2007 NHRR Columbus

Top Fuel Eliminations & Other Bitchin Race Cars

Top Fuel Eliminations - Round One - Saturday

First round, first race on Sunday morning pitted a pair of fuel Chevy's - Brendan Murry and Ernie McClain.

Murry drilled McClain at the tree.

McClain gave Murry a drag race but Brendan's 6.233 237.25 was enough to hold off Ernie's 6.240 at 223.39.

The second pair out was # 1 qualifier Adam Sorokin and the # 6 car of Kevin Lennon. After their burnouts the cars went to stage and the Christmas tree malfunctioned and both cars were shut off.

The National Trail Raceway crew with the help of John and Blake Bowser (Famoso Raceway managers) tried to find and fix the problem.

The Sorokin/Lennon cars were pushed back to the tower and since the Lennon car had an iron block and heads they needed at least an hour to cool down. That meant when the clocks were fixed the next pair would be Troy Green in the HSMS car and Howard Haight in Butch Blair's "Fugowie".

Kevin Lennon and Adam Sorokin relax during the down time.

Finally, Green and Haight fired and did their burnouts.

Both cars entered the beams and everything seemed fine. When the starter hit the button, for some reason that nobody ever figured out, the RED light came on in Troy's lane at the same time as the green. It went out when the count down amber went out. This registered to Haight that Troy had left early, when in fact he had not ... it was just another clock malfunction.

Just as a side note, the High Speed crew figured out why the car wheelstood its first three passes. The problem, in the clutch can, was fixed and the car stayed on all fours during eliminations.

Haight was still in front of Green and thinking that Troy had red lit, he decided to shut it off before 1000' ft mark. Green then passed him getting the win light - which, if he would have red lit, never could happen. The question was then raised, how could Haight leave first (.031 rt to .079) and still see a red light for Green? The whole thing was a mess but Green was awarded the win with a 6.227 at 227.77 over Haight's shut off 6.713 at 165.86.

*Haight and car owner Butch Blair protested the whole fiasco and were ultimately reinstated after proving on video that the red light had been on for an instant in Green's lane. They would meet Lennon in round two.

After the clock repair and a few pair of funny cars Adam Sorokin and Kevin Lennon did their burnouts. If there was ever a miss match on paper this was it. Sorokin was in the fives (the only car to do so all weekend) on all three of his qualifying runs. Lennon had not run better than 7.79 and in fact, has never ever run in the sixes. The RB Entertainment car is well funded and deep in spare parts. Lennon's deal came in on an open trailer with virtually no spare parts. David vs Goliath for sure.

Sorokin left first by a ton and and it looked like this was gonna end up way bad for Lennon.

Incredibly, with a huge lead, Sorokin smoked the tires and threw the blower belt leaving him dead in the water. Here in coast mode all Adam could was watch Lennon drive past him for a 7.486 at 188.60 win. Sorokin limped through with a 8.419 at. 104.46. And this sports fans is why drag races are not run on paper.

Top Fuel Eliminations - Round Two

Just when everyone thought that things couldn't get any weirder or uglier, they did.

First pair of the semis was Troy Green and Brendan Murry.

Green left first but Murry was right on his tail.

Green held the lead until the 900' mark when they burned # 4 Piston and some piston ring material got under the # 4 intake valve causing a backfire in the manifold. That kicked the burst panel out and lifted the blower off the mounting studs. In the other lane Murry motored passed the coasting High Speed car before the lights but right in the lights all hell broke loose.

Just as he hit the ET light for the win Murry's engine broke an intake valve which ignited the high volume of nitro in the intake manifold which literally blew it into small pieces and igniting as bad a fire as anyone has ever seen in a NTF car... maybe one of the worst ever in any car. The explosion vibrated the timing tower over 1400' away. Murry was in big trouble.

As can be seen from this shots pulled from a video by Frank Kunlel, the fire quickly engulfed the entire car from the engine back.

All Murry could do was hold his breath, hit the fire bottle (which was virtually no help), pull the chutes (which burned off) and grab the brakes and hope he didn't hit Green or the guardwall.

In hind sight it was fortunate that Green had no power from the 900' mark on because as soon as he saw that Brendan was in trouble he pulled both chutes and got all over the brakes keeping him well out of Murry's way. Very heads up move. Then all he had to do was dodge pieces of Murry's blower manifold - and there were many.

At this point Murry is driving blind and into the left lane. With no chutes and the brakes going away he just tried to keep the car on the track. He had a brief moment of vision and saw the sand trap. The safety crew eventually got him out and with some persuasion from Don Irvin, Murry got in the ambulance and off to the hospital. Although he didn't think he was hurt that bad (shock) Murry sustained 2nd degree burns to his forehead and hands. He would stay in the hospital burn ward for three days before returning home where he is expected to fully recover after some skin grafts on his hand and leg. The car was is really bad shape but they feel, with lots of help, it can be fixed and ready for the Seattle race in August.

After a long clean up the other pair fired for the semis, Howard Haight and Kevin Lennon. This was Howard's chance to make up for the blip in round one. Again, on paper, this should be have been almost a gimme for the Fugowie team.

At the hit Haight was a full car out on Lennon. How about a .083 rt to a dead asleep .409! Haight had four tenths in the bank before the tree.

By the 330' Haight was already a train length ahead... but.

With Lennon behind him in another zip code according to Haight, "at about half track BAM the bitch shot across the track and took out the 1000 ft cone!" This of course disqualified him and handed another win to the boys from Wisconsin as they carded a 7.486 at 188.60. Haight carded a shut off 6.268 at 204.11 which would have easily sent him to the finals. Apparently this weekend Mr. Lennon got Sorokin's, Murry's and Haight's racing luck because the three of them had none.

It is believed that there was oil on the track from Green's incident that the track crew "forgot about" while tending to Murry and that is what threw Howie off course.

Top Fuel Final

With Murry unable to return, the High Speed car was reinstated on the break rule. Be that as it may, they still had to have a car to come back with. The blower manifold and cylinder heads were severely damaged from the backfire in the manifold so it needed some serious maintenance. With the help of others like most, if not all, of the RB Entertainment crew and Bruce Dyda the team pulled out their old Cragar manifold and a spare set of heads they keep in the trailer just for this reason and made the call for the final.

After a very weird day of Top Fuel racing the final pitted Troy Green and dark horse Kevin Lennon.

Once again Lennon was left at the gate and Green only had to go 1320 feet without blowing up or hitting something for the win.

As they say, it wasn't pretty but Green's 6.408 at just 190.65 was good enough to top Lennon's 7.285 at 188.65 (his best run of the weekend). Actually it was on a good run, probably their best of the weekend, but Troy knew he had the other car covered and decided to click it off around 1100 feet. The record books will forever show that Troy Green in the High Speed Motorsports car won the 5th National Hot Rod Reunion and their unprecedented 4th in a row (they were runner-up at the inaugural NHRR). Like Crew Chief Brett Johansen said, "This was one of those its better to be lucky than good deals".

As a show of solidarity, sportsmanship and friendship, the High Speed team donned Brendan Murry T-shirts and shared the Winners Circle with his crew after Murry had a horrible explosion and crash in his semi-final win over Green who also blew a supercharger. Green got back in on the break rule and won the event. Brendan was released from the hospital the following Wednesday and is now recuperating at home in California.

Eight fuel funny cars contested the Columbus event with Dennis LaCharite in the "Back in Black" GTO grabbing the gold with a holeshot win over Mike Savage in the Speed Sport flopper. A 6.386 at 230.72 beat a 6.345 at 227.96.

Randy Walls fell to Dennis LaCharite in round one but did get a lot of attention with a dramatic wheelstand on Saturday.

Bob Rosetty qualified his "Tweety's Rat" #7 and lost to Mike Savage in the first round.

Bob Godfrey qualified 3rd and lost in round two to Mike Savage.

It doesn't get any more nostalgic than the Chi-Town Hustler... owned and driven by Troy Martin who qualified # 5 in Nostalgia Funny Car.

Kyle Wuntzel made the show with his "Nitro Pony" Mustang but lost to Bob Godfrey in round one.

Steve Nichols qualified the "Mill Street Boys" Camaro in the # 4 spot but was unable to make the call for round one on Sunday.

In Nostalgia Dragster Jim Swedberg qualified # 1 and went on to beat Dom Paris' twin engine RED in the final with a 6.795 at 207.30 to Paris 7.117 at 214.55.

Only 3 cars showed up for Jr. Fuel 'A' and, as usual, Scott Parks qualified low and won the event. Maybe he's scaring everybody else off?

Parks met upstart Brian Darcy in the final and for some reason the cameras were not on the blue car. Parks 6.960 at 190.35 defeated Darcy's very game 6.980 at 188.41.

Odie Coker won Jr Fuel 'B' with a 7.724 at 171.47 when Mike Millsap went red in the final.

Bob Shawberry went for a wild ride in his flopper on Friday.

Dave Rosenberg in Bruce Dyda's "Surfers Paradise" NE1 car made the long trip to Columbus to compete in Nostalgia Dragster. Rosenberg qualified # 2 with a 7.010 at 195.85, won first round but went red in round two.

Don Slagle went out in round one of Nostalgia Dragster.

Ron Hope gave the Columbus fans a great sampling of what Fuel Altereds do.

Jim Rodarmel is one of the new breed of nostalgia racers. Jim in his newly finished digger which was basically a home project from an old Woody car. Loose the extra bar in the cage and you have a 1960's Jr. Fueler. Very cool.

Pat Hine went to the second round of Nostalgia Dragster.

Bruce Hacker fouled out in round two of Jr. Fuel 'B'.

Back To Qualifying