ALL THE WINNERS

 

After a two year absence from the seat of his Nitro Thunder Top Fuel Dragster, Jack Harris completely dominated the field in eliminations setting a new world ET record in the process. Here the Harris/Parks crews fill the frame.

 

 

Harris calls Cami Beck (granddaughter of Gary) his teams 'good luck charm' and few would disagree this day.

 

John Hashim gives Jack the 2008. Ernie Hashim Memorial Award.

 

A worn out Blake Bowser (far right) can hardly manage a smile. It was a very long weekend for Blake, father John and their Famoso crew.

 

 

32 Nitro Funny Cars showed up for the March Meet for an 8 car show. Wow. With the huge turn out, an 8 car 'B' Field was added.

 

Bucky Austin picked up where he left off at the '07 CHRR - the class of the field. Austin low in every round of qualifying and eliminations. In the 'A' final he was paired with Steve Romanazzi.

 

With Romanazzi blowing the tires at the hit, Austin streaked to his second quickest time of the weekend (5.836 at 243.63) for the title

 

 

 

Bucky and car builder (and owner of the Plueger & Gyger Mustang) Steve Plueger.

 

 

The 'B' Field (qualifiers 9-16) was won by Chris Krabill in The Pedaler owned by Gary Turner. Krabill beat rookie (first time out for car and driver) Mike Grekul in the Plueger & Gyger car 6.093 at 237.65 to a tire smoking 6.971 at 235.04. All in all the floppers put on a great show.

 

 

 

 

No stranger to the winners circle, Kin Bates won the A-Fuel crown in an anticlimactic final over home town favorite Darrell Waters. Bates ran an abbreviated 7.388 at 128.00 after Waters went red by a ton.

 

 

Bates, tuner Gene Adams and crew likin' it.

 

 

Scott Parks is the winningest driver in Nostalgia Jr. Fuel 'A' history and nothing changed here. Parks was the quickest car all weekend and reeled off another dandy in the final defeating J.D. Zink 6.869 at 193.50 to a game 6.943 at 189.23.

After posing with the Harris team for the Top Fuel win, Parks returned the favor and had The Posse pose with them. Parks built the Nitro Thunder car so the teams are very close.

Jr Fuel 'B' was an upset win for wily vet Don Enriquez. His opponent, Bud Hammer, had the quicker car all day and had lane choice in the final and for some reason took the less favored right side. At the hit Hammer spun the tires and Enriquez motored on for the win light with a 7.237 at 184.61.

The AA/GS final between veteran Steve Woods and Mike Leonard was, in a word, ugly. Leonard not only went red but had the chute come out before the 60' clocks. Woods, seeing the fiasco in the other lane clicked it early to a 7.780 at 124.4.

After five rounds of racing, the always tough Nostalgia Eliminator class boiled down to Bob Overholser and Ken Rappaport.

Running on a 7.60 index, Overholser was just a little slyer on the top end running Rappaport out by -0.049 for the win. His 7.618 at 179.56 beat a too quick 7.551 at 176.50.

The equally tough NE-2 field ended with Jay Huckleberry over Ken Gillispie who broke on the bottom end.

John Lyon in his Woody car defeated Tim Beeman for the NE-III title.

Monti Fitzgerald outlasted the 32 car B/Gas field to meet and beat local favorite Ed Elliot in the final.

C/Gas was won in a close one by Mike Wortman over Scott Hudson.

 

Calm before the storm - topend on Thursday morning.

 

An interesting sight on Friday was the Bill Schwartz team grabbing a couple of spectators walking by to help with an engine swap.

Butch Blair had a full blown garage sale going on behind his trailer. By Sunday the stack was way smaller.

 

 

 

 

Bob Richardson figured a trick way to keep from buying a longer trailer.

A look inside the spare parts trailer of the Richardson & Stewart "Circuit Breaker" TF camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bitch getting old! I owe ex-top fuel driver Kent Terry and this is payback. Right in the middle of Sunday morning warm-ups its nap time.

 

Brad Thompson's pit was a total thrash after the semi-finals and without the help of the RB Entertainment crew he may not have made the call for the finals.

 

Don Ewald and Darrell Tedford - dazed and confused?

You want some world class photographers? L-R: Steve Reyes, Tim Marshall, Dave Wallace Jr., Richard Shute, Tom West and the biggest character of the bunch….. James Drew.

If you don't know this guy you've probably never raced. Gene "Geno" Gastelum is the grease that makes the wheels turn in the pits before, during and after a race. With over 30 years with NHRA and Goodguys, there's nobody that can make it happen like Geno... and now we finally know who's the real brains of the two.

Jack Beckman and the legendary Vance Hunt (above) and Top Fuel shoe, Troy Green (below).

 

 

Don Irvin before he and the crew of the March Meet (below) were recognized for their incredible work prior to the semi-finals. The Safety Safari, Starting Line Crew, track clean up and pit management... what a team.

 

 

 

Kenny Goodell made a rare appearance.

 

Two legends for sure... Marv Rifchin and Ed Iskindarian.

 

 

Don Prudhomme and Tom McEwen were co-Grand Marshall's and they both spent a lot of time at the track.

 

 

No comment.

 

 

Coming from his home in Florida, Steve Reyes made a very rare appearance. Tim Marshall - not so rare.

Mike English hands 5 big ones to Brad Thompson for being low ET for TF on Friday. He also go another $500.00 for Sunday.

Randy Walls was set selling photo, posters, shirts etc. to raise funds to get his funny car back on the track. As most know, it went though a terrible fire at the '07 CHRR and needs a lot of repairs.

 

One of the many improvements to the track over the winter was the addition of "Garage Row".

 

Don Gillespie (far right) was on hand selling his hugely popular Lions Video DVDs and there was a constant parade of fellow old time photogs like Rick Schutz, Jim Sorenson and Steve Reyes.

 

 

Jennifer Luna was on hand to debut her new publications - 1320 The Magazine and its a beauty. Here, Nitroman (Steve Wallace) was in costume long enough to do some PR poses.

 

Orah Mae and Robin Millar set up their Drag CARtoons booth.

 

 

 

Here's a few shots from the Thursday night March Meet promo at Chuy's. The turnout was large and the food was great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

March Meet PR guru Bill Groak loaded with media gear ordering dinner.

 

Don Ewald, Bob Brown, Dan Kaplan and Pam Schavrien after dinner. Three of the four are good photogs... the other does websites.

 

Ron Capps and his beautiful wife spend his Big Show weekend off taking in every aspect of the March Meet.

 

 

 

 

 

Darr Hawthorne, Ron Capps and Blake Bowser.

 

 

Session One - Friday

Session Two - Saturday

Session Three - Saturday

Round One - Sunday

R2 - Final -Sunday

Funny & Other Race Cars

Media Day

 2008 March Meet Cacklefest