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Bakersfield, CA - March 05-08, 2010: A mixed bag of adverse weather conditions put the 2010 edition of the March Meet behind the 8-ball from day one and Jack Harris, along with most other funny cars, simply were unable to negotiate the cold surface and establish a working tune-up. By the time the weather, thus the track, finally got better on Sunday the cars that survived already had lots of data for those conditions. The relatively new Nitro Thunder Firebird had no such data and lost a close race to long time funny car vet Gary Densham in round one.

Chalking up the weekend as a learning experience mixed with lots of fun, Harris and the team are now looking forward to remainder of the season which will find Brent Harris in the funny car and Jack back in the Top Fuel car when it returns from its face lift at Neal & Parks.

Nonetheless, there were lots of photographers on hand and here is Nitro Thunder's abbreviated weekend in living color.

 

Photos and full results below.

 

Thursday was set-up and tinker day.

 

 

 

 

Jack Harris, Rick McGee, Rick White and Brett Harris look over the new Neil & Parks car of RB Entertainment which eventually won Top Fuel with Adam Sorokin in the seat.

 

 

Qualifying - Session One

First of three scheduled sessions: Friday, 3:00 p.m. Under cool, cloudy skies the call went out from starter Bill Condit to 'Fire the first pair', and the funny car show for the 52nd March Meet was underway. However, it was apparent early on that following a week of rain and cold weather, the normally tight Famoso track was not ready for the 3000 HP fuel cars. Low track temp and lack of rubber made for an interesting, if not down right ugly, first session.

 

Harris was paired with Jim Adolph.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brett Harris was in the unusual position (for him) of being outside a race car and backing his Dad up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Tyrrell brought Jack into the staging beams.

 

 

 

 

 

All things considered, the car left good and had a nice 60' time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adolph smoked the tire early and shut off.

 

 

Harris had a problem of his own when the throttle linkage fell off the injector. Neeless to day, that will end a run in a hurry.i

 

 

 

 

Harris coasted through with a 9.15 and just 98 mph.

 

 

 

 

Saturday was cold but dry and the team spent the morning getting the car ready for the second session.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qualifying - Session Two

Saturday 3 PM: With time already running short and the weather still a problem, the third qualifying session was scrubbed from the program leaving just one more shot for the funny cars to figure out how to get down a very tricky track. Once again the session was late in the afternoon and the track temp had dipped into the 60s.

 

Harris was in the left lane for what turned out to be the 2nd and last session. Mark Sanders in his "Mr. Explosive" was in the other lane.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again the big red Firebird left hard but it would again be short lived.

 

 

 

Harris was sliding out of the groove before the 60' mark.

 

 

 

 

After straightening the car out Harris got back on the throttle but the once again spun the tires. He would end up quailing #28 for the 32 car show.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday Eliminations

With no threat of rain at all Sunday was everything the previous two days were not. Sunshine and warmer temps produced a racing surface Bakersfield is known for and the times would reflect it. But as previously noted, the Nitro Thunder team had no data on running the funny car here under these conditions. They had to wing it and that considered, did very well.

 

For round one Harris was paired with NHRA Big Show vet Gary Densham.who qualified #5. Densham is not running a full schedule of NHRA national events this year so he has the time and resources to run his nostalgia car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both drivers left together and pretty much stayed that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Harris hung right on Densham's tail to the traps but fell a little short. His 6.048 at 240.12 couldn't catch Gary's 5.954 at 237.52