Meanwhile, Gene "Geno" Gastelum and his trusty side-kick were getting the cars to the staging lanes.

Blake Bowser surveyed the track prior to the start of Sunday's eliminations.

 

Drag Racing legend Steve Reyes won this years Leslie Lovett Photo Award presented by Dave Wallace Jr.

 

During the pre race ceremonies Sunday morning Rick Peters, with the help of Mike English, handed over 10 $100.00 bills to Troy Green for his #1 qualifying effort. Cash is always a good thing.

 

 

Don Ewald was thrown under the bus by Mike English and called on stage to talk about WDIFL.com - it was because they had 5 minutes to "kill". LOL

 

Dave West was the recipient of the 2008 "Outstanding Presentation" award from Greg Sharp on behalf of the NHRA Museum.

With all the Top Fuel cars in the lane, the first pair ready to fire, the annual push start and pass by Kenton Greth in the Speed Sport roadster officially marks the start of Sunday eliminations.

NHRA Museum Curator Greg Sharp acted as official Flag Starter and Ol' Noise was off and running. Mark Gewertz from National Dragster catches the action.

11:51 a.m. Following the pre race ceremonies, the second round of Top Fuel kicked off under another sunny sky.

 

As our National Anthem ended... Top Fuel, round two, led off with Rick White and Mark Malde.

 

 

 

 

 

Malde had a dead hole at the hit while White left like you'd expect a 5.7 car to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The short fused Chevy once again left Malde driving by Braille from 800' on.

 

 

White motored right down Jack Williams Blvd. to another nice 5.782 at 246.37.

 

 

 

 

Malde crossed lanes in the shut down area but stopped without incident.

 

 

For those of you who have never seen a major top end clean up here's the hard working Famoso Safety Safari doing it right.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both drivers left together with Harris carrying the front wheels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seventies were cheap for Top Fuel this weekend, and you better be able to run that quick to win a round here. Kaiser struck the tires at about 100ft and again at about 330ft before giving up. Harris killed a piston or three but parts aren't an issue in the Nitro Thunder camp. Harris' time - 5.795 at 249.93.

 

 

Along with the win, Harris became another victim of tire chunking. This problem only seems to happen at Bakersfield and the theory is that the track is so good, so smooth that there is no tire spin on the top end thus the foot print is "stuck" moreso than anyother track.

 

McClennan did his job on the starting line banking nearly a tenth on Murphy (0.040 to 0.138).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although not as bad as others, the centers of Murphy's tires were in chunk mode.

 

 

Due to his tenth holeshot, McClennan's 5.988 at 244.29 gave Murphy's 5.820 at 237.71 a major run for its money. Murphy was a little too cautious on the starting line in this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final pair of round two pitted two of the best young drivers in the class. Troy Green and Adam Sorokin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorokin was out first by 6 hundredths - Green gave chase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorokin shut off early while Green's 5.701 (career best ET) at 254.02 served notice that Murphy better be on his game as it's the two of them battling for the series title in Top fuel. By this round both had passed Brad Thompson, who could not get medical clearance to run this weekend, and the first to lose would give the title to the other. High drama - big league pressure for sure. Only Green held a hole card - the 5 point lead that could make all the difference in the world.

 

 

This time the engine smoke in the lights was more than a damaged piston - a connecting rod broke at the end of the run which meant the team would have to put a new engine in the car for their semi final match-up with Rick White.

 

 

 

 

 

2:30 p.m. With just four cars left in - two of them still in contention for the championship - all eyes were riveted on the starting line. The first pair would match Jim Murphy and Brett Harris who had lane choice. It was do or die for Murphy and a walk in the park for Harris who was there to play the role of spoiler.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the two cars staged the tension was so thick you could cut it with a piston ring.

 

Harris was out first and never looked back.

 

 

 

Murphy knew early on that he was in trouble when he felt the tires spin on the bottom end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Murphy never gave up but Harris' 5.696 at 260.56 (low ET of the event) was way too much for a 5.810 at 258.99 to overcome. It also made Brett only the 3rd member of the 5.60 Club.

 

 

 

In less than 6 seconds the drama was over. Brett Harris had unloaded low ET and top speed of the event on Murphy and just like that Troy Green was the 2008 Top Fuel Champion. The entire High Speed crew reacted as one could expect - WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!

 

 

 

Knowing they were the champions before the engine was even fired, Green and the team had to reel in their emotions and focus on the task at hand - they still had a drag race to run and wanted to meet Harris in the final. But before that could happen they had to get by a very tough Rick White.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Green knew he was in trouble early on when the car didn't run as hard as it had been on the bottom end.

 

 

 

 

Like Harris before him, White had his best run of the weekend (5.770 at 253.95) and Green carded his slowest (6.036 at just 203.57). The new engine simply didn't perform like its predecessor. It would be White and Harris for al the marbles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1st Qualifying Session - Friday 2nd Qualifying Session - Saturday Top Fuel Round One - Saturday TF & FC Finals - All Winners - Other Cars People N' Pits Photos

If you are reading our coverage of the CHRR, and appreciate the enormous effort that goes into it, you must be a fan of nostalgia racing. As you enjoy this extensive recap of the event you must also realize this form of drag racing started back in 1950 and on the member side of WDIFL.com there are over 90,000 photos of drag racing history with hundreds more added every month. For less than a cup of fancy coffee at Starbucks you can enjoy an entire month of viewing... That's affordable entertainment in these tough times. Also notice WDIFL.com is not cluttered up with advertising on every page...just stories and photos. We rely on our memberships to support this site. So do us and yourself a favor, pass on a single cup of coffee and join our other members who enjoy hour after hour of affordable entertainment. You just may decide, as others have for the past ten years, that you want to join for month after month... but that will be your choice as you can terminate your membership at any time. To our loyal members we thank you for your continued support.

Related Links

Cacklefest.com

Jack Harris Racing - Nitro Thunder

High Speed Motorsports

WW2 Racing

Order Photos

Bob Brown Photos

Stephen Justice Photos

Stephen C. Wallace

Tim Hanaseth Photos

Pam Schavrien Photos

Darrell Conrad Photos

Dan Kaplan

Paul Hutchins

Jim Sorenson

 

 

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