For hard core fans of drag racing there’s nothing like a national event.  For many of them it’s the “purity” of drag racing that has the most appeal.  A set, concise show featuring everything from Top Fuel to the bracket-like competition in the Super categories is what draws them – but that’s far from all of what drag racing really has to offer.  When it comes to spectaculars like the Night Under Fire at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, you can throw out the run sheets, forget about elapsed times and speeds (mostly) and just take it all in.  In many respects the Night Under Fire defies description, for it’s a stunning combination of racing, mayhem, on-track insanity, “record attempts” and pure showmanship that would have put the circus carnies of old to shame.

There’s a real difference between the so-called “purity” of that national event and the Night Under Fire and, somewhat surprisingly, there’s also a difference in the makeup of the crowd for the two affairs – and it’s a really fun difference. The Night Under Fire crowd is there for one thing, and one only – fun. While elapsed times and speeds are obviously announced, and good numbers bring forth the expected reaction, this crowd would almost rather have their hair singed by jet dragsters then they’d care to see someone rotate the earth with the world’s quickest elapsed time.

By early Saturday morning less than 200 Reserved Seat tickets remained available, and those were gone long before noon. When we say “packed house,” we mean it. There wasn’t one available seat for the Night Under Fire, and the fans were two and three deep along the fences. This is, without question, the best pure “show” in drag racing. It has a little of everything, from the aforementioned jet dragsters and Funny Cars, to jet-powered trucks, Monster Trucks, showy and fun-to-watch wheelstanding old Gassers, seven second race cars that are competitive and colorful and a bracket racing program that includes some of the best looking racing hardware we’ve seen in a long time. In the space of but a few hours these cars and drivers put on a show the likes of which isn’t soon forgotten. And whatever you do, don’t forget the Night Under Fire’s spectacular evening-ending fireworks show, which is simply one of those “don’t-miss-this-whatever-you-do” deals. Let’s put it this way: Did you attend the NHRA national event in Norwalk back on the July 4th weekend? Did you like that fireworks show? Well, just trust us on this, the Night Under Fire show makes that one look like the kid down the street waving a sparkler around as his mom is calling him in for dinner!

The star of the Night Under Fire is John Force. He’s been the main attraction for years, and this year was no exception. The way Force’s car runs, his outrageous personality and his unmatched interaction with the fans continues to have him at the top of the popularity charts, a position he’s earned and deserves. He didn’t disappoint again this year. Recognizing that the Night Under Fire is a testing opportunity, Force made two runs early in the day, both spectacularly in the four-ohs. Rival Matt Hagan also made a couple of early runs, and his times were also exceptionally competitive, but a funny thing happened on the way to the “projected” final round – Courtney Force inserted herself into the equation.

Courtney also did a little testing early on, making one run with John’s body on her Traxxas chassis in an effort to gather some aerodynamic information. In other words, they were trying to figure out if John’s modified Camaro body was any “better” than the Camaro shell on Courtney’s car, but the run was aborted after the car started hazing the tires at half track. Still, it was just one of those little “ad-ons” that makes the NUF so darn compelling.

The Funny Car portion of the Night Under Fire is operated along the lines of the old Chicago-style competition in that everyone makes two runs, with the second round pairing the two quickest elapsed times from that first round for the “finals.” Does anyone care that it’s not a “real” set of eliminations? Uh, no! This is what they care about. Good burnouts. Lots of noise. Header fire up over the roof. And a Force win. They got the first three in spades, but the Force who won was Courtney, not John.

Courtney made the finale based on her first round 4.007/319.22, while Matt Hagan made it by virtue of his 4.070/314.83. The senior Force just missed the cut with a 4.148, while lined up behind him were Cruz Pedregon (4.230), two-time IHRA World Champion Dale Creasy (4.289) and Jack Wyatt (4.562). That finale was a good one, with Courtney winning with a 4.002/322.19 to Hagan’s 4.048/317.57. The crowd loved it, particularly after John rode down the track on his pit bike, waving to the crowd. Actually, they reacted as if he’d won!

The two-out-of-three jet dragster match race was won convincingly by Scott Holdridge, who easily took the measure of the Queen of Diamonds, Jill Canuso-Fazekas. Holdridge had the better elapsed times by two or three tenths in every round, finally hitting 300.06 MPH in the finale. The jet Funny Car match saw Rich Hanna (whose dad, Al, was named Grand Marshall of the event) downing Ken Hall’s GoJo-backed machine.

If there’s one name synonymous with jet truck racing it’s that of Bob Motz. His legendary Kenworth is a sight to behold, but on this night his thunder was actually stolen by Chris Darnell at the wheel of the triple-engined Shockwave machine. As terrific as Motz was, it was Darnell who (literally) tore up huge sheets of asphalt behind the starting line with his burner pops prior to his first run. Who cares about the times and speeds? Nobody! It was all about the show, and Darnell definitely put on a good one. We were up in the tower between rounds, where Darnell was profusely apologizing for tearing up the track – but man, was it ever cool!

No, the Night Under Fire isn’t what anyone would call a “real” drag race – but it actually is that and so very much more. This is an event at which no one leaves before the last aerial bomb goes off. This is an event at which there are a lot more kids and young adults than you’ll find at most “real” national events – and someone should be paying attention to that, because those young people are our future.

There is no show like the Night Under Fire at Norwalk, at least not that we’ve seen. But hey, if there is something that can come even close to matching it for pure fun, please let us know!