A Blacktop Archive from Issue #27 of Blacktop Magazine
In Memoriam: Sadly Randy passed away a few months after our visit to his Museum and the Hot Rod Shop.
Mark Soltan asked me to ride out to Randy Haapala’s place with Cool Running Camaro’s. They were meeting in San Juan Capistrano to ride over Ortega Highway and into Lake Elsinore for a private tour or Randy’s Drag Racing Museum.
This sounded like a great reason to throw a leg over the bike and capture the run with my action cameras on the front and back. It was a great ride and with my new clutch from Cyclepath Cycle, the bike was snappy as all get out. However, it was my better sense not to cross that double yellow to get ahead of the shitbox in front of me to get a better video of the classic cars cutting through the Santa Ana Mountains. That means, in these pages you get to see some really neat drag racing paraphenaglia. My favorite piece is Shirley Muldowney’s suit she was wearing in the accident she had in Montreal in 1984. This is the suit that they had to cut her out of. Randy sewed up the suit so you can see the cuts along the arms chest and legs.
Watch for an article of the visit to Randy’s Hot Rod Shop. Some really cool cars and memorabilia.
