ATHOL – Car styles may come and go, but for the CARBS Hot Rod Club, the enthusiasm for all things mechanical will most likely never fade away.
On Sunday, Sept. 22, CHRC will host its 24th Annual Fun Run, also known as a poker run where participants are provided with a road map and directions to different stops where they draw a playing card that is documented at each site. When they return to the club on Partridgeville Road, it will be determined if theirs is a prize-winning poker hand. This year’s approximately 70-mile route will encompass Wachusett Mountain.Previous routes have included covered bridges in New Hampshire, the Quabbin Reservoir in Belchertown, and Vermont. “It’s a good time,” said Phill Trask, CHRC president, “and it’s nice to be around like-minded car people.”
Trask said as far as he can tell, CHRC is one of the oldest car clubs in New England going on its 63rd year. Bill “Gramps” Thorp of Athol joined the club in 1958, a year after it started. Thorp built his blue 1938 Chevy that still appears in local and out-of-state car shows. A small building on the property is named “Porky’s Stall” with a plaque honoring Thorp’s late brother, Richard Thorp who used the building to work on his cars and was a club member from 1958 t0 2000.
Former CHRC historian Brian P. Robichaud, who joined the club in 1974, wrote a comprehensive history of the club to commemorate its first 40 years, crediting Al Stimpson of Athol for the club’s conception. Stimpson worked in Connecticut where he became friends with a co-worker who was a member of the Carbs Club of Hartford. The “Carbs” name was an acronym for “Connecticut Auto Rod Builders Society,” and the Athol club name is an abbreviation for carburetors.
A chicken coop owned by Stimpson’s father became the club’s first meeting headquarters, where the charter members sat on grain bags. After a few months the club relocated to North Orange on property owned by Donald Arnot and met for about nine months, then, for a time, meetings were held at member’s homes. The club moved back to the North Orange property until it was outgrown, and in 1960 the club started renting the Partridgeville Road property from George Pelky for $15 a month. Pelky decided to sell the entire parcel of land and the club purchased it in 1965.
The tarpaper-covered building that stands behind the newer buildings on the property has 40 allotted spaces inside for members to use as storage. Weekly business meetings are also held there where rows of theater seats purchased from a Gardner Cinemas renovation fill the room. For decades, passersby have spotted the signature blue race car body on the rooftop, a modified Ford Model T known as a T-bucket with a recently added skeleton driver, creating a scene that matches the clubs’ logo.
The club is limited to 40 members and is currently full. Prospective members must be sponsored by a club member. The weekly $10 dues are helping to pay for the new building that will house two stalls with lifts. Members recently held a work party to prep the floor for cement.
Stalls in each of the club’s buildings are available to members as work areas, each one with a set of rules and spaces designated for long-term, short-term or overnight projects, some requiring a fee.
“It’s called a Hot Rod Club but it’s also a ‘do your own thing’ mechanic’s club,” Thorp said. Members have used the space to do restorations, body work and repairs on their vintage and contemporary cars and trucks, tractors, stock cars and steam engines.
The rain or shine CHRC Fun Run is open to everybody with any kind of vehicle, old or new. “It’s a great way to get out on a Sunday and put some miles on,” Thorp said.
There is a $10 car registration fee with free spectator entry. Registration is from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. There will be a 50/50 raffle, food, door prizes, People’s Choice Car Show, and live music by Steve Pro and the Ticket. A percentage of the money raised will be donated to the Athol/Orange Santa Fund.
For more information, contact Trask at 978-846-9171 or visit the CARBS Hot Rod Club social page on Facebook.