Harris
Scores 5th Win of 2004
The Boise Nightfire
Nationals came to a dramatic conclusion on Sunday night. For
all in attendance, it was a drag racing experience that will
go down as one of the best in the thirty-three year history of
Firebird's "Signature Event".
Temperatures
finally simmered a bit from triple digit highs on Friday and
Saturday, as the day time temps climbed to just over 90-degrees
under partly cloudy-hazy skies during the opening round.
The AA/Fuel Dragster
final saw Jack Harris earn his fourth Nationals title. Charging
to low e.t. and top speed of the weekend in the final, the "Sheriff"
posted a 5.90 at 252.80 mph to defeat a 6.27-203.57 by the Plaza
Hotel Dragster of Sean Bellemeur.
2004 may well
go down as "The Year of the Sheriff" as Jack Harris,
the Utah Posse and extended crew celebrate in the Winners Circle
for the 5th time in seven races this season.
The crew arrived
at Firebird Raceway Thursday morning to unload and get the car
ready.
By Friday things
got busy and the crowd was SRO. The Nitro Thunder pit is always
surrounded by fan - day or night.
This event always
packs in the fans and the racers as a whole will tell you its
a really fun deal.
The first qualifying
session was held on Friday evening.
Crew warms up Big Red
prior to the second session.
Session two of qualifying was
held Saturday afternoon and the track was still too hot to yield
any great times.
Harris backs
up from his burnout - in "driver mode" his mind is
only on the business at hand.
The clutch was
set on the soft side to compensate for the track temperature.
The final session Saturday night
allowed everyone to get more aggressive with their tune-up and
several cars that were on the outside looking in qualified in
the night air. Howard Haight (pictured here against Jack) wasn't
one of them. The car got out of the groove at the 300 foot mark
and Haight tagged the guardrail hard enough to put the car out
of commission for the event. Harris clocked a nice 5.985 @ 247.86
which would be good for the # 2 spot and was one of only two
five second runs made the first two days.
Final Order of Qualifying
for Top Fuel
1. Jim Murphy, 5.937 at 247.25
2. Jack Harris, 5.985 at 247.86
3. Bill Dunlap, 6.110 at 221.02
4. Sean Bellemeur, 6.140 at 220.15
5. Scott Mason, 6.215 at 231.24
6. Jason Richey, 6.222 at 233.88
7. Mendy Fry, 6.253 at 231.30
8. Branden Murray, 6.265 at 213.37
DNQ
9. Lee Jennings, 6.301 at 209.83
10. John Cox, 6.331 at 238.79
11. Howard Haight, 12.218 at 69.68 |
In the first round of eliminations
on Sunday afternoon Harris drew Mendy Fry in the MasterCam -
Plaza Hotel fueler. Both cars left together but Fry started to
drift toward the centerline and had to abort the run. Jack took
the win a 6.00 @ 248.07.
Firebird Raceway owner, Bill
New celebrated his 70th Birthday on Sunday and was honored with
a fire-up in Nitro Thunder in the afternoon.
The Nitro Thunder crew celebrated
Cindy’s, Jack’s oldest, birthday Saturday Night. Brett
cuts the cake and Cindy passes out the pieces.
In round two of Top Fuel Harris
was paired with one of two drivers that have beat him this season
- Bill Dunlap. Great side by side racing. Harris takes took the
win with a 5.92 @ 243.30 against Dunlap's 6.16 @ 228.65.
The final round
of eliminations paired Harris and Sean Bellemeur in the Plaza
Hotel car. To this point the Plaza car had not lost one round
of racing in its first three events - that ended here. In another
great side by side race, Harris grabs the low ET and the top
speed for the weekend, and takes the win with a 5.90 @ 252.80
against Sean's 6.27 @ 203.57.
Once
again the Utah Posse celebrates a win to the delight of the crowd.
Nitro
Thunder Photo Archives |
