How Do You Beat a 5.5 Car? You Don't!

 

Adam Sorokin in a tough 1st round loss.

 

Denver Schutz lasted until the semis when he met one of Harris' 5.5s.

 

Bill Dunlap coasts through after a tribute burnout to John Shoemaker in round one.

 

Troy Green ripped off two more 5.7s before losing in the semis to a broken blower belt.

 

Harris had the throttle closed before the final lights on his 5.56 - 263 pass.

 

After his horrible fire on Saturday, Mike McClennan came back on Sunday only to lose in round one.

 

Brad Thompson 5.69 in semis.

 

Rick White went to the semis running solid 5.8s.

 

Dan Horan spent a ton of money to update his car just for this 50th Anniversary March Meet only to get one pass on Sunday blowing the tires at the hit. Kudos to the old pro on his valiant efforts.

 

Its a late Sunday night after a long hard weekend - I'm tired - done - signing off from Bakersfield.

 

Full Race Results and Tons of Photos Coming Soon!

 

 

Rick Williamson runs a career best 5.833 at 246.57 which was good for the #2 spot for session one.

 

 

Top speed for session one went to Pete Kaiser with a 5.863 at 255.89.

 

Jason Richey stopped the clocks with a 6.017 at 250.97.

 

Rick Rogers carded a decent 6.085 at 250.97 for the #9 hole. The feeling at this point is it may take a 5.9 to even get into the show.

 

Here is the first look at the new Hoosier tires at speed. Their behaveior is distinctly different than the M&H tires being used on all the other cars. Mike McClennan only ran a 6.233 at 199.55 on this pass and thats still not an acid test for the tires.

 

Howard Haight in Fugowie clicked it early to a clean 6.018 at 227.90.

 

Randy Beck is already in trouble before the first speed light. His shield, helmet and in fact the entire roll cage is covered with oil. The end results are covered on the Latest News page.

 

Two happy guys - Larry Bless and partner/driver Brad Thompson after firmly grabbing the #1 qualifying position on Friday. Bless is on ths phone calling for more money - Thompson's thinking, I can spend it!

 

Ex Top Fuel driver Mendy Fry made her debut in Gary Messenger's Future Flash funny car running a respetable 6.213 at 200.00 to qualiify #9.

 

Picking up where he left off at the nostalgia exhibitions left of at Pomona, Bucky Austin buried the funny car field with a 5.833 at 242.91 - obviously nailing down the #1 spot for Friday.

 

The #2 qualifier in floppers was Jeff Utterback in the Pisano & Matsubara Vega with a 6.008 at 234.55 - still more than 2 tenths behind Austin.

 

 

Sitting in the Richardson & Stewart "parts trailer" we find 3 race ready short blocks. Add the 55 gallons of "spare" nitro, blowers, clutches... You don't think this race is serious?

 

The Botehlo and Patterson team had their late model all over the place but trust me, this was not a thrash.

 

The brand new AAFD decal just after being installed on Thompson car prior to its media fire up.

 

 

 

 

How's this for a transport option?

 

 

The new Beach City Chevrolet flopper repop was a big hit.

 

 

Jim Murphy's new "I can see now" injectors.

 

The new Plueger & Gyger Mustang flopper brings back many memories from the 70s.

 

Thursday night was the March Meet Kickoff for the public at Chuy's. The featured cars were the Stardust and Pisano & Matsubara floppers. The place was packed, the food was great and the drinks were cheap. Nice kickoff.