It has become a sort of summer kick-off tradition around these parts: Hemmings Musclepalooza at Lebanon Valley Dragway in West Lebanon, New York. Over the past several seasons, the combination of muscle car show and drag race has proven to be quite popular with participants and spectators alike, drawing enough cars to fill the facility to capacity on occasion and regularly packing the stands with fans.

In the midst of this Memorial Day weekend, on Sunday, May 29, Musclepalooza XIII will kick off at 8 a.m., welcoming muscle cars to enter the show competition, the bracket drags, or both. Show registration will close at noon, and judging will begin at 1 p.m. to determine the winners for first- and second-place awards for each of the popular muscle car brands, along with winners for Best Paint, Best Engine and the pinnacle award for Best of Show. This year, we’ve also added awards for Best Late Model Ford, Mopar and GM, plus an award for Best Modified Muscle. Awards will be presented during a parade-style ceremony featuring the winning cars in front of the grandstands.

For racers, there will be a full complement of bracket classes, with time trials beginning at 10 a.m. and eliminations kicking off at 1 p.m. Awards will be presented in each class following the final round of eliminations.

Of course, another regular feature of Musclepalooza is the Factory Appearing/Stock Tire (F.A.S.T.) shootout, where bone-stock appearing muscle machines go head-to-head on the track, turning in times that some dedicated race cars would have a hard time matching; at the close of last season, a couple of the series’ top competitors broke into the 9-second range – on reproduction bias-ply street rubber.

Need more drag action? As a special feature of this year’s spring event we’ll have a series of exhibition shootout runs between two altered-wheelbase 1960-style drag cars: Steve Magnante’s “Wilshire Shaker” ’63 big-block Nova and Gary Gerard’s “Flashback” ’65 Hemi Plymouth. Those who attended last year got to see the wheels-up antics of these two as they recreated the “match bash” action of drag racing’s golden era in a Mopar versus Chevy duel.

In case of inclement weather on Sunday, the rain date will be Monday. Visit hemmings.com or call 800-227-4373 for more information and make your plans to get to Lebanon Valley this weekend to start the season right.