SUNDAY - Racing Begins, More Rumors, and Championships are Crowned

(11-7-2004) - Let the action begin - Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Eliminations for the Goodguys started bright and early this morning as there are a lot of cars and very little time. Several of the classes yesterday were left short on runs and a few classes only got one hit. To sooth the racers frayed nerves, and to be fair, the Goodguys created a couple of one event only classes for the racers so they could come out to play today.

Mo Rumors - Among the rumors about new Nostalgia Funny Cars was the one that had Jack Harris and his crew looking into the class. From the Sheriff his own self the answer is NO. No plans for the Kaysville Utah posse to switch classes any time soon.

In the first round of Top fuel Mendy Fry found herself in a sticky problem as just as she staged it appeared that a high pressure oil fitting broke and sprayed the starting line area with 70 weight. That reminded me of the big show incident at Seattle last year. Fry could only watch as Murphy took the easy win.

Scary Moments - Things turned tough for Charlie Tradwell of Las Vegas Nevada when his A/Gas 1971 Corvette made a hard right at half track and he impacted the right hand guard rail. He was woozy when he was removed from the car and he was transported for observation. We hope to get more information before the end of the day.

Thank You - Scott Parks will take the Goodguys trophy to Burlingame Kansas. When he defeated J.D. Zink in the first round it clinched his win and relegated Zink to second place in the season long points battle.

I'd like to give a shout to Don Chemello who had a chance to take the A/Gas title this weekend. Chemellos not here since he had surgery for throat cancer earlier last week. Get well soon Don.

We have survived lots of things this season but this takes the cake. As Harris and Murphy were staging in the Top Fuel Final the call came from the Top End that it was raining. The Goodguys have decided to pull the plug and the event is a wash out. The only class that was decided was Top Fuel 'B' with Brad Thompson taking his first ever win in the class.

The Champions - Season Champs were crowned in Top Fuel, Jack Harris: Funny Car, Randy Walls; A/Fuel, Bill Wayne; Junior Fuel/A, Scott Parks; Junior Fuel/B, Don Enriquez; A/Gas, Mark Mahood; D/Gas, Ed Cary; NE1, Don Taros; NE3, Craig Wallace; AA/Gas, Ed Moss.

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SATURDAY - The weather works out, the points chase and rumors are floating around

Green Light for Weather - We've put aside all of the threats of rain today and it appears that qualifying will stay dry for the weekend. This has been cut down to a two day event so all qualifying will be complete today. We go into the weekend with a couple of classes are still up in the air, including Nostalgia Funny Car.

Shaking out the points - Currently Randy Walls, in his Super Nova, holds a slim 267/228 point lead over Dan Horan in his 1966 Mustang Funny Car tuned by Dale Pulde. Walls took the point lead early in the season. Earlier today we had the first session and Horan out qualifed Walls with a 6.48 to 6.90. Both cars got 10 attendance points for making the run. There are four total cars that are fighting it out for second place. Horan, Mike Adams, Nate bugg and Bob Godfrey are within 7 points of each other. There are 20 points awarded for each round.

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Top Fuel is not nearly as close as Jack Harris is going to dethrone Jim Murphy as series champion. Harris holds a 355/222 lead over Murphy. Murphy on the other hand has Bill Dunlap and Jeff Diehl within striking distance.

I spoke with Randy Walls earlier today about how rule changes would affect his program for 2005. His Super Nova is as much like a 1970s Funny Car as you can legally run today. This is the same car that Walls has run since the early 70s and other than the bead locks and the width of the rear tires it's pretty hard to see anything modern about the car. Walls showed me that the fuel tank was right up against the front of the engine so there is no room for the engine to move either forwrd or back. In 2005 the VRA has decided that the Funnies would run almost the same rules as Top Fuel and as such would render the Super Nova illegal. ' You can see that with the straight axle front end there is nothing I can do about moving the engine.' That's a problem because next year his 3 speed automatic will not be allowed. The good news for Super Nova fans is that he's putting together a new car with a 1990s vintage chassis. This means independent front suspension and more options...as well as being lighter. 'The current car is about 200 pounds over weight and there's nothing I can do about it', said Walls.

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Rumors, Rumors and more Rumors - Rumors have been flying everywhere about who's building a Funny Car for 2004. Rumors have flown that include Gary Turner, the ex-alcohol Champ. Lee Jenning has been rumored to be attempting to purchase an existing car. Wayne Ramay, the Comp hitter, has been looking at the class...according to rumor. Gosh, it is that season isn't it? How about the team of Bach and Gould with a SOHC Funny? That pair has campaigned a Nostalgia Top Fuel car with a Ford in it for many years. Where do the parts come from for those things? I remember nitro being VERY hard on those engines. Another name to surface is the Worsham family. Earlier in the year Dad Worsham was at Bakersfield laying a tuneup on Nate Bugg's Nostalgia car. Virgil Hartman had a rough into to Nostalgia earlier this year with a blower explosion in his brand new car. Supposedly there are folks here from the NHRA Big Show this weekend since they have the time off before the Finals. Cruz Pedregon is here, but he's one of the few that there are NO rumors about.

By the numbers - Early in the first session of Top Fuel qualifying we had an incident with Bill Dunlap and Jack Harris. Harris may be leading the points but he is not qualified after his first hit. Dunlap had an oil line come loose and covered him in oil. Of course the oil had to catch fire and in the midst of all of this he managed to take out the ET cone. That means he was DQd and Harris lost his time as well. All ended well as both drivers qualified in the second and final session this evening.

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Funny Car:
1 706 Larry Pettit, Hawthorne CA, '71 Mustang 6.395 226.35 226.35
2 736 Dan Horan Jr, Sylmar CA, '66 Mustang 6.485 223.65 223.65
3 7737 Mike Savage, Tucson AZ, '78 Dodge 6.662 205.62 205.62
4 748 Bob Godfrey, Moreno Valley CA, '63 Vette 6.709 202.65 202.65
5 726 Randy Walls, El Cajon CA, '70 Nova 6.745 206.51 206.51
6 735 Jeff Utterback, Santa Monica CA, '70 Cuda 7.647 163.30 163.30
7 756 Nate Bugg, Orange CA, '71 Charger 8.427 107.82 107.82
8 771 Ed Schwartz, Santa Fe Springs CA, '70 Vega 9.200 112.12 112.12

Top Fuel:
1 1 Jim Murphy, Santa Rosa CA, Stirling-Rodeck 5.822 253.59 253.59
2 722 Jack Harris, Kaysville UT, N&P-Donovan 5.826 259.36 259.36
3 724 Denver Schutz, Fresno CA, Stirling-Rodeck/E 5.859 245.63 245.63
4 701 Rick McGee, Exeter CA, Tedford-Donovan 6.004 239.23 239.23
5 700 Terry Cox, Clarkburg CA, URC-Hemi 6.036 228.83 228.83
6 692 John Shoemaker, Sacramento CA, Uyehara-Donovan 6.089 241.87 241.87
7 716 Bill Dunlap, Capitola CA, Uyehara-Donovan 6.105 245.90 245.90
8 770 Mendy Fry, San Diego CA, Dragster-Donovan 6.165 205.85 205.85
9 717 Jeff Diehl, Salinas CA, Trick Design-Rodeck 6.196 209.74 209.74
10 7917 Brad Thompson, Visalia CA, Uyehara-Donovan 6.204 224.77 224.77
11 792 Jason Richey, Pleasanton CA, Alan-Donovan 6.235 217.91 217.91
12 780 Pete Kaiser, Plesant Hill CA, Sterling-Donovan 6.327 209.93 209.93
13 7188 Brendan Murry, San Jose CA, Stirling-Arias 6.416 203.20 203.20
14 747 Mark Malde, Windsor CA, Stirling-Chevy 6.447 207.23 207.23
15 777 Lee Jennings, Chino CA, Stirling-Chevy 6.478 164.53 164.53
16 7131 Rick White, San Diego CA, Hansen-Chrysler 6.492 152.77 152.77