Eliminations - Pre-Race Ceremonies

 

Eliminations officially got under way at 11:30 a.m. with several award ceremonies. Above Mike English introduces Tom McEwen, Tony Waters, Don Prudhomme, Don Hampton and Art Chrisman

 

Track managers Blake and John Bowser flank the Grand Marshal's Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen.

 

Grand Marshall's Tom McEwen and Don Prudhomme along with the winner of the 1st March Meet, Art Chrisman.

 

Brad Thomson accepted a plaque and jackets as being the first member of the newly established BR Motorsports 5.60 Club. By the end on the day it raised the question - where did that leave Jack Harris? He jumped right over the 5.6s and into the 5.5s.

 

 

Brad Thompson holds $1,000.00 cash and a plaque for being low ET on both qualifying days.

 

Bucky Austin flanked by Gary, Randy and Cami Beck also collected the low ET honors for Nitro Funny Car for Friday and Saturday.

 

Steve Gibbs and Tom McEwen

 

The fans filled the stands for a full day of racing.

 

 

 

 

 

The "Spectators Side" (aka The Zoo) had motorhomes, trailers, vans 10 deep the entire quarter mile. Fans started lining up for parking spots a week before the gates even opened.

 

From the topend the sea of fans and motorhomes was an awesome sight.

 

 

With the first pair of Top Fuel cars sitting behind the water box ready to fire, the winner of the very first March Meet 50 years ago, Art Chrisman did a push start from the top end.

 

 

Chrisman then drove the length of the track... a fitting tribute to a great racer and excellent way to start the day.

 

 

 

Top Fuel Eliminations - Round One
Right on time, after the playing of our National Anthem, the first pair of Top Fuel cars fired up at high noon.

 

The first pair out had the crowd seeing red - cars that is. #5 Jason Richey in Dave Smith's "Nitro Fever" and #12 Pete Kaiser in John Erlich's "Ground Zero".

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richey was out first by a bunch.

 

 

 

 

 

Kaiser blazed the tires about 30ft from the starting line. He tried to pedal but the car never hooked back up.

 

 

 

Richey was having no such problems as he carded his best time of the weekend - a nice 5.843 at 249.72 for the win.

 

 

Kaiser coasted through with a 10.798 at 71.71. A far cry from his 5.81 qualifying time.

 

 

The second pair out was Bill Dunlap and Brad Thompson. But this was not a "normal" round of racing. Dunlap, in Brendan Murry's car, got in on the break rule due to the tragic loss of John Shoemaker on Saturday. As a tribute to John they decided to make the call but not to race Thompson. Instead Bill would do a burnout and stop . Karen Oie, using the American flag that Judee Shoemaker used to back up John the last several years, would wave it in honor in a mock backup. Dunlap would then idle down the track while we all remembered our fallen comrade. A very touching gesture on the part of the entire Murry crew.

 

 

After Dunlap had cleared the track on the topend Thompson fired and did his burnout.

 

As it had been all weekend, Thompson's car was really stout at the hit.

The orange car from nearby Visalia stopped the clocks with a 5.764 at 253.73. Very impressive but again not good enough for the record.

Pair three pitted Troy Green in the High Speed Motorsports "Great White" fueler and Jim Murphy who up to this point had experienced the worst racing weekend of his long career -- and it wasn't going to get any better.

The first hint of a problem came just after Murphy backed up from his burnout.

This would begin the only controversy of the day when the four time March Meet champion was shut off for the second time this weekend for an oil leak.

The team didn't think the first shut-off during qualifying was warranted and definitely didn't think this was and everybody we talked to agreed. Needless to say, Tim Beebe and the rest of the crew were livid. But the Bakersfield crew has zero tolerance for oil leaks and that was the bottom line.

While Murphy's crew were pleading their case in vain, Green got the command to stage for a single.

With the center of the tires "chunking" out Green legged it to yet another great time. Not hurting any parts, the car was about as consistent as could be clocking a 5.808 at 257.65.

What oil there was on the track was quickly cleaned up and that was that.

Fire the next pair - Jack Harris feeling more comfortable every pass after a two year absence from "Big Red" and Rick McGee in the Tedford & McGee car that has been struggling of late.

With the tires chunking like crazy Harris stopped the clocks with a 5.793 at 248.96. McGee clicked it early with a 6.114 at 240.25.

After using up all the M&Hs in their inventory, the Neal & White car installed a set of Hoosiers for eliminations. They joined Mike Fuller's car as the only teams using the tire in eliminations. The RB Entertainment car with Adam Soroking up tried them for the 3rd qualifying session and ran a 5.950 at 256.11 (fastest speed to date on the Hoosier tires).

 

Rogers was out first by seven tenths but it was all White from the 60' marker on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By half track Rogers got out of the groove and was fighting to get the car back to the right but at the 1000' mark he crossed the centerline and wiping out the cone.

 

 

 

White and his new Hoosiers stopped the clocks with a 5.902 at 243.70 (fastest speed yet on the new tire).

 

 

 

Pair six matched Mike McClennan in the other Hoosier car and Rick Williamson who got a big jump on the tree.

But Rick's advantage was short lived when he starting spinning the tires before the 60' clocks.

McClennan had the chutes out way early to card a 6.143 at just 214.23.

Sorokin got the advantage on the starting line but Schutz had a better 60' time that erased the holeshot in a hurry.

From the 60' clock on Adam was trying desperately to catch Denver.

To wrap up round one out came Shannon Stewart and Howard Haight.

The race was all Stewart. He left first and then Haight's ride broke shortly after the hit.

Stewart hurt a couple of pistons up top and clicked it to a 5.969 at 223.65.

Dead in the water Haight costed through closing the curtain on the first stanza of Top Fuel.

 

Session One - Friday

Session Two - Saturday

Session Three - Saturday

R2 - Final -Sunday

All the Winners plus Pits N' People

Funny & Other Race Cars

Media Day

 2008 March Meet Cacklefest