SATURDAY NIGHT NITRO, JUNE 15, 2013

 

SATURDAY NIGHT NITRO UNDER THE LIGHTS – FAMOSO RACEWAY

Anybody who has ever watched nitro cars race know they are a fickle beast, but Dan Horan, Jr. seems to have his red, white and blue Mustang dialed in.  Horan was the winner of this second race in the Boise to Bakersfield Blitz. This was the second of a four race “Blitz” taking place this summer with two races in Boise and two in Bakersfield.  Horan is king of the hill in the Blitz so far having won the first two races.

Nitro burners showed up in abundance this week-end for the first Nitro Night of the season at Famoso Raceway, Bakersfield on June 15, 2013.   – 18 funny cars, 4 top fuel cars, a few altereds, and some nitro burning motorcycles. Even 3 or 4 A-fuel cars that run in the NHRA Mello Yello series showed up.  Although the “Nitro Night” started on Friday with test and tune, Famoso allowed not only the nitro cars to start testing on Friday, but allowed in 75 cars to do some testing, make licensing passes, or just have some fun.    These 75 cars included pro mods, super comps, junior dragsters, and 7.0 pro cars.

 

While it was still daylight, the crews were busy in the pits getting the cars ready to go and it was a good chance for the fans to get up close and personal with their favorite cars and crews.

 

The Blitz racing started at 8:30 pm on Saturday night.  When the lights went on the funny cars went on parade in front of the grandstands.

The Star Spangled Banner –    

and then racing was underway.

Of the 18 funny cars in attendance, 15 made the call.  The match-ups started with Scared Straight against Holy Toledo, then the California Hustler met Hot for Teacher, followed by Darkside and the Kazanjian, Lemon & Konno car, then the Pedaler against Nitro Pirate, War Horse ran against Back in Black, with Evil Wicked, Mean and Nasty meeting Rich Townsend in his yet to be named car, Dan Horan, Jr. took the line next to the Fighting Irish with the Bays & Rupert Black Plague getting a bye run.  The quickest eight cars went to the final round at 10:30 pm.

The photos below are of some of the fuel cars running on Saturday.

When the nitro fumes cleared, the eight qualifiers: were Dan Horan, Jr. at No. 1; Rick Rogers in Darkside at No. 2; No. 3 was James Day in Pedaler; No. 4 was Devery Howard in the Bays & Rupert Black Plague; Robert Overholser in California Hustler was No. 5; No. 6 was Rian Konno in the Kazanjian, Lemon & Konno car; No. 7 was Mike Halsted in Scared Straight; and Roger Garten in War Horse.

Below are photos of the cars in the final eight car field.

In the first race of the final round James Day in the Pedaler met Rian Konno in the Kazanjian, Lemon & Konno car with Konno taking the win with an ET of 5.902 at 245.99 mph.   The second pairing found Mike Halsted in Scared Straight sitting next to Rick Rogers in Darkside.  Rogers had an impressive .075 reaction time but broke on the way to the finish.  Halsted finished with an underwhelming ET of 6.760 at 138.06 mph.  Halsted had some problems of his own at the top end that shut the track down for a 45 minute clean-up.  Dan Horan, Jr. and Roger Garten in War Horse waited out the delay at the line.  When the all clear was given War Horse couldn’t make the call and Dan Horan, Jr. made his winning pass unopposed.  Horan ran an ET of 5.812 at 253.09 mph.  The final race pitted Robert Overholser in California Hustler against Devery Howard in the Bays & Rupert Black Plague. Overholser was first off the line and took the win light with an ET of 5.815 at 243.28.   Howard turned in an ET of 5.810 but with a reaction time of .328 lost the race to Overholser’s hole shot.

The winners of the final two races, Horan and Overholser, ran nearly identical ETs but Horan was 3/1000’s of a second quicker and nearly 10 mph faster giving him the trophy.

Saturday night the stands were filled with fans enjoying the warm night air while watching the red hot action on the track as the headers from the nitro cars shot fire into the sky.

 

The next Nitro Night, and the 3^rd race in the Blitz series, will be on July 13 at Famoso when the nitro cars will be running with West Coast Hot Rods heads-up classes (True 10.5, Outlaw 8.5 and Limited 10.5).  The 4^th and final race in the Blitz series will be in Boise on August 8-11.  Famoso will host a final Nitro Night on September 7.

All of the photos you see here and many more are available for purchase on our SmugMug site.  Click here to take a look http://www.timingtower.smugmug.com