04-21-07: Fontana, CA. The inaugural Nostalgia Nitro Shootout at California Dragway was conceived and organized by the All American Fuel Dragsters, LLC and the Nostalgia Funny Car Assoc. to showcase their nitro burners to SoCal fans who had never seen these kinds of cars at Fontana before. The one day event was limited to 150 cars that included 5 Top Fuel Dragsters, 11 fuel Funny Cars and a large field of Nostalgia Eliminator 1 cars. There was also a nice assortment of cacklecars. By all accounts the show was good, the crowd large and everyone had fun.

Photos by: Bob Brown, Jim Phillipson and John Ewald.

 

 

The fickle SoCal spring weather dumped quite a bit of rain on Friday but that didn't stop many of the teams from setting up camp.

 

 

 

Fontana is a throwback drag strip in the sense that it is function over form. The no frills facility is located next to the ultra modern California Speedway that is home to a pair of NASCAR races each year.

 

 

The rain stopped in the afternoon and left the track crew a challenge to prep for Saturday.

 

As you can see, the sand trap has a very auspicious termination point.

 

 

To promote the event, Dave & Buster's hosted the Pre Race Party and Live Broadcast on KOLA 99.9 radio on Friday. Cars on display were the High Speed Motorsports Top Fuel dragster and Jack Wright's new (not quite finished) Nostalgia Funny Car.

 

 

 

High Speed driver, Troy Green was on hand to answer questions, sign autographs and give some fans an up close and personal look at the race car.

 

 

Into the evening hundreds of folks stopped by to visit. Needless to say, it was a great promotion for the event and excellent exposure for the cars.

 

 

 

Since this was not an actual race per se, the High Speed Motorsports team took advantage of the exhibition to test the newest generation of M&H "spec" tires and the new Donovan girdle that Tom Shelar developed for the Donovan aluminum hemi block. Here Troy Green explains the changes and advantages of the newly designed billet girdle to WDIFL.com photographer Bob Brown.

 

 

93 year old Marv Rifchin (the M in M&H) has been working on this new Nostalgia Top Fuel spec tire for five years. It is based on what he calls his "240 Gordie" tire as the original design was for the Verheul & Bonnin funny car in the 70's. It's design and the way they are constructed is very different from previous spec tire releases. This will hopefully solved the "chunking" problem the NTF cars have been experiencing the past. The High Speed car would tested it on their first run.

 

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To make things interesting a "Chicago Style" match race format was used for the Top Fuel and Funny cars. Each car would have two shots at the track and the two quickest in each class would meet for a "final".

 

Troy Green starts his burnout for their first test run. John Hashim of M&H Tires can be seen behind the car with an infrared heat gun, checking tire temps. Also on hand was Keith Hashim recording every run made by the fuel cars on film. The M&H team are taking this new tire very seriously and are trying to get as much data on them as possible before they become available to all cars in the class.

 

In the other lane was Adam Sorokin in the RB Entertainment - Champion Speed Shop fueler.

 

 

 

 

 

Following their respective burnouts, Adam Sorokin and Troy Green backed up to the starting line.

 

At the hit Green's tires immediately spun then went up in smoke. He caught it right away and shut off. This is the same result that previous tests of the tires have yielded (i.e. Brett & Jack Harris) on their first attempts. It also confirmed that the tire needed less air pressure. 10 lbs was too much and they shook in earlier tests at 7 lbs. After this run the tires went to Rick White who ran 8 lbs. which netted the best times of the day.

 

 

Sorokin had no such traction problems.

 

 

With Green off the throttle Sorokin carded a shut-off-early 6.843.

 

 

Marv Rifchin and John Hashim examined the new tire after Green's abbreviated run.

 

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With only 5 cars making a shot, Rick White in the Neal & White digger out of San Diego got the single.

 

 

 

Owner and crew chief Chuck Neal waits to line White up.

 

With sparks from its bell housing, the car launched hard and White would go on to card the quickest ET for the first session with a click it early 6.125 at just 192.91. This run was on the previous generation of M&H tires.

 

 

 

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The final pair was Shannon Steward in Bob Richardson's "Circuit Breaker" and Rick Rogers in his Hammerhead Racing - Full Throttle News fueler. Both cars are sporting new and very striking paint jobs for the 2007 season. Rogers made the event thanks to the High Speed Motorsports team who let him their spare Donovan block.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Luna, who was instrumental in making this event happen, backs-up Rogers from his burnout.

 

Stewart had the better leave but encountered problems early and shut it off.

 

 

 

 

Rogers got out of shape at the launch pad to concrete transition and also shut off.

 

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In what will probably become a common sight at NFC events, all the cars lined up prior to the first test session for a line up reminiscent of the pre-race presentations of the 60's and 70's when such displays were usually done on the drag strip itself.

 

 

 

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Del Worsham spent his weekend off from the "Big Show" to run his beautiful Blue Max NFC at Fontana.

 

For the first test/time session Del Worsham was paired with Jeff Utterback in the Pisano & Matsubara tribute Vega

 

 

In a great drag race, Utterback’s 6.345 at 205.10 nosed out Worsham’s 6.350 at 220.19.

 

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Another car that got a lot of attention was the recreation of the famed Pacemaker/Bubble Up flopper campaigned by the late Jerry Verheul and driven by "240 Gordie" Bonin. This version is owned by Canadian Ron Hodgeson, tuned by Gordon Jenner and was driven here by Terry Capp from Edmonton, Alberta who is best remembered for his string of Wheeler Dealer Top Fuel and Funny Cars. Also on hand helping this talented bunch was fellow Canadian Bernie Fedderly (who was Capp's crew chief for many year and is currently part of John Force's brain trust) and legend Roland Leong. It's no wonder that Capp set low ET and Top Speed (6.092 at 235.27) in testing for the floppers.

 

 

 

 

 

Roland Leong goes out to back Capp up then brings him into the staging beams.

 

 

6.092 at 235.27 -- not bad for a bunch of old guys on the cars first full pass.

 

 

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Del Worsham's 2nd run - no times.

 

 

 

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After regular driver Jeff Utterback had to leave for the day, Rick Rogers ended up with two rides. After making a pass in his Top Fuel car he jumped in the popular Pisano and Matsubara flopper for testing.... here's the burnout.

 

The car left like a rocket and clicked off a very impressive .992 60 foot (fastest 60 foot time for a NFC to date). but the car got out about 800 feet and Rogers had to lift because it was moving towards the wall and the front wheels were off the ground. They came back later to run a respectable 6.24 at 211 mph.

 

Not sure what run this was but check out the tire shake!

 

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Eventual winner, Lee Paul Jennings heats the tire for his first run.

 

 

Jennings ran a 6.203 at 223.43 in the second session (low NFCA ET) to earn the right to meet Steve Romanazzi’s Vega in the "Chicago Style" final.

 

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Speaking of Romanazzi, his Donnie Couch tuned "Warrior" was the second quickest NFCA flopper on the lot with a 6.235 at 229.70 mph.

 

 

More Floppers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Mike English handled the announcing job for the event.

 

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The second round of Top Fuel paired Rick White and Adam Sorokin. White's car now had the new M&H tires that were run on the High Speed car in the first session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both cars left hard with Sorokin out front and the fans saw a good old drag race.

 

 

White chased down Sorokin with a 6.157 at 217.39. Adam carded the second quickest time for the TF cars with a 6.300 at 240.47 (top speed of event) which would make the final a rematch.

 

 

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Back on the tires they ran at the March Meet, Troy Green was out next for a single. Green starts the burnout and once again John Hashim was behind him checking the tire temp. For this run the team had reverted back to the tires they ran at the March Meet because they had a tune-up for them that would tell them what they needed to know about the new girdle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This run was a planned 660' shut-off. Everything went as perfect as possible. They pulled the motor out Wednesday night following the event and the main bearings looked like they had never been run... so far, so good for the new Donovan girdle. So now the team is very excited and ready to make some full runs in Boise next month and they plan to run the new M&H tires there as well.

 

 

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Next out for a single was Rick Rogers.

 

 

 

 

 

Rogers left better than his first pass but got into sever tire shake and made a move to the left.

 

 

 

 

Rick had the butterflies shut just passed the tree.

 

 

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The final fueler out for another single was Shannon Stewart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stewart left hard but started to spin the tires early and went up in smoke by the tree.

 

 

 

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What would a nostalgia event be without Mike Boyd and the Winged Express.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Odds 'N Ends

 

Jeremy Sullivan used the event to get some laps on his A/Fuel dragster.

 

Marc McCormick was the lone Jr Fuel car in attendance and with the help of Kol Johnson got some good test runs in.

 

 

 

Had to throw this cute little sucker in.

 

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The "Chicago Style" Funny Car final (two quickest cars) matched Lee Paul Jennings in "Code Red" and Steve Romanazzi in his "Warrior"

 

 

Unfortunately for "Romo" his coupler broke on the burnout and left Jennings a single for bragging rights.

 

 

In a show of mutual respect, Romanazzi's crew chief, Donnie Couch, offers his congrats to Ray Zeller, crew chief for Jennings.

 

 

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The Top Fuel final was a repeat of the second test session. The two quickest fuelers were Rick White and Adam Sorokin.

 

 

 

 

Both cars backed up together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorokin was out first and White was right on his tail.

 

 

 

 

At the 1000' mark it was still the black car.

 

Then Sorokin's engine went away and White got to the stripe first. His 5.91 beat Adam's 6.00 and the respective miles per hour tell the whole tale - White at 246 and Sorokin at a slowing 212. As stated before, White was once again on the new M&H tire and the 5.91 at 246 on an iffy track was exactly what Marv Rifchin was looking for. After inspecting the tires (which now had 4 runs on them) Rifchin called the factory and told his guys to stop what they were doing and to get these tires into production. They will be avialable to all the cars that want them for the Boise Ignitor later this month.

 

 

 

Rick White

 

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Parting Shots

 

Don Taros waded through a tough NE 1 field to reach the Winners Circle.

 

The timing light cones were fare game for a couple of the floppers.

 

 

The only mishap of the day was the demise of the previously unpredictable "Soul Train" NE 1 altered. The car and the drivers feelings were definitely hurt.

 

 

Funny car owner Gary Turner (The Pedlar) and famed drag racing artist, Dave Peters were among the many racers out for the event. Dave Peters Art

 

Marv Rifchin and Jack Harris (main test cars for M&H tires). Harris was suppose to test the new tires on John Rodeck's fueler but it seems Rodeck got stopped on his way to Fontana and was cited for a trailer that was 3' too long (without a commercial license) for California. The CHP sent him home.

 

Circuit Breaker NTF owner Bob Richardson and RacePac computers Henry Walther exchange notes.

 

Famoso Raceway Manager Blake Bowser with Donnie Couch.

 

Darrell Conrad of Full Throttle News and Top Fuel driver Mendy Fry. Darrell is holding one of the two signed helmets being raffled off to support the Make A Wish Foundation. Get yours here - Helmet Raffle

 

Dusty McWilliams, Steve Gibbs and Danny Porsche.

 

There were also several cacklecars in the pits including the Syndicate, Poison Ivy (in the background) and the Ewald Bros. BankAmericar. Over the course of the day John Ewald, Bob Danly and Mario Garcia orchestrated three fire-ups including this one with a name in the seat you may recognize - Harvey Palish. Harvey was Diamond P Productions and along with Steve Evans and Dave McClelland put NHRA drag racing on TV. Until ESPN took over the contract, Diamond P offered national event race coverage second to none. To this day people speak of how much they miss the team of Evans and McClelland and the directing style of Palish. It was good to see him back out to and event and he really loved sitting behind 2500 horsepower for 5 minutes!
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