Saturday Night Nitro was the highlight of a week-end of racing at Famoso Raceway, near Bakersfield, CA. Throughout the day on Saturday, June 27, racers from West Coast Hot Rods, West Coast Outlaw Pro Mods, and Mega Mopar, along with testing by the fuel cars kept the start line hazy with smoke from burnouts.
Come sundown the fuel cars came out to play – starting with a parade of funny cars towed past the grandstands.
Once the parade was over, the funny cars took to the lanes and the night was filled with the smell of nitro and the roar of horsepower. The first pair up; Nitro Nick driven by Matt Bynum and Richard Townsend in Nitroholic. Nitroholic stumbled down the track and Nitro Nick crossed the finish line first with an ET of 5.94 at 243 mph. Nitro Nick went to the final round.
Next the Pedaler with James Day driving met Pete Peterson in the Quarter Pounder. Day ran an ET of 6.04 and Quarter Pounder crossed the finish line with an ET of 6.13. Both qualified for the final round.
John Weaver in Dream Weaver met Rian Kono in the Kazanjian Lemon & Kono in the next round. Weaver ran an ET of 6.20 which wasn’t quick enough to get to the final found. Kono had trouble and tripped the light with an ET of 19.42.
Fighting Irish driven by Rick Rogers went to the final eight with an ET of 5.87. Rogers sat next to Brad Thompson’s Jailbreak with it’s new matte black finish. Thompson had an ET of 6.53.
Roger Garten in War Horse took the lane next to Gerber Racing’s Wasn’t Easy. Garten ran an ET of 5.92 to advance to the final round. Wasn’t Easy had trouble and ran an ET of 15.40.
Jack Wright met Hot 4 Teacher. Alex Miladinovich ran an ET of 6.24 missing the cut for the final round. Wright ran an ET of 13.55.
Mindy Frye in Darkside ran side-by-side with California Hustler driven by Robert Overholser. Frye and Overholser both advanced to the finals.
Marcus Lawson in No Secrets Motorsports car met Mark Meadors of Goodguys Racing. Slauson ran an ET of 5.90 to advance to the finals. Meadors ran an ET of 6.33 which ended the night for him.
The final 8 was made up of the cars which ran the quickest times in the first round. The final 8 consisted of: Weaver in Dream Weaver (replacing Peterson in Quarter Pounder which broke) , Day in Pedaler, Frye in Darkside, Bynum in Nitro Nick, Garten in War Horse, Lawson in the No Secrets car, Rogers in Fighting Irish and Overholser in California Hustler.
The first match-up was War Horse and Nitro Nick. Sadly, the two cars were involved in a horrendous accident near the top end after Garten crossed the centerline. While Bynum was not injured, Garten passed away from his injuries. Losing Roger Garten is a tragic loss to all of nostalgia drag racing.
Next Fighting Irish met the Pedaler. The Pedaler stumbled through the run but Rick Rogers in Fighting Irish turned in an ET of 5.86 at 239 mph.
Mindy Frye ran a single when Lawson failed to make the call in the final round. Frye, in Darkside, ran a blistering ET of 5.72 at 252 mph to set the quickest time in the final round.
The last run of the finals found Overholser in California Hustler next to John Weaver in Dream Weaver. Overholser ran an ET of 5.81 at 253 mph while Weaver turned in an ET of 7.72 much slower than the ET of 6.20 which took him to the finals.
At the end of funny car racing Mindy Frye in Darkside turned in the quickest ET of 5.72 to win the top prize.
Also running Saturday night were four top fuel cars. Bill Dunlap in High Speed ran an ET of 5.70 in the final round to best Rick White in the Neal and White car who ran an ET of 5.79. Dunlap and the High Speed team were fresh off a win at the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling, KY where they put an end to the reign of Tony Bartone.
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A hand-full of fuel altereds also ran but Jeremy Sullivan in the Mike Sullivan Fiat couldn’t be stopped. He ran an ET of 6.12 in the final round.
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Below are some of the other cars and motorcycles running this week-end are shown below. These racers from West Coast Hot Rods and Mega Mopar braved the heat and humidity at Famoso for both days and provided some great racing.
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Running all week-end were also the racers from West Coast Outlaw Pro Mods.
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Two “Big Show” funny cars were doing some testing getting ready for the NHRA event in Sonoma.
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There were a number of back-up girls that did a great job getting the cars in position for staging after the burn-out.
This week-end provided some great racing. The next Saturday Night Nitro will be held at Famoso on September 19, 2015.
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