COLORADO COOL!

Whenit 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 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 seemed bigger and better than ever, and a variety of vendor booths such as Painter’s Grinding and EMPI. This year Painter’s Grinding had a ceremony celebrating the life of company founder Dayton Painter, who passed away on December 22, 2021. Dayton started Painter’s Grinding in his garage back in 1973, was a huge supporter of the Colorado Bug-In for many years, and will surely be missed.

When the action fired up on Bandimere’s quarter-mile track, no one was sure if the weather wound cooperate long enough to get the program completed, but as they say, the show must go on! And it did, with four classes of VW Drag racing — Quick 8, Pro Eliminator, Sportsman, and Water Cooled — along with a non-VW event, the kids in Junior Dragster racing JR Race Car Titan 16. It turned out to be a lot of action, with only a few small oil-downs at the start line, which made the program run smoothly, thanks in large part to the professional track crew at Bandimere. In Painter’s Grinding Quick 8, “Fast Eddie” Radillo from Denver got the win with a 12.803/101.26mph against John Redding of Grand Junction, who ran a faster 12.701/95.82mph — the edge was in the reaction time. Radillo was also in the NuVintage Pro Eliminator final, but this time came up short as Randy Caldwell of Loveland ran an impressive 12.623/101.64mph in his blue Buggy for the win. The CBI Sportsman by East Plains final was an interesting matchup, with the same two racers who lined up for the final in 2021 — Mauro Delgado in his blue Single Cab and Mike Leatherbery in a white/flamed Bug (last year he was in a blue ’67). Delgado’s lightning-quick .077 reaction time got him the win after running 20.277/63.98 (vs. Leatherbery’s 15.904/76.74mph and .122 reaction). In Water Cooled by Emich, the blue R32 of Longmont’s Dylan Witt took the win over the white Golf of Westminster’s Josh King, running 12.602/109.01 to King’s 15.856/89.61mph.

As if on cue, not fifteen minutes after the final race the clouds opened and the 2022 Colorado Bug-In came to a close. Call it luck, or maybe great timing, but this was one very cool event!

Bill Walker’s ’71 D-Cab is powered by a 2055cc sporting dual Kadrons. Kyle Tucker’s flamed ’69 Volksrod has some covert details as well.

The Colorado Bug-In’s swap meet is always a must-attend for VW enthusiasts from across the state.

You don’t see 8-spoke wheels on a Type 3 every day, but they may have helped Mike Stonner of Keenesburg take the Type 3 win with his sweet blue ’70 Fastback.

“Hey honey, look what I found in the swap meet!” This guy definitely had some big plans, with at least four bumpers, a two-barrel carb and more in that wagon.

Kevin looks way too clean to take into the dirt and mud — they say the first time is always the hardest!

So much right, so much wrong … but we loved this VW-powered Snow Track. Note that the engine sits sideways. Wonder if the dual-exhaust setup helps defrost the windshield?

You don’t see a lot of chop-tops today, but Mike O’Keefe’s radical ‘66 from Littleton got a lot of attention and the Full Custom/Radical class win.

LEFT: Ruth Colaiannia of Littleton certainly is “Ruthless” when it comes to drag racing! Here, she launches her Bug hard during qualifying. MIDDLE: In the Pro Eliminator final, Randy Caldwell of Loveland (buggy) cut the better light (0.170 vs. 0.228) to take the win over a faster (103.28 vs. 101.54mph) Eddie Radillo of Denver. RIGHT: Along with the VW drag racing program, JR Race Car Titan 16s were running their finals between rounds. No kidding around here: These junior racers are serious!