen images, and I want to thank Lou Hart, and Stormy Byrd for turning me on to a couple of the “Most Outstanding” pics I’ve seen… Including the “Best” “Jungle Jim and Pam” image ever! So stay tuned, my next pieces will be very fun indeed…

As for my latest art! My Charlie Allen piece turned out nice, and is selling well on ebay. After that, I finished a piece I started a couple years back, “The Twisters 1958,” featuring the “Twisters” car club dragster leaving the line…I also finally did a piece on Dick Landy’s legendary 65 Dodge F/Xer. I have been looking for a great image of this car for years, and I came up with one from my Bob Wagner collection. I think it is the best image I’ve seen of the car, and it’s perfect bodylines. Every other painting I’ve seen of Landy’s Dodge has the car doing a wheelstand, so I wanted something different, and this is what I consider a classic shot of that legendary car…

I spent the next month Painting “Raising Hell N Fontana.” This was the debut of the “Pure Hell” car in so Cal, and it is a great image of legendary Fontana Raceway (see Fontana Story for more info) right off of Foothill Blvd.

My currant project (to be finished in a day or two) is Indy 68! This will be the cover image for DragFilms.Com latest release of Classic drag races from Indy 64 and 68...My buddy Cory Lee, and his partner Adam Sorokin (son of “Surfers” driver Mike Sorokin) are producing some great historical races on DVD. Some of these are from the ABC’s “Wide World of Sports and are amazing to watch. How about the Snake winning his first race at the Winternationals? Just awesome films that you have to see…

Well it’s back to the drawing board for me…until the next time…dcp