WhyNot HotRod, Saitama Japan 2021 By Daran Hull - Brown
WhyNot HotRod, Saitama Japan 2021 By Daran Hull - Brown
The more I asked about the event, who started it and where it had come from, the quieter the voices, and the louder the sideways glances became. It was like trying to ask the gang of rowdy boys who it was that actually broke the window. None of them knew, but they all did. And no one was talking.
It’s a pretty easy surmise. You call all your friends over to your place to hang out and race cars. You have that guy who lives right next door and simply jumps the fence to get there, and you have that hardcore friend who does whatever it takes to get there. When it started out, WhyNot was just the local guys, and it still essentially is. It’s just those hardcore members are a little more spread out than they were originally. There’s the guy who came to race after driving south from Hokkaido for 12 hours, another one of your buddies who traveled north to Tokyo from Nara for 7 hours in his cherry red 1957 BelAir. And lets not forget the young photographer guy who cycled 9 hours on his 80 year old prewar Schwinn to get there. Just because.
WhyNot started in 2017 when a bunch of like minded fellows got together at a track to see if they could race hot rods around it. The track is kinda built into the side of a hill, slopey front straight up to nice flowing right, sorta down the hill a little bit to a wide right, down again to a quick left right to turn into the final short straight that wants to push you into the outside wall if you didn’t have total faith, and commitment, in your white-knuckle gorilla-strength racing-grip. Many a driver had to battle the forces of speedy wall-gravity versus their anti power-steering vehicles, much to the delighted oohs and aahs of fans and onlookers.
The circuit was no stranger to vehicular action. Goldex Honjo Motorpark is better known locally for hosting drift and motorbike events. Unfortunately, even though its purposely been built away from ‘civilization’, there is still that element of people who want to complain about it. In the past their had been decibel warnings for engines, and Japanese automobile rulers and regulators were never happy that all the ‘racecars’ didn’t have 4 point seat belts. But even with all the rules and risks of not obeying the rulebook, this group of guys still said, “Lets race..” Because as we all know, that’s what hot rodders do..
The first event in 2017, essentially just to try it out, (and nostalgically labelled ‘WhyNot Zero’), was just the original main group of shop and garage owners. The first open-to-the-public offering was in 2018. About 60 cars showed up. It always been the same classes. Flathead V8s, 4 Bangers, V6 & V8 OHV Overhead Valves and exhibition class. The general rule was any cars from 1948 but that kinda went out the window too with all sorts of years showing up. Exhibition class was essentially an American-made Run-What-Ya-Brung. Second run was in 2019 and roll call came to 50. Covid canceled the 2020 event and then this year. 2021 brought 48 cars to the grid, but alas also the unfortunate decision to make this the last run. When the number of competitors makes it difficult to pay for the track rental, it means someone has to take up the slack. It just isn't financially sensible to run it anymore.
It was a good day out, despite the iffy weather. It rained a little bit, it was fine a little bit. There were no major accidents, no one went into the wall. It was just this group of guys doing what they had done all along. WhyNot HotRod 2021 was labeled as the ‘Final’. But whether it really is or not remains to be seen though. Listening to the guys that want to keep doing it, its easy to imagine that one day one of them will again ask, “Why not??
