COLORADO COOL!
With a great turnout and mild temps, the 2022 Painters Grinding Colorado Bug-In had to be one of the coolest ever on Thunder Mountain. Story and photos by Bruce Simurda Racing at Bandimere Speedway is like nowhere else! The NHRA facility is located on the side of a mountain (aptly called “Thunder Mountain”) at an elevation of 5,800 feet.
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hen it comes to Volkswagen events that include drag racing, few have a facility comparable to Colorado’s Bandimere Speedway in Morrison. Affectionately called “Thunder Mountain,” it was founded way back in 1958 by John Bandimere Sr. as an alternative for kids who were street racing on the outskirts of Denver. Through the years, it has grown into one of the finest drag racing facilities in the nation, complete with seating for 23,000 spectators. That, of course, is a few more than what’s needed for the annual Painters Grinding Colorado Bug-In, but it’s always good to have room to grow, right? Bandimere was literally sculpted right into the side of a hill with three different tiers: spectator parking at the bottom, drag strip in the center, and drag pits on top. When it comes to the annual Bug-In, it’s the upper paved area that sees the most action, because it has plenty of paved room for the car show, swap meet, and drag pits. From there you can also watch the drag
20 VW TRENDS • SUMMER ’23
races below, or easily walk down to the seat area to enjoy the action. The 2022 Painter’s Grinding Colorado Bug-In was held on July 24th, which is typically a very hot time of the year. But this day the weather was unseasonably cool, with high clouds that threatened but never delivered moisture until later in the day … talk about luck! That was a welcome relief to the many attendees and to show-car owners who stay with their cars throughout the day to answer questions from curious onlookers. And we saw a lot of familiar faces to chat with again this year, like Matt Raible of Centennial, Colorado, who again brought his beautiful white and yellow ’66 21-Window Bus. This T2 looks mild custom from the outside, with its polished Porsche wheels, but inside the engine compartment lies a six-cylinder Porsche 911 engine attached to a 915 gearbox! The interior features pristine white upholstery trimmed with yellow piping, and Matt was
awarded Best Interior and Best of Show. Last years’ top winners, the Tibbetts from Albuquerque, New Mexico, were also back. But they didn’t bring their showwinning vintage Buggy. Instead, they had a pair of ’56 Ovals — Margaret’s green looker with chrome BRMs and 2180cc engine, and Reggie’s over-the-top blue custom with full tube chassis and 550 horsepower Chevy V8! Appropriately named Sweet Pea and Split Personality, both cars won their respective classes, and Reggie’s took Best Engine. There were quite a few water-cooled VWs as well, as the Bug-In has three show classes just for the newer VWs. The beautiful red ’87 Cabriolet of Alejandro Corona took the win in Water Cooled Open. As nice as this ’vert is on the outside, where it really stands out is its mega-detailed engine compartment, complete with an upgraded R32 six cylinder engine… just beautiful! Besides all the beautiful and unique show cars, people enjoyed the swap meet, which
